TALA

by Laura Ryles

  “It’s not a lie,” Tala said from behind the bars. “If you look at the bill of sale where my dad was supposed to sign as the seller, it says Clay C. Woods. My dad’s middle name was Kameron with a K. He didn’t sign that paper. Plus, he may as well have admitted to me that he murdered my dad, just before you all showed up.” Liam, who had taken the stack of papers from Drew, thumbed through them to find the bill of sale. He looked up at Orin like he was about to strangle him. He ran forward and pushed Orin up against Tala’s jail cell.

  “You scheming, lying, murderer. Clay Woods was a thousand times better than you and his daughter is twice that. You open that cell, or I’ll rip your throat out myself, right here and now and save her the trouble later.” Orin scrambled for the keys on his belt. He opened the cell and let Tala out. Liam was the first to put his arms around her, then Oakley, and then Lark grabbed her and held her as they all turned their attentions toward Orin.

  Liam leaned over and whispered in Tala’s ear, what she needed to say. She put on her Alpha voice for just the second time in her life.

  “I challenge your leadership, Orin. You will make an appearance at Red’s tonight at midnight. You will face these accusations in front of our pack and a tribunal of the elders. You will meet whatever justice they decide upon.”

  “Yes,” Orin answered.

  “Orin, we don’t need to remind you what it means for you if you don’t show up to answer these accusations, do we?” Terra asked.

  “No, I’ll be there. Those are just papers. Anyone could have typed those up. The pack will never believe you.”

  “You forget, we make up part of this pack too, Orin,” Dawn said quietly.

  “So, do I,” said Kale, who had just entered through the side door without anyone noticing, “and I’m on her side, brother.” They all looked at the newcomer as he walked past Orin to stand with the elders and Tala on the other side of the room.

  “You would be, you weakling. All of you get out. I will be there, at midnight. When this is over and I still have control of this pack, you will rue the day you met me.”

  Chapter 14

  They all walked out of the police station, leaving Orin alone in the small holding room. When they got out of the building, Drew hugged Tala with all his might.

  “What happened to you? When Orin and I were leaving his house, I saw your car still parked on the side of the road. I thought something bad must have happened to you,” Tala said.

  “No, I was just waiting in the woods to see what they would do with you,” Drew answered. Lark walked over to them and planted a huge kiss on Drew’s lips.

  “That was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen.” She smiled at Drew. Then she turned to look at Tala. “Tala, I’m so sorry. I tried to keep him in the bar as long as I could, but he just lost interest in the drinks and turned around and walked out suddenly. Cindy wasn’t even sure what had happened to him.”

  “It’s okay,” Tala said. She patted Lark's shoulder. “I think the free drinks were a giveaway.”

  “Ah,” Lark said. “Yeah, that probably did strike him as odd that I was trying to get him drunk.” Lark laughed nervously. “What was I thinking?”

  Liam jumped on the back of Lark’s pickup and stood up. “All right, everybody. Follow us over to Red’s. We’re going to go wait there till midnight. It’s only a couple of hours and it probably isn’t safe for us to go home alone to our houses until this matter is resolved. I expect everybody to help keep an eye on Tala. She goes nowhere by herself until the night’s over.” When he finished, he hopped down out of the truck bed and walked over to Tala. “I’m going to ride with you, if that’s okay.”

  “Sure,” Tala replied. “I’m probably riding with Drew. Drew, do you mind?”

  “Not at all,” Drew answered. They all piled into the few vehicles that were parked outside of the Sheriff’s Office and drove in a line over to Red’s. When they got there most of the lower pack members were already there.

  Lark walked over to the counter and asked the guy behind the bar, “What’s everybody doing here?”

  “Kale sent out a couple of runners sending word that there was going to be a fight tonight. So, they just started showing up.”

  “Kale?” Lark asked, surprised.

  “Yeah. He said to tell everyone that ‘the real Alpha is back’.

  Lark made her way back over to her friends to tell them what the bartender had said.

  “Wow,” Tala remarked after Lark told them.

  “I know, right?” Lark said.

  Then Kale himself came through the door and walked over to Tala.

  “I’m sorry, Tala,” Kale said with deep sincerity.

  “Hey, what’s a little blood between friends,” Tala responded graciously to his apology.

  The wolves at Red’s Tavern were buzzing with excitement. Change was in the air and everyone could feel it, Tala included. It was almost electric. At twelve o’clock on the dot, Orin walked into the bar and a hush fell over them all. Cindy was on his heels as he made his way to the center of the room, just like he had that first night when he’d introduced Tala to the pack.

  “My pack,” he said loudly, “I fear that you may have been led astray by this rabble.” He pointed at the group of people surrounding Tala. “Just this evening she broke into my home and attacked my deputy, your Beta, Kale.”

  Kale stepped forward. “I attacked her. I told you that, but you won’t listen,” Kale yelled at him across the bar.

  “It is my time to speak, you will have your chance,” Orin said, glaring at Kale. “As I was saying, I give it over to you, my pack, to banish this traitor's daughter from our midst for good before she does any more damage. You all know that I have been good to this pack. I stepped up when Clay ran out on all of us. I have always been just in my dealings with pack matters. I even tried to stop Clay from tearing the land out from under us. You know that I am the rightful leader of this pack. Who is this girl, but the daughter of the man who ruined our pack?” He walked around the room looking at everyone who would hold eye contact with him. When he finished, he took Cindy’s hand and walked to the side of the room.

  “It’s your turn,” Liam said, as he pushed her out into the middle of the room.

  “What do I say?” Tala asked.

  “Tell them the truth.” Tala looked around the room at the expectant faces of her pack. She took a deep breath and swallowed.

  “My name is Tala Woods, I am Clay Woods’ daughter. My mother is a human. My father was accused of running out on his duties as Alpha and of selling your beloved home. I want to tell you the real story. My father didn’t run away just to be with some human. My mother was pregnant with me and as some of you will know, my father had promised me to the Alpha of the Tundra pack. Rather than give me up to him, he ran with us and hid us from Dag until he was killed last year. I never knew any of this until I was kidnapped by Dag’s son, Ander. My father had been right to hide me, because when I met Dag, I found out that he only wanted to marry me so that he could kill me and take over this pack. Luckily, I challenged him and won Alpha of the Tundra pack.” A lot of her own pack members gasped at this revelation. Tala continued. “I want you to know that I didn’t come to this pack because I wanted to take over. I just wanted to meet you all, I wanted to know my family. When I got here and heard the stories of what my father had done, I will admit that I was angry with him myself. Let me clear that up right now as well. He did not sell the pack land. I have the bill of sale from that transaction and it is not his signature. Orin forged his signature on that paper. Would you like to know how I know? And why Orin did it? I’ll tell you. My father’s middle initial is K for Kameron. The bill is signed with a C. Whoever signed it, didn’t know how to spell my father’s middle name. Now, why would Orin do that? Orin is the owner and proprietor of Grant Co., correct? To most of you, this isn’t a secret. You knew this already, but what you don’t know is that Grant Co. owns Broadview LLC, and Broadview LLC owns Pipton Real Estate, an
d guess who Pipton Real Estate owns? Can’t guess? Groshung Properties! The land development company that bought your land. Yes, that’s right. He bought that land. He is making the profit from it. He sold you out to feed his own greed. We have proof. Bank statements that show the payments trickling down through these four companies until they get to Orin Grant’s very own pocket. If that isn’t enough to turn your loyalty, then how about this? He did everything but admit that he killed my father. That’s right. He murdered an Alpha, even if he wasn’t currently the acting Alpha. That is not okay. He also threatened my life tonight, but that sort of pales in comparison to all of the other things, doesn’t it?” Tala took a deep breath and stepped back.

  Liam walked out, “It’s your choice, Pack. Vote. Who still stands with Orin?” The room was silent. Only Cindy raised her hand. “And who stands with Tala?” The wolves nodded in agreement with one another and one by one every hand in the room went up. Tala couldn’t believe it.

  Chapter 15

  “No!” Orin cried out. “I challenge! I challenge, I challenge, I challenge!” He roared as he made his way across the floor towards Tala. Tala stepped back, affronted by his outburst, but before she even had time to react the entire pack had transformed and was standing between the two of them, blocking Orin from getting to her. He turned around and walked towards the exit, thinking better of running into a fight he couldn’t win. Cindy grabbed his arm as he walked by, to comfort him, but he threw her onto the floor. The door slammed behind him.

  “Don’t I have to fight him?” Tala asked. She and Drew were the only two humans in the room.

  “I think they just did it for you,” Drew replied.

  “Cool. Thanks, guys.” Tala looked around at the many multicolored wolves around her. Lark and Liam were the closest to her, but Lark was already occupied with being petted by Drew so Tala leaned closer to the wolf on her other side, Liam. She ran her hand down his fur coat and said, “Thank you.” Liam nodded. As the excitement ebbed, many of the wolves headed home since most of them didn’t bring a change of clothes. There were a few who had things in their cars, but even they got changed and headed home.

  After she was dressed, Lark came back in and walked by Cindy who was still sobbing on the floor. “What do you want to do about her?” Lark looked at Tala.

  Tala walked over and stared down at Cindy. Cindy looked up from the floor.

  “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know what he was or what he had done. Please don’t kick me out of the pack. I’ll go home to my mom’s if she’ll still have me.” Cindy peered around Tala and Tala turned to see for herself that Terra was listening and nodding in agreement.

  “Of course, you can go home to your mom’s. I’m not going to kick you out of your own pack. Men can be dogs.” She smiled at her own pun.

  “Hey!” Drew said from across the room.

  Cindy smiled a little wearily from the crying but then she got up and walked over to Terra and gave her a hug. It was almost two a.m. before everyone left the bar.

  Back at the house, Oakley, Lark, Tala, and Drew all sat in the living room trying to calm their nerves after the whirlwind evening. Tala looked over at Oakley,

  “Oakley?”

  “Yes, Tala?”

  “I would like to discuss something with you and the pack elders, and the pack too.”

  “What would that be?” he questioned.

  “Well, it will probably take months, or years even, to get everything about the land worked out legally. And even if we do, most of it has already been destroyed.”

  “Yes,” Oakley nodded his head in agreement.

  “Well, I am now the Alpha of two packs that require my presence in two different countries.”

  “This is true,” Oakley agreed with her again.

  “Well, Ander and I were talking and we - well, he mentioned it - but I wanted to invite the Timber Pack to Canada. The Tundras have plenty of open land and we are all basically one pack now, right? So, couldn’t we all live there? That would solve the problems of no land for you down here, and the fact that there is only one of me.” Oakley sat quietly for a minute mulling it over. Drew and Lark waited for his answer as well.

  “Tala, I think it’s worth discussing at least. I’ll ask the elders to convene the wolves again tomorrow morning and we’ll ask them.”

  “Great.” Tala smiled the biggest smile she had smiled since she had come to her new pack.

  The next morning all the wolves were waiting at the bar when she showed up. She walked in with confidence and proposed the plan to her pack. Many of the wolves agreed that it was worth giving it a try and the ones who weren’t, were wolves who owned the land that they lived on and had misgivings about selling that land to move north. With a little more talking though, Tala convinced them all to come to Canada with her for a week, to see if they would be able to live together in peace. The Timber Pack agreed and the exodus to Canada was scheduled to begin the following day. Those wolves who had no arrangements to make could stay in Canada after the trial week if they so chose. However, most of the pack would come back to Montana after the first week to get their affairs in order before returning to Canada permanently.

  Chapter 16

  When she left the meeting, Tala decided she wanted to call Ander and tell him. Then she remembered that her phone was at Orin’s house in his office. She went back into the bar to use their phone.

  “Hey, Lark. Is it okay if I use the bar phone?” Tala asked Lark who was tending the bar.

  “Sure, I don’t care,” Lark said.

  “It's a long-distance call. Is that okay?”

  “Yes, Alpha, that’s fine.”

  “Oh, no, please don’t start calling me that.” Tala laughed. She picked up the phone and dialed Ander’s number.

  “Hello? Tala?”

  “Hi, Ander. Yeah, it’s me. How’d you know?”

  “American phone number. Where have you been? When you didn’t call last night, I got worried. Are you okay?”

  “Yes, Ander, I’m fine. I’m better than fine actually. The pack agreed to come and meet the Tundras.”

  “So, does that mean that I’m speaking to the new Alpha of the Timber pack?”

  “It does.”

  “That’s amazing, Tala.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t call you last night. I lost my phone yesterday and then everything got hectic for a while and by the time we got home we were all so tired that we ended up passing out almost as soon as we got there. Do you forgive me?”

  “Of course. So, when do you think you guys will be heading up? I’ll prepare for more pack members.”

  “Tomorrow. Most of us will come up tomorrow. They will stay for about a week and just get a feel for how things will be. They want to get to know your pack, and make sure everyone can get along. Then, if things work out, many of them will return to the states to get their houses in order and make sure they have all the necessary school papers for their kids for the fall and things like that. But, if everything goes as planned, we will be there by tomorrow night.”

  “Are you kidding? Don’t play with my heart. Am I really going to see you tomorrow?”

  “Yes, I’m really coming home to you tomorrow.”

  “Well, prepare yourself then, ‘cause I don’t think I’m going to let you go for a while once I get hold of you.”

  “Me, either. I love you. I have to go and start getting ready.”

  “I love you, too, Little Wolf. See you tomorrow.”

  “Bye.”

  “Goodbye.”

  Tala hung up the phone excited for what was to come. The rest of the day passed quickly and before she knew it, she was lying in bed across from Drew trying to will herself to sleep but having no success.

  “Tala?” Drew said. He must not be able to sleep either, Tala thought.

  “Yeah?” she answered him.

  “I really like Lark.”

  “I know, I can tell.” Tala laughed at the fact that he thought he was telling her somethin
g new.

  “Well, what are we going to do? I’m a human, she’s a wolf. The pack won’t allow it.”

  “Are you forgetting? I’m the Alpha. I think that rule is outdated, and I think that most of the elders agree. I’m pretty sure we can do something about that. Plus, we’re all going to be one pack. In the Tundra pack, it’s just frowned upon, not against the rules. I don’t think that will be an issue for you guys much longer. No matter what though, I’ll make sure that those rules get gone. Don’t you worry. I got your back.”

  “Are you excited to see Ander?” Drew asked.

  “Yes, I can’t sleep, I’m so excited.” Tala laughed.

  “Well, I guess we better quit talking then because that isn’t going to help you get to sleep any faster.” Drew rolled over and put his back to Tala.

  “You’re probably right. Goodnight, Drew.”

  “Night, Tala.”

  It took her a while, but Tala did finally drift off to sleep.

  When she woke up, she could hardly contain herself. She showered, ate breakfast, and had her bags by the door in less than thirty minutes. The plan was to meet at Red’s and travel as a caravan to Canada, to see their prospective new home. Tala drove Drew’s car, with Liam as her riding buddy. Drew had decided to ride with Lark and Oakley. Most of the other families had their own vehicles. The drive up was very pleasant. Liam regaled her with tales from her father’s childhood. She in turn told him about her mother and Ander, and what it was like to have the Mate Bond with someone. Liam was surprisingly knowledgeable about the Mate Bond as well.

  They crossed the border into Canada, and after another hour or so, Tala began to feel it. She pulled Drew’s car over.

  “Liam, I’m going to need you to drive the rest of the way,” Tala said as she opened the driver’s side door and got out.

  “Okay, sure,” Liam said, getting out of the passenger side at the same time. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m great, I just have to go.” Tala took off running. Liam looked around to see where she might be going but saw only trees.