Race, do something! Help me, I can’t breathe! I begged silently.
Race stalked forward. “I showed you mercy because I had no wish to have your life on my conscience. Kill her and I will take your life without regret.”
My lungs were burning, my head beginning to spin. I could feel darkness creeping in on me, stealing consciousness away little by little. I did not want to pass out, as I was afraid I might not wake up again. Fear and anger—mine and Race’s—coursed through my veins, and I felt a spike in my adrenaline level. Desperate to breathe again, I decided to take matters into my own hands and brought my right arm up, shoving my elbow back into Kevin’s solar plexus as hard as I could. He grunted but didn’t release me, so I struck him again—and again, and a fourth time, after which his grip loosened enough that I could draw air.
Taking a gasping breath, I spun and threw a left-handed punch to Kevin’s face. This time he let me go and stumbled backward. Sucking in another lungful, I stepped forward and hit him again, then brought my foot up hard into his naked groin. Kevin howled in pain as he dropped to the ground, his genitals in his hands.
“Now you’ve been beaten by a mutt, you son of a bitch!” I gasped as I felt Race’s hands on my shoulders.
Sixteen
“Baby, you all right?” he asked, turning me so that he could see my face.
I nodded as I tried to regulate my breathing, drawing air in through my nose and releasing it slowly through my mouth. My throat felt raw on the inside, and sore on the outside. No doubt there were bruises where Kevin’s hand had held me, but by the time I got to a mirror, they would be gone, for which I was thankful. Race caressed my cheek tenderly with the back of his hand, then turned a hate-filled gaze at Kevin. He stalked over to the fallen wolf and I thought he would kick him as he had the boy from earlier, but instead he crouched down, saying, “You brought this on yourself, Kevin. You are no longer an Alpha, and you are no longer of this pack. You are alone. Believe me when I say I will make sure you stay that way, because I’ve got no problem whatsoever telling every Family in our world what you’ve done.”
“What are your instructions, my Lord?” Tyler asked Race.
Race stood and came back over to me, taking me in his arms and just holding me for a moment, before kissing my temple and replying, “First of all, you don’t have to call me ‘my Lord’. I understand that’s a respect thing because I’m the Beast Master, but I really don’t think it’s necessary. Just call me Race.”
He sighed then, and looked at me with an expression of “Here we go” on his face. I offered Race a small, encouraging smile.
“I know that some of you work for Kevin at the body shop. You can continue to do so if it is your wish, but I’ll leave the choice to you,” he went on. “Given how he’s behaved, however, I’d advise you to start looking for other employment, as he’s likely to fire you.”
“You’re damn…damn right,” Kevin sputtered as he struggled to stand. “Every last one of these traitorous fuckers is fired! Now get out—get off my property!”
Race looked around at the wolves, and without saying a word, he took me by the hand and we started for the door. The twelve wolves—whom I knew constituted about a quarter of the pack—followed silently, gathering their belongings as they went. Kevin Tracey raged behind us, shouting threats and obscenities as we walked out.
“Sir, what about Anna?” said the second wolf who’d spoken to me. He walked on Tyler’s right, who himself was to Race’s right.
“What about Anna?” Race returned.
“Well, she’s Kevin’s daughter. Are you casting her out with him?”
Race paused and looked at the man. “What is your name?” he asked.
The werewolf swallowed, then lifted his chin. “Name’s Marcus Drewby.”
“Well, Marcus Drewby, allow me to assure you that you’ve nothing to worry about. Anna Tracey has done me and mine no wrong—she’s welcome to remain a member of this pack as long as she wants,” Race told him, and continued walking toward the body shop.
“We’re gonna have to tell the rest of the pack what’s happened,” spoke up one of the female wolves at last. “We need…well, we need you to tell us what’s going to happen next.”
Race sighed as he opened the back door of the body shop. The teen who’d been manning the counter appeared as we were all filing into the repair bay. “Oh shit man,” he said. “What do we do? You’re our Alpha now, right? I can feel it, there’s something different about you.”
“Danny, hush,” Tyler admonished quietly.
“No, it’s all right,” Race said, letting go my hand to step closer to Danny. He put his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Listen, things are a bit…up in the air right now. As you may have guessed, I came here to challenge your packmaster, because he did something I couldn’t forgive. I won the fight, which apparently means I’m in charge from now on. I want to talk to you, to the entire pack, to address your concerns. We need to work some things out, and that’s going to take some time.”
“But you’re going to take care of us, right?” Danny pressed.
Race nodded solemnly, without hesitation. “Yes, Danny. I’m going to take care of you.”
***
Race gave the group of wolves who’d watched the fight the task of spreading word to the rest of the pack, letting them know that there’d been a change in command. Because he still hadn’t replaced his cell phone, I gave my number to Tyler and told him to call when everyone had been informed. Race told them he’d give the pack the rest of the day to absorb the news, and for those that had just lost their jobs a chance to start looking for a new one. Tomorrow he would see about meeting with the entire pack to discuss what had happened and how things would proceed.
In the limo, after giving George Saphrona’s address, I raised the privacy screen, and for a long moment we sat in silence. I held one of Race’s hands between mine, and he had rested his head back on the seat, his eyes closed. When at last he raised it again, he looked at me with a wary expression.
“Jules, what have I done?” he said. “I just cost at least a dozen people their jobs. I just told a scared kid that I was going to take care of him, and I don’t have the first fuckin’ clue how to do that.”
He rubbed his free hand over his face. “I’m nobody’s leader, Jules. I’m not even remotely qualified to lead anyone, let alone a pack of werewolves. I don’t know the culture, the politics—any of it. I’m not cut out for this. I’m not the right person for this job.”
I put a hand to his cheek and smiled tentatively. “Race, I know you’re scared. No, don’t deny it,” I said when he looked about to protest. “It’s only natural you would be. You’ve had a lot to deal with in the last couple of days, not the least of which is being mature enough to shoulder a responsibility I know you don’t want. And maybe you don’t know a whole lot about being a werewolf, or the culture and politics of the shifter community, but you’ll learn, just as the rest of us did. And I happen to think you’ve got exactly what it takes to be a great leader.”
Race snorted derisively. “What makes you think so?”
“You’re not afraid to stand up for someone you don’t know,” I said. “You’re not afraid to stand up for what you believe in. You want to be a better person than you were, and I think that even though you might not have wanted to be responsible for the pack, you want better for them than the likes of Kevin Tracey.”
“They deserve a packmaster who’s not an obsessive psycho nut,” he retorted.
I nodded my consent. “Yes, they deserve better than him. I’m not one to disregard tradition, but forcing young teens to engage in sex, to perform the bonding ritual before they’re emotionally mature enough to handle the responsibility of being a mate? Before they’ve even mastered their phasing? That’s irresponsible of a packmaster. And something tells me he’s tried to force members of his pack to take on multiple mates before, even though none of them are the Beast Master.”
Race frown
ed. “What makes you think so?”
I shrugged. “Something one of the wolves said back at the gym. He was talking about how if you’re really the Beast Master and really do have the ability to mate with more than one person, then the choice to do so should be yours, that it shouldn’t be forced on you. I thought at the time he was just talking about the young ones, but maybe there’s something more to it.”
“Either way, it’s gonna stop,” Race said. Then he sighed. “How am I going to do this? How can I be an effective leader to these people, if the rest of them even accept me, if I don’t even live in Dayton? Don’t you think that’s going to be significant to them?”
I nodded again. “It probably will be. So either they’re going to have to follow you to where you live, or we’re going to have to move to Dayton.”
Race looked at me sharply. “You’d do that, Jules? Just up and leave your life for me because of the mess I’ve gotten myself into?” he asked.
I touched his face again. “Race, I didn’t really have a life of my own for about a year, and when it seemed that I might get to pursue one, I was kidnapped and tortured and then raped. I walked away from my own family for two weeks because I felt smothered by their concern for me.
“And then I met you again,” I said with a sigh. “My life became yours the moment I looked into those amazing hazel eyes. You are my mate, which means I go where you go. You are also my Alpha, which means I go where you command me to go.”
“Juliette, I’m not going to command you to move to Dayton with me,” Race said. “I don’t even know if I’m going to move to Dayton.”
“Of course you will,” I countered.
Race shook his head, though the beginning of a grin turned up the corners of his mouth. “And what makes you so sure?”
“You’ve already acknowledged that the pack deserves a better leader than Kevin Tracey has been to them. You might not have wanted the responsibility of being that person, but you’ve already accepted it. And I can feel that you want to be worthy of the burden that’s been placed on you, of the trust that those wolves we met today have already placed in you.”
“I won’t be followed blindly, Jules,” he told me.
“Which is exactly why you’re going to move to Dayton. I know you, pretty boy—you yearn to be a part of our world now that you know it exists, and you want so much to earn the respect of other shifters despite being petrified you’ll never earn or deserve it because of what you’ve done in the past. The person you were then isn’t who you are now, and you need to start remembering that.”
I paused and gave his hands a squeeze. “You’re going to move to Dayton because you want to earn the pack’s respect. You want to prove to them that they haven’t made a mistake in trusting you with their lives. And you know that the first step in doing so is to bring yourself to them instead of asking or demanding that they come to you. And I’m going to go with you because my place is by your side.”
Race leaned over and kissed me fiercely. I responded with equal fervor, missing the heat of his lips on mine when he pulled away. “Have I told you lately that you are absolutely the best thing that’s ever happened to me?” he asked.
I offered him my sexiest grin as I pulled my shirt over my head, then removed my bra. I could practically hear Race salivating as he glanced down at my breasts, and I reached for his chin to tilt his eyes back up to mine. “Do one better and show me, pretty boy.”
Race grinned…wolfishly. And he did just that.
***
George pulled the limo up to the end of Saphrona’s driveway rather than trying to get it around the tight turn and up the slight hill. Race took my hand and twined our fingers together as the man, who had hardly spoken to us at all, shut the door upon our exit. We watched in silence as he tipped his hat at us and then returned to his position on the driver’s side, wordlessly climbing behind the wheel and pulling away.
With a sigh, we began the short trek up the driveway, and when we were near to the end I paused, somewhat stunned to see not only my mother’s car, but Tom’s as well.
“What is it?” Race asked.
“My mother’s here…and so is our Packmaster,” I replied, swallowing my nerves and moving forward again.
Race and I walked to the back door of the house, and though I knew there was no reason for my sudden trepidation, I was nevertheless nervous as we entered and made our way through the kitchen. We’d not made it past the dining table when my mother nearly bowled me over, wrapping her arms around me in a tight embrace.
“Oh, thank goodness you’re safe,” she said as she stood back. “Why didn’t you call me?”
As I glanced at Race I felt a blush light up my cheeks. He smiled back and gave my hand a light squeeze as I replied, “We were, um, busy. And then we had to stop by the bank.”
“I heard you were there—your father actually did call, seeing as he had to handle the transaction himself,” Mom said in a mildly admonishing tone. “That’s quite a sum of money you deposited, Race.”
I glanced at Race again. I’d actually been rather surprised when after our second session of limo sex he mentioned that he still needed to deposit Vienna’s check. I had asked him if he even still had it, fearing that perhaps at some point during his two transformations he had somehow lost it; Kevin Tracey would certainly have taken advantage of the loss. Race had assured me that whatever magic that made him what he was—that enabled him to keep his clothing intact when he changed forms—also allowed him to retain whatever was in his pockets at the time. He had proved it by pulling the envelope from one of those pockets and showing me the check within.
“It’s compensation for lost property as well as severance pay, Mrs. Singleton,” he told my mother. “And probably far less than what I deserve.”
Mom sighed and then looked between us. “I’m sure you’ve realized Tom is here, as is Martha. They want to talk to the two of you,” she said, turning around and leading the way into the living room, where my pack’s brother-sister Alpha pair waited along with Mark and Saphrona. My brother, naturally, wore an expression that clearly told me he was pissed we hadn’t called him for help. Saphrona merely looked relieved to see us. Tom and Martha both wore looks of appraisal.
Tom stood as we stepped into the living room. “I hear there was…an incident, my L—Race. Juliette. Would you please explain it?”
I felt Race becoming annoyed, and gave his hand a gentle squeeze to remind him that Tom was on our side. He was also still my Packmaster, and he would be until such time as Race and I were formally recognized as the Dayton wolf pack’s Alpha pair. In short sentences and a clipped tone, Race described our day up until we’d talked into the house just now (minus the intimate details), beginning with Diarmid Mackenna’s phone call and ending with the fight between himself and Kevin Tracey. I filled in the gaps with my own recollection and observations, including my own tussle with the werewolf.
“Whoa, wait a minute,” Mark interjected. “Let me see if I’ve got this shit straight—that fucktard that crashed our party yesterday tried to get one of his bozos to kidnap my sister, so you challenged him in defense of her and the bond you share…and now you’re the leader of the guy’s pack?”
Race looked over, and despite all the tension of the day, he smiled at Mark’s tone of incredulity. “It would seem so.”
Tom and Martha exchanged a glance. The former of the two sighed as the latter said, “Well, that certainly explains why Kevin Tracey’s filed a formal protest with the Council of Families.”
My mate scowled. “He’s done what?”
“Basically he has challenged the outcome of your challenge,” Martha explained. “Kevin doesn’t want to lose command of his pack—being a Packmaster is a position of honor and prestige in our community. He stands to lose every ounce of power and authority he’s built for himself over the last fifteen years.”
“Well too fuckin’ bad for him,” Race retorted. “He doesn’t deserve it. He threatened Juliette’s
safety and actually thought that her disappearing would entice me to mate with his daughter, when clearly neither of us wants anything to do with the other in that way. Kevin Tracey is an idiot and doesn’t deserve to be in charge of a fucking Little League team.”
“He can’t possibly think the wolves will still respect him after what he’s done,” I added. “Not only for what he tried to do to me and Race and Anna, but for the simple fact that he fired the entire repair shop staff because they accepted Race’s claim to the leadership. Tyler Givens even told him to his face that he wasn’t worthy to be their Alpha when he attacked me.”
“My Lord, I must ask you,” Tom began, regarding Race intently. “Do you truly desire the leadership of the Dayton wolves?”
Race turned to him, saying, “To be honest, I didn’t at first. I just wanted that moron to pay for putting Juliette in danger. Now I want more than that. I want to put that controlling SOB in his place, to prove to him that he can’t treat people like shit and get away with it. Not anymore. Given my past, even I wouldn’t consider me leadership material. Was a time I could barely be responsible for myself, and now I’m not just responsible for me but Juliette too, and now also forty-nine other people I never would have had to take responsibility for were it not for Kevin Tracey’s fuckin’ stupidity.
“But those people deserve a better leader than Kevin’s been to them, and at least if I fuck something up I’ll be doing it honestly.”
The canine Alpha pair studied Race for a long moment, then looked at one another. They seemed to communicate a great deal in those moments of silence, and then Tom looked back at Race, saying, “You have our full support.”
“You need to contact the wolves who witnessed the challenge,” Martha added. “Reiterate the necessity of being honest about what they heard and what they saw. It’ll be in their best interests to tell the truth, as usually the Council has ways of ferreting it out when a shifter lies.”
From the Shadows (A Shadow Chronicles Novel) Page 25
