by Cara Adams
Malachi shivered. He’d never heard Jasper sound so cold and fierce. And he’d seen Dr. Thorne’s head of security. The man was a bear shape-shifter and had to be at least six foot four in his bare feet, and two hundred forty pounds, every ounce of it sheer muscle.
“You will be brought to me one at a time to explain to me your reasons for acting as you did. You are all charged with imperiling the security of the pack. As you all know, the penalty, if you are convicted, is death,” said Jasper.
Just then Harry Harrison strode into the room. He bowed his head to Jasper. “Alpha. Why don’t I just fit them with some concrete boots and drop them off the bridge instead of taking them to the clinic? It’d save you and Dr. Thorne some time and effort.”
“I might ask you to do that, but not until after I’ve judged them myself.”
“Okay. Which two am I taking for now?”
Malachi walked out with Harry and the two wounded men to a truck. Effortlessly Harry lifted the two attackers into the back, clipping their handcuffs to a metal roll bar along the inside of the roof.
“That’s useful,” Malachi said.
“Yeah, I installed it for safety if the truck ever rolls over, but it comes in real handy at times like this as well. I should be back again in a couple hours. Oscar is standing by to care for these two pieces of shit straight away so they don’t get the opportunity of polluting the minds of anyone else at the clinic.”
Malachi watched Harry drive away, then went back inside. The thought of dropping the attackers off a bridge was quite appealing, but he knew if they were denied justice it would make him as bad as them. Even attackers deserved their human rights. As long as they didn’t hurt Ginnie, that was.
A few hours later, the main meeting room in the building, which also held all the pack’s offices as well as the holding cell, had been turned into a court room. Jasper sat at a table, with Cornelian behind him on his right, and Morgan and Jett behind him on his left.
On the right side of the room, just down from Jasper, their backs to the side wall, sat three older men of the pack. These men were seen as wise elders and advisors. Opposite them was where he and Zircon would sit, as the people most affected by the action of the attackers.
He sat in his assigned seat, on Zircon’s left. Zircon soon joined him, and after about ten minutes the first attacking wolf was brought in.
“Titan Raul, know that this court is being videotaped. You must answer every question your Alpha asks you. Refusal to answer will be seen as an admission of guilt. Do you understand?” asked one of the older men, Pavel.
“Yes, sir.”
Jasper leaned forward in his chair and stared at Titan. His eyes flashed green fire and his jaw was set, his face as cold as stone. Malachi almost shivered just from looking at him. Right now Jasper Lyall was not his friend, and not the approachable, comfortable CEO of the company. He was an Alpha and power rolled off his body in waves that Malachi could almost see in the room. “Why did you attack the home of Zircon Lovell this morning?”
“Because he had a human there with him on pack lands.”
“Is it forbidden to bring a human onto pack lands?” Jasper’s voice was deceptively mild.
“No, sir.”
“Then why attack him for doing it?”
“Zircon and Malachi are planning to mate a human. Bringing humans into the pack is folly. Humans are weak, frail, helpless creatures who will destroy our bloodlines. In two generations we’ll cease to exist.”
“Are you aware that this weak, frail, helpless creature, wielded a skillet so effectively Bartholomew is currently in hospital with a broken collarbone? It seems to me she may strengthen our bloodlines rather than weakening them.”
Titan remained silent.
“I asked you a question.” Jasper’s voice was steel once again.
“Yes, sir. I saw the woman use the skillet.”
“Very well. Since there are too few female wolves, and since you do not approve of interspecies marriages, how do you propose we provide mates for the men?”
“That’s a lie. There are plenty of female wolves. They’re being kept from us ordinary men.”
“You’re more than thirty years old. You should be able to remember every person born into the pack over the last twenty years, at least. Which females are missing? Which ones have been hidden?”
“Maybe not in our pack, but in other packs.”
“Which ones? Name them?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well I do know, and there are none. No Alpha I know has surplus females. The Supreme is in constant contact with the Supremes of all the other continents and he says the problem is worldwide. Are you suggesting your Supreme is lying to us?”
“There are female wolves. There must be. If I was the Alpha of this pack I would find them and share them with the pack.” Titan’s voice was loud and triumphant.
“Are you issuing a formal challenge for leadership of this pack, Titan Raul?”
There was absolute silence in the room. Malachi felt sick. Titan to be their Alpha? Titan to replace such a truly supportive and wise leader as Jasper? Titan would lose half the pack’s business associates in a week. The pack would be bankrupt in a year, possibly less. Fates, he has to back down. There can’t be fight.
Titan stood up straight. “I am. I challenge you, Jasper Lyall, to a fight to the death for the leadership of this pack.”
Jasper rose to his feet. Quietly and calmly he answered, “I accept. We will fight outside in the square at noon. Pavel, assemble the pack at that time.”
Jasper left the room, his back straight, his gaze looking only ahead. Malachi stared at Zircon. He felt sick to his stomach. He rather thought that Zircon did, too. As for Titan, he sat down abruptly in his chair.
Yeah, he’s dead scared. Soon, I hope he’ll be just plain dead.
* * * *
“We have to tell Ginnie the truth. She has to know we’re wolves and that it’s because we’re wolves and she is a human that there was the attack on her this morning.” Zircon had known they’d have to tell Ginnie they were shape-shifters ever since the fight, but it’d never occurred to him that Titan—or anyone else—would challenge Jasper for the leadership of the pack, far less to a fight to the death.
Back in the old days fighting was the way pack leadership was decided. But it hadn’t been like that for generations. These days the pack was a business. A profitable business at that, one that supported everyone. Sure everyone had to work, but no one went hungry, and all the kids were sent to college to study for whatever career they chose.
“I don’t think right now is a good time to be interrupting the Alpha,” replied Malachi.
The fact that Malachi called him the Alpha, instead of Jasper said it all. Their boss, their friend Jasper, was not here right now. In his place was the pack Alpha weighed down with a million important decisions to be made before noon, in case he was the one killed in the battle. Fortunately Jasper’s leadership style meant that each of his managers controlled his own department, so the business would go on as usual until there was some really important decision to be made, one that needed agreement between several different divisions. But Jasper had to think about all those vital issues right now and put in place contingency plans. He also had a partner and a mate he’d want to spend time with. Fates, they hadn’t even had their formal commitment ceremony yet. That was planned for later in the summer.
“We must interrupt him. We must be open and honest with Ginnie. After all, Taige and Eve both know. If anything were to happen to Jasper, Taige would turn to her friends and Ginnie needs to know for Taige’s sake. But it must be us to tell her. To explain how important she is to us and why Titan and his friends attacked my house.”
Malachi sighed. “Yes, you’re right. But I hate to interrupt him right now. He should be thinking about pack business, not us.”
Zircon and Malachi walked through the main building, to Jasper’s office. Cornelian was standing in the ha
llway, outside Jasper’s closed door, a list in his hand and a pen tucked behind his ear.
“I know the Alpha is very busy right now, but we need his permission to tell—”
“Ginnie. Yes, I know. Jasper’s already said you can. Taige and Eve know so it couldn’t be kept from her much longer anyway. I’m glad you came to me. That’s one fewer thing I have to do.” Cornelian took the pen from behind his ear, drew a line through one of the items on his list, and replaced the pen.
“Thanks, Cornelian. Would you like us to bring Taige and Eve back here with us after we talk to Ginnie. Or do you need to explain to Taige yourself?” Zircon asked.
“I was going to get Jett or Morgan to collect the women. If you do it I can cross that off my list, too. Jasper’s already told Taige. It was the first thing he did. She seemed to take it surprisingly well, but then I knew she would. She’s an amazing woman,” said Cornelian.
Zircon grinned. Cornelian loved Taige and his love shone through his harried busyness. Taige was an incredibly talented craftswoman, worthy of his love and respect. But Ginnie was the one he loved. The only woman he’d ever love. The woman he now had to tell he was a wolf.
“How did Taige respond when you first told her?” he asked.
“Like a pro. She didn’t miss a beat and she wasn’t scared at all. But she said that she’d already worked it out. She recognized Jasper and me when she saw us in our wolf forms.”
Zircon knew he couldn’t take up anymore of Cornelian’s time, but that was something to think about. “Thank you.”
“I’m sure it’ll go fine for you,” replied Cornelian.
“Compared with a battle to the death, it’s not such a big thing, I suppose,” said Malachi after they’d left the building.
“Yeah, but I’d’ve liked a bit more time to think about it. Let’s do some strategizing before we visit Ginnie.”
They walked across the grass and sat on a fallen log a lot of people used as a seat. “I suppose there are a few things we need to plan. Do we just blurt it out, or do we lead up into it gently? Do we shape-shift and show her our forms? Do we explain the genetics and history?” Zircon started thinking fast, beginning to think he was going to need a list just like Cornelian’s.
“And the big one. What do we do if she screams and runs away from us, or faints, or something,” added Malachi.
“Yeah. That, too.”
* * * *
Morgan had taken Ginnie back to the old schoolhouse riding a motorcycle with her sitting behind him. She’d found it both an exciting and exhilarating way to travel, but if he’d done it as a means to take her mind off what had just happened, it was a failure.
“Thanks for the ride, Morgan. I really enjoyed it and would like to learn to ride the bike myself one day. When do you think Zircon or Malachi will be able to talk to me?”
“I don’t know, Ginnie. But I do know they care about you and will contact you as soon as they can.”
“Fair enough.”
Ginnie didn’t want to talk to her friends right now. She needed to sit and think about everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. It wasn’t every day a woman had her first ever ménage sex with two men, realized she was falling in love with both of them, then experienced a home invasion by a pack of men, and everyone seemed to know the reason why except her. She went straight to the work room, grabbed a sketchbook and a handful of soft-lead drawing pencils, then went back outside, carefully locking the doors behind her.
She walked around to the bell turret, undid the lock, pulled the stairs down and climbed into the turret, then locked the ladder inside with her. For a few minutes Ginnie stood and stared at the trees over the back of the property. Wild and untamed, the freshness of the vista restored her mind. Well, to some extent. She still needed to think things through.
Ginnie sat on the floor of the bell turret, resting her back against the wooden half wall and balancing her sketchpad on her knees. She laid her pencils beside her on the wooden floor, chose one, flipped the book over to a blank page, then let her hand move as her thoughts ran wild.
First, Zircon and Malachi. Best sex ever. Ginnie found herself grinning despite all the issues on her mind. Well, yes, there was that, but there was a whole lot more as well. Zircon’s eyes were bright blue, which was unusual for a man with such black hair. Logic would have suggested his eyes be brown, but apparently that wasn’t the way the genes had decreed. Malachi’s eyes were green, not the rich jewel-green of Jasper’s, but more a green that was allied to hazel, with many other colors hinted at in their depths. His hair was sandy blond and his skin fairer than Zircon’s as well.
Malachi was the one who seemed to be able to take time off from his job and drop by whenever she needed some help. Ginnie knew Zircon was a purchasing officer or something like that for the company, and did some scheduling as well. That’s why he was always checking for messages on his cell phone. She liked that they were different. Zircon so serious about his work, Malachi focused on being useful, thoughtful, and helpful.
All of which could be summarized as saying they weren’t just pretty to look at. They had bright minds, and jobs to do, and quite different personalities. They saw life from different angles, thought about things in individual ways, and responded quite independently. Yet for all that, they got on well together and cooperated with each other, working together to pleasure her beyond her wildest dreams.
And they’d asked her to commit to them. She couldn’t forget that. Am I going to commit to them? Yes.
But not right now. Right now there were too many unanswered questions, too many things she need to think about. Awesome sex was just that—awesome. But life, especially a relationship, involved a whole lot more than that.
Ginnie remembered a friend from art school whose boyfriend had talked her into quitting school and taking an office job to support him while he made a name for himself as a painter. Last she’d heard, her friend, an incredibly talented sculptor, was still tapping away at a keyboard from nine to five Monday to Friday while the boyfriend sold the occasional painting and they both lived off her salary.
She knew neither Zircon nor Malachi would do that to her. In fact, they’d suggested she have an exhibition at the art gallery. Something else she needed to think about. Was she ready to even raise such a suggestion with the people at the gallery? Were Malachi and Zircon wrong about her talent? No, the paintings in the brochure showed an artist no more skilled than her. But what about Eve? Eve’s wall hangings were brilliant. Eve was a much better artist than her. But it isn’t a case of only one person can do it. Eve can have a show as well. So could Taige. Anyone can make the suggestion. It’s up to the gallery to decide whether or not they agree with every suggestion, on a case by case basis.
Restlessly Ginnie flipped over the page of her sketchbook, turning it from portrait to landscape and picking up a fresh, sharp, soft-lead pencil.
“Okay, how far have I gotten on this relationship thing? I do care about them both and I know they care about me. The sex is excellent.” Ginnie realized she was speaking aloud and continued silently in her mind. No one passing by needed to hear her thoughts. I trust them to treat me well. They’ve displayed many times their genuine care and concern for me. Although neither of them has actually said the words I love you. But then, I didn’t say them either.
Ginnie’s pencil flew across the page as she continued thinking. Now, what the fuck was the deal with the attack this morning?
First, it was a deliberate attack, not a case of mistaken identity. They hadn’t knocked on the door. They’d smashed through a window. Second, it was planned. There were half a dozen attackers. Third, they’d known she was there. There’d been no attempt to stop, or gasps of dismay when she’d appeared. Although the man she’d hit with the skillet had certainly gasped after she hit him. Ginnie smiled. She’d gotten a lot of satisfaction out of that hit. Up until then she’d been feeling rather helpless and impotent. The skillet had leveled the playing field for
her quite nicely. Well, it leveled that particular attacker anyway.
But what was the purpose of the invasion? Why had they chosen this morning to storm Zircon’s house? It had to be because she was there. And they didn’t seem to her to be a no-sex-before-marriage kind of group of people, so she was sure that wasn’t the reason. The reason was connected to the differences between her and the men. Oh, not that she was female, although she knew their community had fewer women than men. No, there was something else. A basic difference between her and her men. The same difference that was between Taige and her two mates, and Eve and her two men.
Ginnie looked down at the drawing resting on her knees. Her subconscious had known what the missing piece of critical information was all along. Twice she’d mentally described the attackers as a “pack” of men. She’d drawn herself over at the left edge of the page, holding a skillet over the unconscious form of—a wolf. In the center of the page were two heads, Zircon and Malachi. But they were wolf faces with the men’s characteristics.
On the right side of the page Ginnie’d drawn the broken window. Outside it, another wolf howled. She turned back the page to her previous drawing. Again it was a wolf’s head, but this time the features were less distinct. And then she understood she’d drawn Jasper.
Her heart had known all along. It just took her mind a while to make the connections. Ginnie turned to a fresh page and drew herself as a wolf. But the picture wouldn’t work out. She tried a second time, and a third without success. “I guess that means all those bites on me last night aren’t going to make me go fanged and furry next full moon.”
Of course I won’t go furry. Zircon would never turn me into a shape-shifter without my consent. He’s not like that and nor is Malachi.
