by Lauren Dane
“This can’t be. They’re such nice boys.”
“They stole something that could kill millions of people. Humans and werewolves alike. They’re the animals, Mom. Now go. I’ll catch a ride with Jillian and escort everyone home and I need to call my people as well.”
* * *
When Ben walked in the door, Tegan had mostly dealt with her anger and sadness over the way she’d been treated by his mother. She’d listened to Layla be comforting and Nina threatening to kick ass. Megan brought over Dove bars and things had improved. It was just a bump in the road. To be expected.
Right.
But his face told her things had not improved. Instead he tossed down some of the vilest hate literature she’d ever seen and announced his mother had it in her kitchen.
“Wow. Um, so I’m guessing she’s not keen to have me in the family and stuff, huh? Did she bleach out the glasses and flip that I’d shared spit with you?”
The look on his face made her sick.
“That was supposed to be a joke. For fuck’s sake, why didn’t you tell me your mother was like one of those white supremacist people? God, you set me up, Ben.”
“She’s not. Fuck, I don’t know what to say. The woman in that kitchen tonight is like a total stranger to me. I was raised by people who took us to freaking protest marches the whole time I grew up. My mom read me books about Sojourner Truth and Mother Jones. If they’d been a bit older they would have been flower children. This is not her.” He shook the papers. “And I wouldn’t do that to you. How can you think that?”
“I’m sorry. Although why I’m apologizing when your mom is a brownshirt I don’t know. But I don’t think you’d deliberately sabotage me. Anyway, it’s not like my family has been all welcoming until recently.” She sighed and kissed his cheek.
“This stuff is sick. I want to kick the shit out of these assholes. It’s got to be connected with Pellini.”
“Ben, maybe. I assume you mean they know about me and you and tried to mess it up with your parents. But this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this stuff. I’ve had my car egged, my tires slashed, I’ve had things thrown at me. Tracy was jumped when she was in third grade by junior high kids. We’ve lived with this stuff our whole lives. It could just be run of the mill racists.”
“It’s too much of a coincidence, gorgeous. And if I knew who those people were who hurt you, I’d kick their asses right now. It makes me so mad to think you’ve suffered because you were born different.”
He was so passionate and scary in her defense, she had to smile. “Aww, you’d thump someone in my honor?”
“Don’t try to make me laugh. This is serious stuff. I’ve had my parents move to a safer place and my mom is going to talk to the sketch artist tomorrow for a composite. My gut tells me this is about Pellini.”
“Okay. I’m glad they’re safe. I’m guessing they RSVP’d to the wedding as a no?”
“My sister wants to cater the reception. I told her one of your sisters would call her so she could help plan. My dad is on my side. He’s wary, this is all totally new to him. My mom? I don’t know. I considered grinding up some Xanax or something in her tea tonight. She’s not right. I don’t understand. But we are okay. Period. You and me, Tegan, we are just fine.”
“Yeah. Drama though, huh? I bet you thought you’d end up with some quiet, sweet woman who had a normal family and didn’t turn furry at will. I’m sorry this is so crazy. It’s been hard for you, the suddenness of the bond and then all this. It doesn’t seem like anyone I know can have an easy go of it right off.”
He kissed her with a chuckle. “Tegan, I’m a kinky guy. I’ve never expected what anyone could call normal. I thought if I buried it, I could just live with it. But it came back and the first time I saw you at the club, I was hooked. You got under my skin because we were a match. Even before the Claiming or bond or whatever you want to call it. I never dreamed I’d be with a woman like you, no. But the truth of it is, you’re better than anything I could have imagined. I’m going to keep at my mom because she deserves to know you, but I don’t expect you to take any shit or to be around her until I’ve resolved things.”
“Thank you. And now we deal with my family. You haven’t met my grandmother yet.” She laughed. “She’s the one who presides over the ceremony that brings you into the Pack. Sort of the wise woman of Cascadia. Very woo-woo but she’s the coolest.”
“They’re okay that I’m not going to convert?”
Tegan nodded. “Not everyone does you know. It’ll be harder later, my lifespan is longer than yours but we’ll deal with it when it happens. The ceremony will recognize you as Pack, give you the protection of the Pack but you don’t have to be a wolf to get that. You’re mated to me and that’s good enough. You can assure your family that because you’re not a wolf, the part where the couple shifts won’t be included. Everyone will keep their human skins for the whole time. If you want to have a ceremony in a church later, when we return from the NC meeting, I’m fine with that. I want your family to be comfortable with our relationship. Or, as comfortable as they can be.”
“I may feel differently in a few years, hell, a few months. That’s cool too, right? If I decide later I want to be converted?”
“I don’t want to push you into anything, so of course you can change your mind later. Now, I think I need to call my brothers about this flyer thing. Is there some sort of way you can check to see if there’ve been any other situations like this? If flyers were dropped anywhere else?” She moved back into the living room and sat on the couch and he followed.
“We have a database, a hate crimes activity database. I’m one of the paranormal liaisons so I have access to it although it’s not something I normally do upkeep on. I have a call in to the officer who works county-wide on this stuff, I’m hoping she’ll call me back soon. I can log in to the database from here though. Let’s look before you call Lex so we can give him a more complete picture.”
They searched and soon enough, several hits popped up in southeast King County where the Stoners lived.
“I know this is your world and all, Ben, but it seems to me that this is the kind of thing you should be notified about. I mean, you’re the liaison to the Packs, we need to know this.”
He sighed. “Yeah, I’m a little agitated about that myself. I suppose I just assumed they’d tell me.”
“Why don’t you check this database like once or twice a month or so? Or have some sort of notifier set to ping you when this kind of activity arises? I know you’re busy and you have other cases to work on that aren’t paranormal community related and all, but I’m guessing we can’t get access to the information ourselves so we rely on you all.” Tegan found her phone and dialed Lex. It was late but he’d be up, he rarely slept anyway.
“I’ll make it part of my schedule to check it regularly. No, you can’t have official access but the computer here can look it up, I don’t mind you checking it out while I’m around.” He began to jot notes down as Lex answered.
“What’s up?”
She explained the situation including the call in to the officer in charge and the plans for the sketch artist. Tegan heard the contained anger in her brother’s voice as he questioned her about the whole thing.
“So, you’re telling me his mother believes this shit? That we’re tools of the devil and have no souls?”
“I don’t want to talk about that right now. I just wanted to fill you in. I’ll write up a report and send it along to National as well when I get in tomorrow morning.”
“Fine, you know I’ll just make you tell me when you get here anyway. I’ll set a meeting for the corps tomorrow morning around shift change time.” Lex told her he loved her, urged her to be careful and hung up.
She and Ben stayed up a while longer, her appetite had returned so she made a late dinner while he
checked in with his sister and his parents.
“Come to bed, red wolf. I get the feeling we’re both going to have a very long day tomorrow.”
When she looked up at him in the doorway after they’d cleaned the kitchen and he’d taken out the trash, she noted the light in his eyes, the way his gaze held only her. Everything else fell away as she nodded and moved toward him.
Chapter Twelve
Harried, Ben hustled through four witness interviews, wrote reports, took about two dozen phone calls, answered emails and did a scene investigation all before three that next afternoon. He’d also gone to the cop shop near the restaurant to be with his mom when she did the sketch. She’d seemed a bit calmer and more rational and he hoped that trend continued.
He hadn’t even had the time to check in with Tegan although she’d been on his mind after the night before. Hell, she was always on his mind. Smiling as he finished a report, he remembered how she’d looked spread out beneath him, a sheen of sweat on her flanks, her back arched to meet his mouth on her sweet pussy.
Oops, now he had a hard-on to deal with.
Still, that was easily dealt with when he paused to wonder how the meeting with her brothers had gone. He’d played phone tag with the county hate crimes liaison who finally just sent him some information about anti-paranormal activity in the county, which appeared to be rising at a pretty steady rate since the same period the year prior.
He forwarded the info to Lex via email on his way out the door to yet another meeting and that had been several hours past.
The growling in his stomach and a sudden feeling of total calm alerted him. Looking up, he realized it had already gotten dark. He also caught a glimpse of his red wolf coming toward him, a bag of takeout in her hands and a smile on her face.
“Hi there. I figured you might be hungry. I hope subs from Sharky’s are okay with you.” She placed the bag on his desk and leaned down to kiss him. He had to grip the edge of his chair to keep from grabbing her and pulling her down onto his lap.
“You’re very good to me. I didn’t realize it’d gotten so late. I’m sorry I didn’t check in with you today. Here, let’s go eat this in the break room.” He took her hand and the bag. He got a few looks from his coworkers and he wanted to laugh and tease them all about his good fortune.
“Sit, I’ll get some plates and sodas,” he told her as he moved about the room.
They settled in and he’d inhaled a foot-long sub and a bag of chips before pausing to catch the amused look on her face.
“Hungry huh?”
He laughed. “Yeah, I skipped lunch. Thank you for this. I needed it.”
“There’s another one in the bag, I figured you might need two.”
“If we weren’t getting married already, I’d be proposing to you right now for that.”
He polished off the second sandwich, this one with more manners than the first, and sat back with a satisfied sigh.
“That was marvelous. I feel way better.”
“Good. Maybe I’ll pack you a lunch or something every day. Why don’t you have snacks in your desk? I have snacks at work. It’s not good to go all day without eating, Ben. You need your reflexes sharp.”
The concern on her face warmed him. Other than family, who’d ever worried about whether he ate regularly? His warrior woman was going to make him lunch? Damn, the hard-on was back.
“... I have all kinds of stuff to tell you but I’ll wait until you get home. You gonna be really late?” she’d just finished saying when he tuned back in.
“I have about another hour or two to deal with here. Then I’ll be home. I’m sorry.”
She packed up their trash and tossed it. “Don’t be. It’s your job. Mine is like that sometimes too. I’ll be home when you get there. I have laundry to do anyway.”
“I’ll walk you out.”
She paused and blushed, ducking her head quickly. “Oh. Thank you.”
Ben liked being with her this way. Just normal couple stuff. Liked it that she seemed touched by the way he cared for her, God knew he was bowled over by what she did for him.
At her car, he kissed her slow and thorough, letting her taste slide through him, hoping it would hold him over until he could do a much better job in private.
“Be careful, red wolf. I’ll see you in a bit.”
Three hours later, he pulled into their driveway and realized how much better it was to come home when the lights inside were on. Knowing Tegan was in there, in their home, filling it with her presence made him pretty damned satisfied with his life. General insanity of his mother going nuts and the fucking werewolf mafia notwithstanding.
He found her drinking a mug of tea, tucked up on the couch and reading a book. Her hair was up in a messy ponytail and she looked like the best thing on Earth.
“Don’t you dare apologize,” she called out as he came toward her.
He laughed. “Okay, come to the bedroom with me and fill me in while I change my clothes.”
She sat on their bed and told him about the meeting she’d had that morning. Lex wasn’t convinced it was Pellini but they’d all agreed it would be something devious he’d get up to just to keep people focused on something other than his activities.
“I also spoke with Agent Benoit’s assistant, who is a wolf. Did you know that?”
Ben nodded his head. “Never met him though.”
“Nice enough, Midwestern wolf. Anyway, there’s some supposition Pellini might try and stir some anti-wolf sentiment to keep the Packs fighting and worried about humans. Cade thinks Pellini would do it to make the Packs on the fence about him fall his way. All the Packs against him, the ones with the most power, are the ones who advocated coming out to humans to begin with. There’s been a general rise since this time last year in this sort of thing. They’re looking into it.”
“Imagine all the good people like Pellini could do if they just applied their intelligence and energy toward something positive instead of this shit.”
“No kidding. Man, I love those boxer briefs. I’m buying you more, I love the way they hug your ass and thighs.” She rolled on her back and waggled her brows. Her hair tumbled free from the ponytail and her beauty hurt him for a moment. She was so damned precious, essential to him.
“You’re so beautiful.”
“What brought that on?” She smiled, just a simple, pretty smile. From what he’d understood from Nina, she hadn’t done much smiling for many years after losing her first husband. He liked that she did with him.
“I just love looking at you. Love having you here.”
“I love being here. I like the feel of this house a lot. Looks like my cousin Dave is interested in buying my house. Which is nice because it keeps it in the family. Oh and they’ve set a date for the National Council meeting. Three weeks from Saturday. The security plans will start arriving over the next few weeks so the groups going know what’s happening. Benoit’s aide told me he’d be contacting you tomorrow about it.”
Ice moved through him at the thought of how dangerous this would be for her but at least he’d be there too. He’d have climbed the fucking walls if she’d gone and he’d stayed back home.
“Okay. Oh and Jillian said she spoke to you and Layla on the phone today. Thanks for including her.”
He flopped down beside her on the bed and she immediately laid her head on his chest.
“Jillian is a very cool person. She’s going to fit into the mob just fine. That’s what Cade calls my sisters and Nina. She invited us to the restaurant for dinner and drinks tomorrow night so we can talk about the wedding and also get to know each other. I wasn’t sure it was such a good idea with your parents staying there but Jillian said it was okay. She told me she thought your mom might be having some sort of breakdown and your dad had made an appointment with her doct
or tomorrow. Are you okay?”
“I think it’s for the best actually and while I hate that he’s sort of talking her around the real reason for the appointment, she’s taking some medications Jillian looked up on the web and thinks might be causing some paranoia. Truthfully? I hope that’s it because I just don’t know what else to think.”
Tegan kissed his chest and sat up. “On your stomach. Oh don’t get that look, I’m not going to top you, I thought I’d give you a massage. Your muscles feel really tight.”
She wanted to laugh at the look of relief on his face, the big baby.
He got settled and she moved to sit straddling his ass as she smoothed her hands over the hard planes of his back just to warm them both up.
She grabbed the bottle of almond oil and poured a small pool into her palm and rubbed her hands together to warm it before beginning to work it into the small of his back.
“Other than the stuff we’ve talked about, tell me what happened today. What was your day like?”
As he went over the details of his very busy day, her hands kneaded his muscles, fingertips pressing into the knots, the heels of her hands smoothing the tension away.
Ministering to him like that made her love him more. Touching him to care for him, to ease his stress, enthralled her. The heat of his skin, the scent of the oil mingling with his own unique smell, the way the muscles of his ass bunched against her pussy and inner thighs where she sat—all drew her in. The sheer normality of it, the way one lover took care of the other, was so sexy.
His voice rumbled through his sides. He laughed as he described his coworkers and the people he came across, got frustrated briefly when giving details of a case he’d been working on for the last six months and relaxed again as he spoke of his sister.
Ben Stoner was a damned good man. A keeper if there ever was one. Sexy. Smart. Big and strong. Hotter than the sun in bed. And all hers.