BAD BOY ROMANCE: DIESEL: Contemporary Bad Boy Biker MC Romance (Box Set) (New Adult Sports Romance Short Stories Boxset)

by Parker, Kylee

  I nodded. This must have been more normal to John than to me, but he looked as out of place as I felt.

  “What’s this ‘normal’ speak?” John asked after the waitress brought two cans and two glasses that were so stained they weren’t see-through anymore.

  I shrugged. “I just feel like if I could have offered Allegra a normal life most of the things that we’ve been through wouldn’t have happened. First it was this alpha’s mate business, with Sarelle being a problem. Then it was the pregnancy and Kurt being what he is. And now it’s self-defense.”

  “You want her to be able to fight?” John asked.

  “You know what Sarelle is like. I can’t keep her safe.”

  “I don’t really know if she’s going to come back to get Allegra. You were the one that kicked her out of the pack.”

  “And why would she fight me? She knows she’ll lose. But Allegra… she’s had it in for her from the start. And everyone knows Allegra is my one and only weakness. If something happens while we’re not around…” I took a sip of my soda and felt it bubble down my throat. It was almost too sweet. “I just don’t know how to approach this.”

  “Get Ted to teach her.”

  I raised my eyebrows. Ted was an old wolf. He came from the days before preternatural creatures were accepted into society. He was rough around the edges and merciless when it came to fighting because those days it was kill or be killed. He didn’t belong to a pack because he said everything was too organized now, nothing was like it used to be anymore. And I didn’t blame him, I just preferred the fact that we had government immunity now.

  “I can’t introduce her to Ted. I’m already nervous to let her see what it really means to be a wolf. She still just on the outside looking in. Introducing her to Ted would be not just to let her feel how hot a flame can be but to shove her right into the fire. It would be better if he just watched her without her knowing.”

  That suddenly sounded a lot better to me. An answer that might actually work.

  John shrugged. “I don’t have anything else for you, man. Your life is easier because Allegra tries to understand you. But it’s harder because you can’t make her fit all the way. I don’t have any of that with Charlene.”

  I nodded. He was right. In different ways we both had it hard. We only drank half of our sodas when John looked around.

  “Fight’s building,” he said. I turned my attention to the crowd, and I could feel it too. It hadn’t happened yet, but there was a general feeling hanging in the air that told us it would happen soon.

  “I bet we could take them all,” John said. I nodded. We watched the people for a while.

  John looked at me, and he said what I was thinking. “Want to go?”

  I nodded. It wasn’t nearly late enough for John to have to be home, but we didn’t feel like being involved in a bar fight. And someone was going to want to get us into it. The biggest guys were always the first target. The little ones were always too stupid and arrogant to choose their fights right. And we were both dads, and werewolves. Life just wasn’t worth all the petty bullshit.

  John waved at me and started down the road toward the house. I stood outside the bar for a second longer, and then walked in the opposite direction. I hadn’t even had to tell John we weren’t walking together. That was what I loved about the bond with my pack.

  And it was what made me realize every time that I would never be able to pull of being human, even when I could look like one. Because real humans, even the ones that had turned to werewolves, just didn’t love the paranormal stuff.

  His house was outside the base. I shifted and ran through the woods, weaving through the trees, until I reached a part I hadn’t been in before. We all knew where he lived but if we saw him it was out somewhere. Never at home.

  But tonight was a unique situation. The house was an oversized log cabin buried between the trees in the part of the woods where the growth was so dense there was hardly any sunshine in the day, and no moonlight at night. I sensed my way through the trees.

  When I was close to his house, I heard a growl from my left, and I lowered my head. The growl was deep and threatening. I tucked my tail between my legs and waited for him to come up to me.

  Ted’s wolf was big. Bigger than any wolf I’d ever seen. His power roiled over my skin, pushing against me like a wall. I forced myself to breathe deep and evenly.

  His fur was a dark red-brown color, with gray tips here and there. It gave the illusion that he was old, but because of our immune systems he looked as young as I did when he was in human form.

  He walked up to me, and sniffed my nose. I lifted my head, careful not to make eye contact. He rubbed his cheek against mine, almost like cat’s rubbing against a human, and I reciprocated. I was the first to press my nose under his ear, and he did the same.

  I was a wolf he knew. I was safe. He had welcomed me in.

  After we’d changed back he walked up the steps and I followed him in. My clothes were ripped after the change but I had enough to be decent. I sat down on the dark brown couch that faced the fireplace while he poured me a glass of water.

  He had gotten himself whiskey. The only werewolf I knew that loved alcohol. His red hair was darker than I remembered it, and he looked like he’d spent a lot of time in the sun. It was a striking combination with his dark brown eyes that missed nothing.

  He was muscled, like he lifted weights, but we all knew any werewolf could bench press a car. If he really worked out he had to find something bigger.

  “What are you doing here, Reid?” he asked. “No one comes to my house unless it’s serious.”

  “It is serious,” I said and looked into the glass. “Allegra’s in trouble, and my young as well. I need someone to guard her.”

  Ted pulled up his eyebrows.

  “She’s a human, but she’s taken her place as my mate in the pack. There’s one wolf that used to be in the pack that’s unhappy with it, and I suspect she’s going to try take her out.”

  “I don’t blame her,” Ted said. “A human in our world? Times have really changed.”

  “Humans didn’t only step in after the laws were set up,” I said. Ted nodded because he didn’t have a point to argue. That was the only reason he agreed.

  “You don’t want to teach her to defend herself?” Ted asked.

  “No. I don’t want her to try. If she dies fighting it will be just as bad as dying because she wasn’t fighting. I just want you to watch out for her. She’s not one of us. Not really. She tries, but she can’t. Kurt, my boy, he’s a wolf. But he’s five.

  “A double hit then,” Ted said. I nodded.

  “There’s one more thing.”

  Ted looked at me expectantly.

  “I don’t want her to know. I don’t want her to see you around, see you guarding her. She’ll think I don’t think she can do it.”

  “But you don’t think she can do it.”

  I nodded. It was true. “I just don’t want her to know that.”

  Chapter 3

  Allegra

  Being married to a werewolf means that I’m very aware of the moon. Having a werewolf as a child has made me nervous about it. Kurt was heading towards five so young for a little wolf, and he was already affected by the moon. Even when Reid was away and the magic was curbed he was difficult on those nights. But tonight Reid was home, and the moon was full and gleaming in the night sky.

  I held onto Kurt’s hand. His fingers curled around the palm of my hand and his skin was soft and a little sticky. His silvery hair floated next to me in the darkness, the only part of him that I could see.

  Reid walked on his other side, but he didn’t hold his hand. The power was too much. If he touched Kurt now the change would rip through him before we even got to our power circle. I could feel Reid’s power crawling across my skin. Maybe it was just me, but it felt like it was stronger than usual.

  Maybe it was just the nerves talking.

  “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
I asked Kurt. He looked up at me with yellow eyes that glowed, and smiled. He was halfway there already. Whatever the magic was doing to me, it was making him happy.

  When we stepped into the clearing I felt the potential of the night ripple over me and it took my breath away. Power pushed against me like a giant hand and I focused on just breathing.

  The pack appeared from the trees, stepping into the circle one by one. It was as if they’d all been summoned. Maybe they had. Reid could have called them, but I think it was the moon that did the calling tonight.

  When we were all assembled, standing in the circle on the outskirts of the clearing, Reid stepped into the middle. Kurt was still holding my hand, but I could feel him pull towards Reid. It wasn’t physical, it was something inside him, but I could feel it.

  It was the first time that it felt like he was pulling away from me. Reid was the one he wanted. I wasn’t a part of this game no matter how much power I could feel, because I was just a human. I wasn’t a lycanthrope. I would never truly belong. Kurt was almost five, and he was more one of them than I’d ever be.

  Reid was talking to his pack in a low voice. Everywhere animal eyes shone in the dark with a preternatural glow. Kurt squirmed next to me. He could feel the power as much as I could. Maybe more. Reid turned to him and held out his hand, and Kurt when to him like he was being reeled in.

  Maybe he was. I was too scared to ask. I didn’t want to know the truth. When it was my child I was so much more aware of the difference between the human and the animal, and who really controlled who. I just didn’t know anymore, and it was starting to scare me.

  Kurt reached Reid and took his hand. The moment he did it was like the magic blasted outward with a force that took my breath away completely. The others felt it too – how couldn’t they? – and gasped. Kurt curled into a little ball. His body moved, bones shifting under his skin in a way that wasn’t natural. His clothes ripped and the skin on his spine opened. Silver fur crawled over his body, stretching over the elongated limbs, and then he was a wolf. The change had never seemed this… deliberate before.

  He was still a pup, with big yellow eyes and large floppy ears. He wagged his tail at Reid.

  The alpha looked down at his son and smiled. Then he looked at the pack, making eye contact with each of them.

  “Tonight Kurt becomes pack,” he said and his voice carried, sounding louder than before. I wanted to protest. He was so young. How could he be let into this world? But he was a wolf, even though he was just a pup, and I wouldn’t have known what to do if I kept him home during full moon. He was his father’s child more than he was mine tonight.

  Kurt looked around the circle and pressed himself against Reid’s leg. He would still learn about dominance. Reid took a deep breath to speak again, but then the power in the circle shuddered and wavered. It was like it had been disturbed, like ripples after a rock had been thrown into a pond.

  Sarelle stepped into the clearing.

  Everything fell quiet. The pack held a collective breath. I gasped and had the ridiculous urge to hide, but what kind of alpha’s mate would I be if I did that?

  She kept her eyes on the alpha, and she didn’t look down.

  “Sarelle, don’t do this,” Harry said. They dated once upon a time, when she was still pack, but after she’d been banned it just hadn’t worked out. He didn’t have a problem, she was the one that had made it impossible to carry on for them.

  “I’m not here for you,” she said over her shoulder without looking at Harry. Then her eyes slid to mine and they were pure black, the animal in her sliding behind those eyes and making me feel like I was prey.

  “You are not welcome into our power circle, Sarelle. Your presence is an insult to me and mine,” Reid said and his voice was more like a deep growl.

  “I’m here to take care of unfinished business,” she said, still looking at me. Kurt curled his lips back and snarled. Sarelle looked down at him as if she only noticed him now, and afterthought. I was suddenly scared she would do something, but she made a small ‘hmm’ sound and then drew her eyes back to me.

  “I want a duel,” she said, speaking to me now. “Me and you.”

  I wanted to shake my head, but Reid spoke before I could react.

  “You cannot challenge my mate without challenging me. And if you challenge me you fight for my place as alpha. You realize what this means?”

  I knew what this meant. It meant that she wasn’t allowed to fight me unless she fought and beat him. And if she did fight him, it would be to the death. That was the rule when you challenged an alpha. It wasn’t like any other werewolf fight, where there may be mercy.

  “I don’t have any quarrel with you,” Sarelle said, looking at Reid. I thought she would hold his banishment against Reid. Maybe she was blaming me for that too.

  She took a step closer to me and I felt her anger wash over me. It was terrifying. I knew that if we came face to face now she wasn’t just going to try draw blood like she had the first time. This wasn’t the first time Sarelle and I had had our differences, but it was the first time I saw the promise of death in her eyes. It made me go cold.

  As one being the other wolves stepped closer, too. They were in the circle now, the power flowing and linking up until I could feel them all, interlinked, one being, one unit. And they were all against her. If she moved, they would move. If she attacked me, they would attack her. The tension built until it was so thick around us I could run my fingers through it like water.

  Sarelle must have felt it, too, because she stopped and looked around her.

  “You’re not welcome here,” Reid said and his voice was full of authority. The tension in the air was making it hard to breathe. Maybe I was the only one struggling with it.

  She looked like she wanted to say something to Reid, but then she turned her face back to me.

  “Don’t think I haven’t seen him watching you. I know you think you’re safe now that you have someone watching your back even when Reid’s gone, but you won’t be protected forever. And when that happens, I’m going to be there. And you’ll wish you were one of us.”

  She turned and marched out of the circle. The tension drained with her until the clearing felt empty, like we’d all already left.

  “What is she talking about?” I asked Reid.

  He looked at me and shook his head. “We’ll talk about it later,” he said. He didn’t want to discuss personal matters in front of the pack. But I wanted to know. It wasn’t like he didn’t discuss personal matters with them behind my back, it was just a matter of looking like he was the head of our house.

  “Who has been protecting me, Reid?” I asked. The other wolves squirmed. The moon was getting to them. I gave it five minutes and they were going to lose control. They had to hunt. They had to take blood to gain full control over their wolves again. Our little family dispute was stopping them. But I was suddenly upset.

  Reid had made it sound like I could take care of myself. Until he’d come home a few weeks ago I’d thought I could. First he’d made it clear I wasn’t ready to face a werewolf. Then he’d stopped the challenge from happening before I got to answer, and now I found out that I was being watched by someone.

  And he hadn’t told me.

  I was angry. Angry and upset and scared. Sarelle had all but promised to kill me. But it was in her eyes. They were soulless black pits, reflecting nothing. And I was the target of that merciless stare. If she found me I wasn’t sure I would make it. It made me feel on edge, and the last thing I needed when I felt on edge was Reid keeping secrets from me.

  “Reid,” I said again when he didn’t answer me. But he shook his head, and brought on the change.

  The idea that he’d gotten someone to watch me without my knowing just made me feel like I looked like a coward because I wasn’t going to fight my own battles. And I already looked weak because I was just human.

  Usually he waited until all the others had changed during full moon. He kept control of t
hem, made sure they didn’t lose it. He knew what losing control was like. But he was running away from me like a coward, refusing to stay in human form where he could answer to me. And that just made everything worse.

  The moment he was in wolf form Kurt walked up to him and sniffed his nose. The others had started changing as well, and the air filled with the grunts and groans and yelps that came with the change. When they were all in wolf form Reid threw his head back and howled. Kurt joined in, and only when he did, did the others join too. They were already accepting him as part of the pack. I knew that later they would all do the wolf’s equivalent of bowing before it him, but that would happen after the hunt. Reid had explained.

  It was natural. It hadn’t been with me. I was suddenly angry. And jealous. It had replaced the fear, but it was still there lurking behind the emotion. When they all ran into the trees, Kurt’s silver form slicing through the tree next to his father’s wheat colored wolf, I was left behind feeling deserted, rejected, alone.

  I turned and walked back to the house. A shadow slipped through the trees, so fast I thought I’d imagined it. But then a faint sliver of magic slid over my skin and I knew I wasn’t alone.

  I stopped, trying to control my breathing that suddenly came in quick gasps. If Sarelle came at me now it was over.

  But nothing happened. If it was Sarelle she was biding her time. But her words echoed in my head.

  Someone out there was watching me.

  Chapter 4

  Reid

  Sarelle knew that I’d gotten Ted to watch over Allegra. I hadn’t realized Ted had already started his watch. I’d thought he would only do it after I left, but it was what I had asked him to do, so he did it.

  You didn’t just ask a favor of an old wolf like Ted and then tell him how to do it. So I didn’t go back and speak to him about it. Favors like these seldom came without a cost. I wasn’t going to mess with it.

  But that did mean that Sarelle had already wanted to try with Allegra. Without me even being on duty yet. I was still home, and already she’d been checking up on her. Maybe it was just homework. She was shrewd enough to bide her time.