by T. S. Joyce
“No seriously, man. She’s hot.” Brent had been taken with Sarah, as had almost every other male in the building, as she was one of only seven unclaimed females.
Logan stopped mid-mouth shovel. A spoonful of beef stew hung precariously in front of his lips. “I didn’t see her. Which one was she?”
Morgan tossed an apple over her shoulder, confident Grey would catch it. “She had blond hair and green eyes, and she’s nice, too. I approve.”
“What about the brown-haired one that was sitting by you? Is she claimed?” Logan asked. Brunettes were obviously more his type, though he watched Marissa’s reaction. She gave him none.
“No, Macey isn’t claimed either, but alas, it seems she only has eyes for Grey.” She batted her eyelashes over her shoulder at her mate, and he rolled his eyes.
“Yeah that’s just what I need. More female attention. I’m surprised you didn’t rip her throat out, my little barbarian.”
“Damn!” Logan said. “Less than a week married, and she has already stopped trying for you, man. See? This is why I’m never settling down.”
Rachel snorted. “Logan, you of all wolves need a wife. Someone to keep you in line.”
“Yeah, you can share gossip magazines,” Grey deadpanned.
Morgan straightened suddenly and jabbed her spoon at Brent. “I’ll introduce you to Sarah at breakfast tomorrow. Sit by me and hold Lana. Werewolf or not, women are suckers for a man who is good with babies.”
Brent tinked his spoon against hers in a silent cheers.
Logan leaned back and patted his still flat belly. “That’s just what we need, another female in the pack. You girls are nothing but trouble.”
Morgan leaned a little farther into Grey’s legs. “So you would rather live in a pack with all boys? Then what would you fight over?”
“Oh, please don’t act like you don’t like the fight,” Jason chipped in with a teasing glint in his eye. “We all saw you out at the pack war. You were a berserker.”
Brent lifted his glass. “I did think for a second you were going to turn around and kill us all. You were looking pretty dangerous, and I was definitely glad you were on our side. Marissa and Rachel, too. Who would have known we had a couple of Robin Hoods in our pack?”
Dean raised his glass in turn, and the light from above sent little sparkles against the walls. “To our boys defending our girls, and to our girls defending our boys.” They all clinked glasses as he reached over to proudly kiss Rachel.
Jason raised his glass again, adding, “And to our fallen brother, Brandon, who should be here with us right now.”
They toasted, and on that somber note, everyone dispersed slowly to get ready for bed. Marissa fell quickly asleep on the bunk above Lana. The rhythm Grey made as he brushed his teeth settled Morgan’s nerves. Her muscles relaxed as the sheets warmed around her legs. She held the covers up and scooted as far against the wall as she could. The bunk beds, however, weren’t made for someone well over six feet tall with shoulders the width of a broad side of a barn. He sighed and disappeared into the darkness. Moments later, Wolf hopped up into the bed with her. A first. He smelled of animal and home, and she fell asleep with her fingers running through the fur of her own personal Demon Wolf.
Chapter Seven
Morgan opened her eyes to an overwhelming darkness. She squinted to try to rush the adjustment of her night vision. A form appeared, blurry and a shade darker than the night. Grey? She flared her nose and drew a slow breath. The smell of close, warm skin was thick but unfamiliar. A man’s heavy breath had her frozen in terror. Where the hell was Grey?
Golden eyes opened in the darkest part of the room, waiting. The breeze from the opened window on the wall above their bed raised goose flesh in waves across the exposed skin of her arms. How could this wolf not sense the danger behind him? It felt like the entire room was roiling in the anger that emanated from an enraged Black Wolf. The man disappeared from in front of her as Grey ripped him backward.
“Dean!” she shouted over the rustling of an unseen scuffle happening on the floor in front of her.
A shirtless Dean was standing at the French door dividing their rooms in an instant, and Jason hit the light behind him a second later. Dean didn’t hesitate. He put his knee into the back of the pinned intruder and Grey backed off. His yellow eyes scanned neatly between her, Marissa, and Lana’s still-sleeping form.
“Morgan?” Marissa squeaked.
“It’s okay. Come here.”
Marissa slid into her bunk in one fluid movement, and Morgan threw the covers over the girl’s lap to protect her from the frosty breeze.
Dean ran his hand through his hair, but it didn’t do anything to darken his lupine eyes. “Wade, go wake Marcus. Tell him what happened and that we need this wolf removed.” Wade disappeared, closing the door with a quiet click behind him.
Dean hoisted the man up like a sack of flour and took him into the other room while Morgan shut and locked the open window. She threw a thin robe around her shoulders and followed Grey.
“What the hell are you doing breaking in here?” Dean demanded.
“I couldn’t help it,” the man said defiantly. “I had to get closer to smell her. Can’t you all smell her?” He looked around for backup and, finding none, he looked down accusingly at Grey. “It’s your own fault, you know. You brought her here while she is in heat. Did you do it to tease all of us? You can’t blame anyone for wanting her.”
Grey bared his teeth, and a low rumble rattled his throat. The stranger tried to squirm away, but his only other option was to get closer to a very pissed-off Dean, whose dominance was creating another wall of discomfort.
Morgan stared at him as if he’d lost his damned mind. “Do you know how creepy you sound? You broke in here, in the middle of the night, so you could smell me?”
“Well, when you put it like that….”
The door opened and Wade and Marcus Whitten came in, still dressed for sleep. He had two guards waiting by the door outside. Marcus walked over to the man, grabbed the front of his jacket, and looked him over.
“Henry? What are you doing in here?”
Henry opened and closed his mouth like a landed fish, but no explanation came out.
“Take him to the Pavilion,” Marcus said, his voice as hard as iron. “Sorry about this, folks, but we’ll punish him accordingly. Let me know if you need anything else.” He gave a distracted wave goodnight and was gone behind the men who dragged a protesting Henry away.
Wade, Dean, and Jason stared after them with matching frowns, and Grey looked like he regretted not eating the intruder.
How the fruitcake was she supposed to sleep after this?
Chapter Eight
Morgan had eventually fallen back to sleep. Just in time to get a half hour nap before dawn.
How did Grey manage it? He handled everything as if nothing affected him. Montana, the challenges, the battle at the cabin, all of the men he had killed in the name of protecting her, all of the injuries he’d sustained, also from protecting her. He made it seem as if everything rolled off his back, while she felt like she was barely treading water. There was no time to deal with the stress before some other tragedy demanded her attention. The tension built and built until she was pretty sure she was going to explode into a million pieces. Poof…just a fine-mist of Morgan would be all that remained.
The stranger’s glowing eyes in the darkness flittered across her mind, and her inner wolf squirmed uncomfortably before she snuffed out the memory. Grey hadn’t even mentioned it. Just Changed, kissed her forehead, and headed for the shower. Maybe he had forgotten that this kind of behavior wasn’t part of normal human life. Nothing she had been through since becoming a wolf was normal.
Wolf had to be the most confounding creature in existence. Even her wolf, who was much more sensitive, was confused and restless at his lack of reaction. The ghosts of the men she had killed protecting the packs haunted her. A vision of Brandon’s vacant, staring e
yes had a tendency to appear when she closed her own, but never once had Grey asked her how she was handling everything. Grey reacted less and less the longer he was a werewolf, and there was no easy or obvious solution. Would she ever understand him? And in turn, would Wolf ever give Grey enough leash to give her what she needed emotionally? Her basest instincts warned her to be wary. She had not seen a drop of blue in Grey’s eyes for the past three days. How could she voice her concerns with Grey when Wolf was the only one doing the speaking?
He came out of the shower toweling off his hair, his eyes still a steady gold. She pressed against their bond, making it smaller and smaller until it was only a pinhole. The last thing she needed to do was feed Wolf the turmoil roiling within her. He looked at her with a frown but didn’t say anything, so she skirted around him to get ready.
“What did that psychopath say to you last night?” Rachel asked as the group headed to breakfast.
“He said I smell like I’m in heat. Do I smell different to you?”
Rachel and Marissa both sniffed her.
“A little,” Rachel admitted, “but Grey only recently claimed you. Your smell has changed so much since last week. Plus, I’m not a male. I don’t think I would know what to look for.”
Morgan looked at Jason questioningly. He slid a look behind him at Grey who was walking with Lana and talking quietly with Dean. He veered closer to test the air around Morgan and nodded to her. “There is definitely something there, and if I had to guess, I would say that wolf was right.” Jason’s eyes had brightened to a light brown, and he smiled apologetically.
A deep, short growl sounded behind them, and a wave of thick power covered them like a suffocating blanket. Marissa’s shoulders hunched under the burden of the power, and Jason threw up his hands and gave her space.
At the mess hall, with plates piled high with food, the Dallas packs sat down at a table near the edge of the room. Sarah and a few of the other girls from last night were sitting at a smaller table near the middle of the room. Morgan waved at them, then motioned for them to come and join. Grey was across the table with Marissa, and Morgan made room on her right for Sarah and her two friends. Brent sat happily on her left with Lana.
“Sarah,” Morgan said. “This is my friend, Brent. He is part of Dean’s pack. Brent this is Sarah. She is part of the Michigan pack.”
Sarah studied him shyly. “Nice to meet you.” She held her hand out.
“It’s sure nice to meet you too,” Brent responded slowly in his southern drawl, shaking her hand behind Morgan’s back.
Logan grunted, and Morgan shot him a warning look.
Sarah grinned at Lana in Brent’s lap. “And I remember you, little one.”
“That’s also what she would say to Brent’s dick,” Logan said under his breath.
Morgan launched a hash brown at Logan’s face, effectively shutting him up as Dean pointed a fork full of eggs at him and told him to, “Cut it out.”
“So, Michigan pack, huh?” Brent asked. “Is there only one in the state?”
“Yeah. I think our weather deters the packs. It gets pretty cold and uncomfortable up there. My Wolf loves the cold winters, but when I’m in my human skin and trapped inside for long stretches of time, I get restless. I think it’s like that for the other packs too. I have four other pack mates and they get stir-crazy like I do.”
Morgan gulped down the last bite of her biscuit. “Well, if you ever need a vacation from the winters up there, you are more than welcome to come visit us. Our winters stay pretty fair, and it would be nice to get to see you again before next Summit.”
“I would like that,” Sarah said, eyes sliding to Brent and then glancing away.
The usual pack racket picked up after that. Logan and Jason got into a loud argument over who would win in a fight between Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Morgan took the opportunity to excuse herself with the pretext of getting seconds on food.
“Smooth,” Grey mouthed.
By the time she came back with another heaping plate of eggs, bacon, and biscuits and gravy, Sarah had scooted down the bench seat beside Brent. Lana handed her fistfuls of cheerios, and Sarah cooed at what a good sharer she was.
“What time do we need to meet out front for the scavenger hunt?” Logan asked as they finished up.
“I think the itinerary said nine-thirty,” a dark-haired girl named Margaret said, blushing deeply and then looking down at her plate.
Dean glanced at the clock on the wall. “Okay, that leaves us about ten minutes. We should go ahead and clean up our trays and head on out there.”
Just outside the door, Grey tugged gently on her hand. “What’s wrong? You’ve been distant this morning, and I can’t feel you very well through our bond.”
She pulled him to an empty picnic table as the others disappeared around the corner of the pavilion. The worn wood of the table was rough against the back of her legs but the contrast of his strong hands against the thin cotton over her hips was delicious. She glared at a lone fern near a path leading to the woods, as if it held the secrets of the world. If she looked at his glorious face and gave in to her physical attraction, she wouldn’t be able to say what she needed.
The deepest parts of her clenched warmly as he leaned forward, and the pads of his thumbs found their way under the hem of her shirt.
She shook her head in an attempt to focus on anything other than his consuming touch. “That wolf last night? It bothers me that he broke into our room.”
His fingers stopped their advance. “I know, but I took care of him, didn’t I? You don’t have to worry. I told you I would keep you safe.”
“But you acted as if nothing happened. You’re getting too comfortable with violence, and I guess a big part of me needs you to remember that most of this isn’t normal, or okay. I don’t want to get used to all of this. I understand our wolves are different, but I need you to be there for me, too. To talk to me, not just to protect me.”
“Come on guys. They are about to hand out the lists,” Marissa called out, toting Lana.
“Be there in a sec,” Grey said in an irritated tone. He leaned closer and lowered his voice. “Look, I’m doing my best here. This isn’t an ideal situation for us to be in, and my job is to keep you guys safe. That’s my focus, Morgan.”
“But remember me, too,” she whispered. “Don’t forget my heart and I won’t forget yours. Don’t go cold on me.” Morgan stared into his unflinching golden eyes for a moment more before she reminded him, “I’m not your job, Grey. I’m your mate.”
“I understand, but sometimes my job is to protect—”
“Find a balance, Wolf,” she said softly. “I need you both.”
Morgan slid from the bench seat and made her way back to the others. She looked back one time, it’s all she dared, and Grey was watching her go with pure gold in his eyes. She missed the blue.
Holding the scavenger hunt list, Lana jumped up and down beside Rachel who was loading bottled waters and snacks into a backpack. Lana bounded over to Morgan, waving the list in the air. Most of the items would probably be easy to find, such as a y-shaped twig, smooth or shiny rock, unusual shaped leaf, and trash. Others wouldn’t be so easy with the bottom half of the list naming flowers, seeds, roots, grasses, and leaves from trees native to the area. Morgan didn’t recognize most of them, but the harder ones had small drawings and descriptions next to the name.
Each team had been provided with a small burlap sack to carry the items, and they were to meet back at the pavilion when they were finished. The first team done would win the prize. It wouldn’t be a terribly difficult competition under normal circumstances, but large groups of werewolves tended to have constant arguments and power struggles. The purpose of the game was cooperation and teamwork.
As the groups split off and the Dallas packs headed up the mountain, they started finding the easy list items right away. She, Brent, Marissa, and Logan ran around like chickens with their heads cut off in se
arch for things as Rachel read them off. Lana was content to sit on top of Jason’s shoulders as they hiked farther up the trail they had chosen.
Grey led the group through a thin spot in the trail between two large boulders. Dean and Wade flanked the group in the rear. Grey hadn’t said a word to her since their talk, and though Marissa glanced between them often enough with her lips pursed, she was wise enough not to ask what was wrong. Sometimes Grey needed time to mull over things.
Instead, Marissa put her attention elsewhere. “Seems like you and Sarah got along well.” She waggled her eyebrows and Brent.
“She’s nice. I invited her to eat lunch with us if we get back around the same time as her pack.” He hesitated and then cleared his throat softly through a decidedly guilty looking expression. “I asked her why she wasn’t claimed yet.”
“What?” Morgan nearly choked on nothing. “Brent! You don’t ask a girl that the first time you meet her!”
“Well, I don’t know how to talk to girls. I only talk to you, and you are all open and inappropriate. I thought, I don’t know, that she would either answer me or tell me to shut up like you do. Instead, she seemed embarrassed, and I felt bad.”
“What did she say?” Morgan asked.
“After she finished blushing, she told me she had practically grown up with her pack brothers and didn’t look at them that way. They showed interest in her, but she didn’t have feelings for them, so she dated a human for a few months and then broke it off when she realized she couldn’t tell him anything personal about herself. So then she seemed frustrated and asked me why I hadn’t claimed anyone, and I told her because there were no blondes in my pack. I thought she knew I was joking, but she blushed again, and I asked her to eat with us for lunch. She said she would, and then we headed off for the scavenger hunt,” he rambled.
Rachel snorted unbecomingly from behind them, and Morgan tried her best to stifle laughter. “Well that’s one way to do it, I guess.”
“Hey, at least she didn’t run screaming into the forest, man.” Jason consoled him. “Victory.”