She winced as the heavy dining room table was dragged across the polished wood floor in a harsh scream of protest. The women froze and glanced at her, their expressions a mixture of horror and defiance.
She smiled. “I’m sure we can sand it out.”
The women holding the table, the similarity of their features showing them to be obviously related, stared a second longer and then nodded. Albeit doubtfully.
Miri knew exactly how they felt. She wasn’t sure of anything, either, other than the certainty that this pack had been abused. So had she. That gave them more in common than not. Learning how to grow out of the mess their lives had become was something they’d do together. She licked her lips again. With Jace’s help. Even though she was married to him, she still found it hard to believe he’d agreed to become pack.
“What was wrong with Wilhelmina?” Brenda Lynn asked over her shoulder as she trailed her mother to the door, a small drawer from the table in her hands.
“I think she just had too much of the wrong kind of change.”
The methodical stripping of the house paused, the break of silence in the commotion telling. Miri pretended not to notice. Brenda Lynn came back into the room, the drawer swinging at her side. “That doesn’t make sense.”
No, it probably didn’t to a five-year-old. She tried a new tactic. “Wilhelmina is a very special kind of frog.”
Instantly, the little girl was all attention. “Wilhelmina is special?”
Miri nodded. “Very special. She can sleep whenever she wants to so she can avoid whatever she wants to. She has the ability to take long naps when it’s cold.”
“Brenda Lynn,” her mother called.
The child ignored the summons and frowned, rubbing at her eye with the back of her hand. “I know. I keep having to wake her up.”
“Well, I think waking her up is making her sick. She needs to sleep.”
The child cocked her head to the side and considered that. Marjorie came back into the house, saw where her daughter was, and frowned. Brenda Lynn ignored her mother’s next call. “I don’t feel good when I’m tired.”
“And neither does she. And she needs to sleep in winter, right on through the cold until everything warms up.”
“So if I let her sleep she’ll like me again?”
“Oh honey, she never stopped liking you.” Miri knelt down, putting herself at eye level with the little girl, and caught her hands. “But not being able to sleep when she wants makes her unhappy.”
“So if I let her sleep she’ll like it here?”
“Yes.” Miri fully intended to talk the child into letting the frog go come warm weather, but for now, letting her hibernate would be good. Assuming she could hibernate in a house. “I think that change will do her good.”
Brenda Lynn was quiet for a moment. She looked at her mother and then back at Miri, her hands clutched on the edge of the drawer. The muscles in her forearms shifted as her small hands gripped tightly.
“And maybe if you change things here, my mom will want to stay here, too?”
“Brenda Lynn!”
Miri wasn’t surprised to hear Marjorie was planning to leave. The other woman had a tired, hopeless, trapped look about her. Miri might not know what inspired it, but she knew how that felt.
“I hope so.” She waved Brenda Lynn in the direction of the kitchen, wincing at the overpowering scent of lilac. “Wilhelmina is in the kitchen. Do you know where that is?”
“Of course.” She wrinkled her nose. “I used to live here.”
Miri blinked in the aftermath of that revelation. Brenda Lynn skipped off.
She turned to her mother. “You and Brenda Lynn used to live here?”
Marjorie pulled herself up straight. “Yes.”
“I was told Travis wasn’t mated.”
Marjorie lifted her chin. “He wasn’t.”
Miri blinked. “You’re related?”
Someone snorted. Marjorie’s chin went higher. “No.”
No self-respecting pack woman lived with a male unmated. “You agreed to the arrangement?”
That chin came down in a short jerk. “I accepted the choice.”
Which left a lot of room for interpretation. Proud and defiant, her attitude was almost a dare. Knowing what she did of Travis and of pack custom, Miri was willing to bet some sort of coercion had been involved and, despite the other woman’s hostility, couldn’t suppress the well of empathy. “We all do what we have to.”
Marjorie’s lids flickered. “Excuse me?”
From what she could see, Travis was the one who needed to be excused, but there was no way to address that and not smear Marjorie’s pride in the dust.
Help came in the form of Brenda Lynn. She came out of the kitchen, the familiar energetic bounce to her step, the glass bowl containing Wilhelmina in her hands. Water and stone sloshed around as the frog clung where and how it could.
“Slow down, sweetheart,” Marjorie called, the love for her child clear in her voice. “Wilhelmina is going to get sick.”
Brenda Lynn immediately sat down, asking the frog as she did, “Are you feeling sick, Willy?”
Her face, as she anticipated the little frog’s answer, was precious. The child was precious. Marjorie had tears in her eyes.
Miri touched her arm. “I’m going to make it better for her.”
Marjorie’s expression snapped closed. “Talk is easy.”
“So is giving up,” Miri shot back.
Marjorie bristled. “Word is, you gave up a long time ago.”
Miri folded her arms across her chest. “In what way?”
Marjorie squared off against her. “You mated with a vampire.”
“I mated with your Alpha, and I’m willing to bet he’s a better man than you’ve seen in a long time.”
“You haven’t marked him,” one of the women near the door offered.
No, she hadn’t, and she was beginning to see how ridiculous that was. “That’s between Jace and me.”
“If you don’t trust him, why should we?”
Good question. “It’s not that I don’t trust him.”
“Yeah, right.”
She ran her hand through her hair, tugging it through the snarls. How much to tell? She looked around at the mixture of hope and suspicion reflected back at her. This was her pack. These women would follow her lead. Secrets weren’t going to help any of them.
“I was a Sanctuary captive for a year.” She licked her lips as shame rose within her. Immediately there came a soothing touch of calm. This time she didn’t shut herself off. The women were right. If she didn’t let herself trust Jace, why should they? “It left me with some issues.”
“You should let your mate handle them,” a cute blonde, whose name she didn’t know, piped up.
“It’s not that easy.”
“Do you fear he won’t want you if he knows everything?”
She ran her hand through her hair and shook her head. “Jace is an incredibly loyal man.”
“Then you should stop being foolish and mark him,” Marjorie retorted.
“As soon as you’re done here, I’ll get right on it.”
Now, that I am looking forward to.
“They say you saved Marc’s daughter,” the blonde continued, ignoring her sarcasm the way Miri was ignoring Jace.
“That business wasn’t done well,” Miri heard another woman mutter.
“On that we’re in agreement, and I wasn’t the one who saved her or claimed her—that was Jace.”
“She has a deformed foot.”
Murmurs rippled through the room in expanding waves, as if a clubfoot was the end all and be all of what made a good person.
The anger inside rose, catching in Miri’s throat in a suppressed growl. “She also has a beautiful smile and the sweetest little nature. Of the three, I’m thinking the last two are more important.”
“She’ll bring bad luck,” a woman with very old energy interjected.
Marjorie spun
around. “It’s worse luck when a pack abandons innocent children to outdated superstition.”
Another murmur went through the women. The woman with the old energy stayed back, but the other women moved forward, just a little.
“Much worse. I was raised to believe pack supports pack unconditionally, without qualification.” Miri glanced at Marjorie. “And not just when it comes to children.”
An “Easy for you to say” drifted out of the slowly tightening group of women.
“Yes, it is.” Miri folded her arms across her chest. “Which brings me to something else.”
“Change your mind about giving back our belongings already?”
She should, considering they were taking everything right down to the soap sponge in the sink. “No. It’s my husband’s job to provide for me, so I’ll let him.”
Thanks.
Miri ignored the dry interruption. “But from here on out, no more families are going hungry, and no more children are going to be left in the woods. We’re Tragallion weres, members of the D’Nally clan, and that stands for something.”
“Yeah, neglect,” the older woman muttered.
Miri had had about enough out of her. “Anyone unhappy with the way things are going to be run is free to leave.”
“You can’t kick me out. Only the Alpha can.”
“I think it’s safe to say I can pretty much get him to do whatever I want.”
The woman shut up.
True. For the right incentive you could get me to do just about anything.
Images of her naked body covering his, her hair sliding over the hollow of his abdomen in a seductive blanket, flooded her mind.
Perv.
Not interested?
I didn’t say that.
That’s what I thought.
Hush, now.
You’re very sexy when you go all queenly.
Hold that thought.
I’d rather hold something else.
There was no mistaking the smile tucked into the declaration. She had to suppress her own smile. Jace was absolutely outrageous. And every day she was remembering more and more how much she enjoyed it.
Let me do my job.
Will you make it up to me later?
She carried his image a step further, felt his gasp in her head, the heat that surged through his body. And cradled a thrill of satisfaction that she could do to him what he did so easily to her.
Absolutely.
She refocused on the women, who were eyeing her oddly. And no wonder. It probably looked like she’d spaced out there for a moment. “Do you want to leave or stay?”
There was a tense pause. Miri held her breath. She couldn’t afford to lose anyone, least of all an elder of the pack. A vote of no confidence at that level would take years to overcome. The woman’s gaze dropped just short of a direct challenge “Stay.”
Miri let out the breath she’d been holding. “Good, because it’s going to take a lot of work to get us to where we need to be and it’s going to take everyone’s cooperation to get there.”
“Where is there?”
“I don’t know, as I haven’t been here long enough to know where we need to go, but I do know, from here on out the Tragallion-D’Nallys are focusing on results.”
“What kind of results can we expect, when your mate is a vampire?”
“What is your name?” she snapped at the older woman.
“Helen.”
“Well, Helen, if my mate being vampire doesn’t bother the D’Nally, I fail to see why it should concern you.”
“The D’Nally doesn’t have to live with him.”
Miri smiled sweetly at the attractive brunette. “Neither do you. I can have Brac escort you off Tragallion land tomorrow morning.”
A knock at the door punctuated the collective gasp at that announcement. The door opened soundlessly. Jace strode in. The women stared, and not because he was vampire. Jace walked into every room like he owned it, and that confidence and strength, combined with his charisma, would be attractive to any were. Her mate, to put it bluntly, was a very handsome man in face, manner, and presence. He could have his pick of any woman in any room. A spurt of insecurity fluctuated within.
I’ve got the one I want.
She blinked back the sting of tears at the softness of the emotion that flowed from him to her. He was such a strong man. He deserved a strong woman.
Why me?
He reached her side. His hand slid behind her neck. With a brush of his thumb, he tipped her face up. Flames flickered in his eyes. A tiny smile creased the corners of his mouth. His head lowered. She couldn’t look away, just stared, as enraptured as every other woman by the intensity he projected. His breath eased over her lips. She inhaled, bringing the caress inside, holding it close.
Just before his lips touched hers, he whispered mentally, Because I love you.
She’d expected him to say it with the arrogance of a vampire, could accept the dominance of a were, but he said it the way he said everything—with the unbending certainty of his human heart. And it shattered her. Way down deep where she’d sworn she’d never break again. She just stood there stunned as he claimed her mouth, her soul. He wasn’t with her because of destiny or duty. He loved her. He really did love her. The way she’d always dreamed her true mate would.
The tears she’d been trying to suppress spilled to her cheeks, flavoring the intimacy of the kiss as she brought her hands up to his face and pulled him closer. If she could have, she’d have crawled inside his skin. Awareness dropped away. There was only hunger and need and Jace.
Someone cleared their throat. An audience. The realization made a feeble stab through the haze of passion. They had an audience.
This isn’t the time for this.
I think it’s the perfect time. Kiss me back.
I am.
His hand slid around her back, settling into the hollow of her spine, lifting her up onto her toes, tucking her legs between his, her hips against his.
Harder.
She did, giving him all she had, uncaring that they had witnesses, or maybe giving it to him because there were witnesses. She was wolf. This was her mate. It was as natural as breathing to stake her claim.
She eased her lips from his, reveled in the rasp of beard against the softness of her lips, following his jawline to his ear. Lowering herself to flat-footed, she nipped his lobe, hearing his groan, feeling the stares, her canines itching with the desire to mark him, to irrevocably declare him as hers. She followed the taut cord of his neck downward, scraping the skin with the points of her teeth. Jace’s fingertips dug into her back and neck, holding her to him for a brief second before he wrapped her hair in his fist and pulled her head back.
“No.”
She fought the pressure, his dominance, the pings of protest from her hair spiking her passion even more. “Yes.”
He brushed his lips across her forehead. “I’ve got some pretty specific plans for when you mark me,” he murmured.
So he had known what she was doing. “The mark is my gift.”
“And I can’t wait to receive it, but—”
The creak of a floorboard was faint. One second she was staring into Jace’s beautiful eyes, and the next she was falling backward, the breadth of his shoulders filling her vision as he spun to meet the threat. She stumbled. Someone caught her. She glanced over her shoulder and met Marjorie’s gaze. For once it wasn’t hostile.
“Thank you.”
The woman nodded, her expression strange as she looked at Jace, but when she turned back to Miri, she was dead serious. “If you don’t mark him soon, someone else will. An Alpha like him won’t be neglected here.”
A look around proved the truth of that. Lust and hunger were on many women’s faces. Miri took a step closer to Jace and glared at Helen in particular. Her gaze looked to be the most lustful.
Surprisingly, Helen laughed, launching a string of titters and smiles around the room. Miri noticed, however, that hum
or didn’t diminish the hunger in the other women. Her lip curled in a warning snarl.
“You’re easily distracted, vampire,” Brac said.
“By my wife, while among friends? Absolutely.” Jace’s weight settled onto the balls of his feet. For all the easiness of his tone, he was ready to fight. “Did you want something?”
“The men are here to distribute the wood among the pack.”
“Good.” He arched that brow in that deliberately goading way. “The wood’s out back.”
“The men want permission to enter the property.”
Jace nodded. “Granted.”
“We’re getting wood?” Brenda Lynn asked with absolutely no regard for the undercurrents flowing through the room or the appropriateness of the question. Jace knelt down in front of her, resting his forearm across his knee. Marjorie immediately came to her daughter’s side, not looking one bit reassured by Jace’s smile.
“All you need.”
The child’s immediate withdrawal was aborted as she looked into Jace’s eyes.
“Enough to warm even my bedroom?”
Miri felt the flick of Jace’s energy that was his anger, but all the child saw was his nod. “Enough to make your house so toasty, you’ll have to bring in sand so Wilhelmina and your friends can have a beach party.”
“A party? I can have a party with other kids and everything?”
His drawl deeper than normal, Jace nodded and told her, “I definitely think you should have a party.”
Marjorie tried to pull Brenda Lynn back. “That’s really not necessary.”
The child tugged her hand free of her mother’s restraint. Her little shoulders squared as she frowned at Jace. “If my friends come out to play, do you promise not to suck their blood and feast on their bones?”
Jace didn’t even blink at the gruesome image. “I promise.”
Jace Page 31
