by Bianca D’Arc
But he’d had to take things further—a lot further than he’d ever expected she’d let him go on such short acquaintance. She had to feel it, too. She had to feel the connection between them. That’s the only way she could have been so responsive, and so willing, to give him anything he asked for.
He had marked her. He left his mark on her so that others would know she was his. He hadn’t meant to do that, but she’d been heaven in his arms. Heaven brought to Earth, just for him, and he’d loved every second, every touch, every caress. He’d made sure she’d enjoyed it, too. She was everything to him, and her well-being was his most important goal.
The Pack would have to take second place to his mate. That’s just the way it was. The Pack structure was designed that way. An Alpha pair ruled. Joe had lost his mate, but he was still an effective leader. His people had stuck with him for many years as he’d built the Big Wolf Pack into a force to be reckoned with in both the shifter and human world.
The Big Wolf Pack was larger than most. In fact, it was among the largest and most successful wolf Packs in the country. Because of the scope of it—the airport and multiple businesses that came under the Pack’s authority—this Pack had a different structure than most. Joe had ultimate power, but he had left the day-to-day enforcement issues to the town sheriff.
But, within that Pack hierarchy, there was an unspoken order of things. Werewolves always put their mates first. They put their mates before all others. Pups came next in the internal hierarchy, then the rest of the Pack. Such was the natural order of things.
How the rest of the wolves would react to Maria as his mate was an idea that troubled him, no doubt about it. She had gained a bit of a reputation as Lulu’s niece. Some laughed at her attempts to fit in when she came into town. Some were obviously interested in hassling her. But he suspected all would raise their eyebrows at the idea that she was the new enforcer’s mate.
He couldn’t really hide it now, though. He’d marked her. And, oh, how enjoyable that had been. He wanted to claim her again, right here, right now, but he also wanted to talk to her about it first. Shane felt it was only fair to give her the facts and let her come to him on her terms. She had pride. He admired that about her. He wouldn’t force her into anything without her informed consent, no matter how much his furry side wanted to bite her and claim her and fill her belly with his pups. The wolf side of him could be a bit of a Neanderthal, at times.
He’d bitten her last night, but she hadn’t complained. In fact, he thought she’d liked it. He hadn’t broken the skin, but it had been a very near thing. If he made love to her again, he wasn’t sure if he could hold back.
Which was why he had to get out of bed before she woke up. Otherwise, the temptation to make love to her, again and again, would win out over his better intentions.
The sun was just starting to rise when Shane made himself leave the bed. He didn’t want to. His inner wolf wanted to whine at losing the touch and scent of its chosen mate, but his human half prevailed. There was a lot to do today to settle things before he could fully claim her.
And, he’d decided in the night, he would claim her. Everyone else and their thoughts on the subject could be damned. It was time he laid the law down and told the stubborn wolves who didn’t like a newcomer having so much power in the Pack how it was going to be from here on out.
Shane grabbed his clothes and tiptoed out of his room, opting to use the shower in the guest room that had been assigned to Maria, rather than chance waking her. After the quick cleanup, he took her overnight bag back to his room and placed it just inside the bedroom door, where she couldn’t miss seeing it, so she would have some clean clothes to put on when she woke.
She was still sleeping peacefully and he was sorely tempted to go back in and join her, but he had a lot of things to do before she woke up. The most important of which, was tracking down the two assholes who had threatened her safety last night. He felt a grim sort of anticipation in thinking about ripping their heads from their bodies if they put a toe wrong in his presence.
He’d give them a chance to explain before he bled them, but that was the human side of him trying to be fair. His wolf was all for killing them on sight, but Shane knew he had to ask a few questions, first, and find out why they had targeted her. If there was an ongoing threat, he needed to know about it.
He paused for a moment to call Joe and outline the situation. The Alpha’s response was everything Shane could’ve hoped for. Joe wanted to be kept in the loop but, otherwise, was letting Shane handle the situation as he saw fit.
“I suspect it’s time you established your position in the Pack,” Joe told him. “Do what you think is best, and I’ll back you. You’re my chosen enforcer, and everyone needs to respect that—and you. Individual dominance challenges are all well and good, but this is an opportunity to show the entire Pack how you handle a real problem. Run with it.”
“Thanks, Joe,” Shane said, relieved. He’d thought this might be Joe’s reaction, but it was good to have confirmation.
When Shane stepped into the living room after showering, he was still tucking his shirt into his waistband. Suddenly, the scent he was after came to him from the doorway, seeping in through the tiny seams around the small windows. Just the two shifters he wanted to see, and they’d come to him. Chances were, this wasn’t going to go at all smoothly.
The only reason he could think of that those two assholes would track him down here was for confrontation. Shane walked briskly toward the door.
Good. The sooner he killed those two, the sooner he could get back to his mate.
That thought slowed his steps a fraction. He could tell, by the sounds coming from the kitchen, that Patty and Mina were in there. Shane took a slight detour, poking his head in the kitchen archway.
“Bob gone already?” he asked quickly, receiving a nod in response. Damn. “Could you keep an eye on Maria? I’ve got some people to take care of, and they’re waiting for me outside.” Shane didn’t want to say anything that might alarm the child, but he didn’t have to worry. Patty’s head came up as if she immediately sensed his mood.
“Trouble?” was all she asked.
Shane nodded, looking at Mina, who was happily playing with her scrambled eggs rather than eating them. Patty looked at her daughter, too, then snapped her gaze back to Shane.
“Is she worth it?” Patty asked, sounding coldly concerned.
He was the new guy in town. Getting involved with Maria could only complicate things, but his heart was set. It was Maria, or nobody. Shane tried to be as honest with Patty as he could.
He hadn’t yet discussed any of his plans with Maria. She didn’t even realize he was thinking long-term—as in permanent. She was his mate, and he would never let her go. Not in the normal course of business.
Sure, if she denied him, he would do his best to change her mind. If, somehow, he couldn’t convince her to be his mate, he would watch over her for the rest of her life—even if she never saw him, again. His heart was fully and completely hers. She just had to be made to understand what that meant among shifters.
There was no time, now. An impatient knock sounded on the front door. Time was up.
“She’s my mate,” Shane said, laying his feelings bare to Patty. She had a mate. She knew what the bond was like. She knew how important Maria was to Shane’s continued existence.
Patty smiled, and Shane realized he’d been holding his breath, waiting for her reaction. Patty was one of the pillars of the Pack, despite her young age. A breeding female, she represented the hope for the next generation and guided the direction the Pack would take in the coming years as her children grew. If Patty accepted Maria, it would go a long way toward convincing the rest of the Pack.
“I swear to protect her as I protect my young,” Patty said, giving Shane more than he had anticipated. Maria would be in good hands while Shane dealt with the trouble waiting on his doorstep.
“Thank you,” he said, meaning so much more
he didn’t have time to say, but he knew Patty understood. She was fast becoming like a sister to him. She and her mate were good people.
“Go. Take care of business. I’ll get Maria and feed her breakfast. We’ll be right here, in the kitchen,” Patty assured him. “No matter what.”
Shane headed out the front door, ready for anything, his inner wolf howling to be let loose on the two who waited outside, but they weren’t alone. No, Dumb and Dumber had brought some of their illiterate backup to the party, forming a loose half circle facing the house.
The front yard, then. That would be the battleground where Shane finally laid down the law to his new Pack.
This had been coming for a while, but he never expected the fight would be over a woman. A very special woman who had turned out to be his mate. In a weird sort of way, he should probably be thanking Russ and Jon for getting him together with Maria, but there was no way he would ever thank them for planning to terrorize her—or worse.
“You got that college woman in there?” Jon asked. He was the brighter of the two wolves, but that wasn’t saying much.
Brothers who lived out on the edge of Pack territory, Russ and Jon McCarthy weren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer. The rest of the inbred family wasn’t much better, and most were arrayed behind Russ and Jon, at the moment, as if waiting for the show to start.
Oh, they’d get a show, all right. Shane was through taking any of their shit, and not one of them was wolf enough to best him. All of them, though? Well, if they attacked as a group, he might have a little problem, but there was no way the rest of the greater Pack would approve of this kind of gang warfare. Dominance fights were always one-on-one, and, at its heart, this was a dominance question.
If the McCarthy clan wanted to stage a coup and take down the new enforcer, Joe and the rest of the Pack would have a thing or two to say about it. Thing was, nobody else was here, right now, to witness the McCarthys’ dirty tricks. Nobody but Patty, little Mina and Maria.
The women wouldn’t stand a chance if the McCarthys bested Shane now. They couldn’t leave any witnesses to their treachery. It would be a bloodbath.
That thought sent a chill down Shane’s spine—a chill that sobered some of his unrelenting rage and made him start paying a little more attention to strategy. He had to be prepared if they rushed him. There had to be at least a dozen McCarthys altogether, and just one Shane.
He wished, now, that he’d told Patty to take Mina and Maria and make a run for it while he kept the McCarthys busy. Patty was the only real protection her child and his mate had. She had to watch over those two and not get involved in this fight. The McCarthys may have no honor, but Shane sure did. He would face them one at a time or all at once, and he would prevail. He really had no other choice.
He only wished he’d told Maria that he loved her. If the worst should happen, he wanted her to know that she held his heart, now and forevermore. She might not believe it. He knew human relationships worked on a slower timeline. But, for him, she was it. The one woman he would happily grow old with—if they were given the chance.
First, he had to neutralize the threat the McCarthy clan posed. They’d be lucky if he let any of them walk away from this unscathed.
Fur rippled under his skin as he strode out into the sunlight. There were no trees in the area in front of the house. The lawn served as a sort of buffer zone to the house and was purposely kept clear of obstructions. That feature also made it the perfect place for a fight.
“I just have one question for you two,” Shane said as he stalked toward the two men who stood to face him. “What did you plan to do with Maria once you had her in your clutches?”
Stupid, evil grins told the story. Shane didn’t even have to hear the words. Maria would not have made it out of the forest alive last night, and her death wouldn’t have been a pretty one.
“What do you think, Shane? It was long past time someone shut her up, permanently,” Russ said, sneering all the while. “She knew too much about us. That’s not allowed.”
“Last time I checked, I was the enforcer of this Pack,” Shane spit out the words. “It isn’t your place to do my job.”
“Well, you weren’t doing it!” Russ shouted. “Someone had to have the balls to stop her.”
“The fat cow shouldn’t have been nosing into our business,” Jon backed up his brother.
The pathetic name-calling would cost him, Shane decided. “Which of your legs do you like the least, Jon?”
“What?” Jon’s mouth opened as the stupid look on his face intensified. Shane really hated these two. The Pack would be better off without them, his wolf prodded him. It wanted them dead.
“I’ll be lenient and shatter that one first,” Shane said, still advancing, rolling his head so that his neck cracked menacingly. “Then, I’ll shatter the other one, along with the rest of your body before I let you die a slow, agonizing death.”
“Big words, Shane,” Russ mouthed off while Jon went white as a sheet. “When you’re the one who’ll be dying today.”
“You’re welcome to try, of course, but I’m the sheriff here, Russ. There’s a reason your Alpha went outside the Pack to pick me for the job.” The wolf wanted out, and barring that, it wanted blood. “Enough words. Get ready to bleed, McCarthy. It’s time the Big Wolf Pack learned just who their new enforcer is and what I can do.”
Despite his tough talk, Shane let them bring the fight to him. He wouldn’t attack first. He’d give them a chance to back away slowly, but the assholes didn’t take it. Just as he’d thought, they rushed him—or tried to.
Shane sidestepped them both, faster and more agile than either one of the brothers. And then, the game was on.
Shane got first blood on both of the McCarthys, but it wasn’t long before Shane had a few shallow scratches, as well. So far, everyone was still in human form, but he knew that was going to change. And, so far, the crowd of at least ten other McCarthys was holding back, just watching and cheering on the brothers.
This wasn’t a real dominance fight. Not the way it should be—one-on-one. It just showed how dishonorable this crowd was. Shane and Joe were going to have a long talk about the family as soon as this was over. Shane wouldn’t be surprised to see them kicked out of the Pack for good, and he’d be just the enforcer to do it.
Russ came in for a low swipe, just missing Shane as he scooted back in the nick of time, but Jon was waiting to slice at his unprotected back. Son of a bitch! That stung.
The crowd hooted at the cheap shot, and Shane got his head back in the game. He couldn’t afford to be distracted by anything but cleaning the floor with Russ and Jon’s faces.
That thought firmly in mind, Shane set to work.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“What in the world is going on out there?” Maria asked Patty as fierce noises erupted from the front yard.
Patty had knocked on Shane’s bedroom door a few minutes ago, promising Maria breakfast and no judgment…in just those terms. Maria liked Patty’s no-nonsense approach and decided to bury her embarrassment and emerge from Shane’s bedroom, head held high.
She’d found her bag just inside the bedroom door and her heart melted at that little display of caring concern. Shane must have retrieved it for her before he left. It was a small thing, but the extra effort counted for a lot.
They had just sat down to coffee and toast when the ruckus started. Patty looked nervous, if Maria was any judge, and even Mina was quiet, her eyes darting nervously around the room.
Patty didn’t answer, but Mina whispered, “They’re fighting.”
“Who’s fighting?” Maria’s gaze flew to Patty. The older woman seemed subdued and even more worried than before. “Is it Shane? Shane and those two jerks in the forest yesterday?” Maria asked.
Patty twisted her hands. “McCarthys. Russ and Jon, and a few more besides.”
“Wait a minute,” Maria stood, agitated by the thought of Shane facing more than just those two men—which had
been bad enough. “They’re ganging up on him? Is that allowed? Isn’t there some code of honor or something?”
“Dominance fight is one-on-one,” Mina said, nodding, looking down at her breakfast, which she hadn’t touched since Maria had walked into the kitchen.
“But I don’t think this is a dominance fight,” Patty whispered. “It looked more like a hunt. And if Shane loses…”
Patty didn’t have to spell it out. If Shane lost, the cheaters out front wouldn’t want any witnesses left to tell the tale. Maria looked at Mina and frowned. They had to do something.
“We need to call somebody,” Maria thought aloud.
“I already called my mate. He’s working with a bunch of Pack mates on rebuilding our house. They’re coming, but it’ll take time. He had me call the Alpha, but again, help will take time to get here. Everybody’s at work, or doing other stuff, closer to town.”
“How long?” Maria was already on the move.
“Maybe ten minutes?” Patty frowned. “I don’t think Shane has that long.”
“Nonsense.” Maria reached for the largest of the knives in the kitchen. “Are there any guns in the house? Or other weapons?”
“Shane has some, but he locks that stuff up so the kids can’t get at it,” Patty said, looking at her daughter with a fear in her eyes that broke Maria’s heart.
“Show me,” Maria ordered, sensing Patty needed some help to focus on anything other than the fear of losing her child.
Patty picked up Mina in her arms and led the way down the hall back toward Shane’s bedroom but stopped one door before. She opened it to reveal an office of sorts. Along one wall was a clearly visible gun cabinet with a lock on the front.
“When Shane moved to town, he decided to stay here in the Pack house for a while before finding a place of his own. He wanted to get to know us, he said, but he needed a bit more room than the typical guest room, so he took this one, as well,” Patty told her.
