by RJ Blain
“He always thinks that. How is that new? Just because I illegally crossed the border doesn’t mean I’ve taken leave of my senses. If anything, I’m doing exactly what they want. I came home without a fight. That’s what they wanted. They wanted me to come back to Yellowknife.”
“You’re a pain in the ass. Get upstairs, Richard. Alex gave us a temporary code for the fourth floor; I told him we were going to clean the place up because we were bored. I told him we’d also make sure everything in the fridges was still good. He bought it.”
“Alex is so dependable.”
“Unlike you,” Vivian snarled.
My mate clutched my hand and shuffled closer to me. Her movement caught Vivian’s attention.
“You don’t have to worry about anything, Nicole—that’s what you prefer now, right? You can relax. If anyone so much as looks at you wrong, I’ll take care of them if your mate doesn’t get to them first.” Vivian bared her teeth in the promise of violence. “Kelly’s upstairs keeping an eye on dinner. Frank was worried you haven’t been eating enough, Richard.”
My mate growled. “He’s thin.”
“Of course he is. We’ll take care of him. Just threaten to bite him if he doesn’t eat enough for your liking. I hope we’ve made enough. After dinner, you better start talking, Richard.”
“After dinner,” I promised, waiting for Vivian to use her temporary code. The instant we emerged from the stairwell, Kelly pounced. She hit me first, planting a kiss on my cheek. Using me as a launching pad, she lunged for Nicole and wrapped her arms around my mate’s neck. The women fell to the carpet, Nicole squeaking her surprise.
While my wolf tensed, I ignored him, chuckling at Kelly’s enthusiastic greeting.
“I think I’ve been replaced in her affections, Vivian.”
“Shouldn’t have run away, then.”
“Harsh.”
“Shouldn’t have run away, then.”
At the first growl from my mate, I leaned down, grabbed both women by their necks, and massaged their throats with my thumbs. “All right, ladies. Kelly, you can cuddle her into submission later. She hasn’t had more than a few bites to eat since yesterday.”
While Nicole melted under my hand and leaned into my caress, Kelly twisted around and snapped her teeth at my arm.
“Kelly, no biting Richard,” Vivian scolded, nudging her puppy in the side. “Behave for once in your life.”
“He ran away from home. He deserves to be bitten.”
“He may deserve it, but it’s no fun if your prey isn’t a challenge.”
Kelly scowled but got up, glared at me, and stomped towards the kitchen. “I made moose stew. I stole Dad’s supplements and added the entire tub, so I can’t promise it will be anything other than barely edible, but if you’re underweight and she has ritual sickness, I thought taste would come second to calories and nutrients.”
“Don’t listen to her. It tastes fine, Richard.” Vivian pointed down the hallway. “March.”
I helped my mate to her feet, and liking the way she leaned into my touch, I kept stroking her throat.
Vivian slapped my arm. “Richard, that doesn’t mean put her to sleep before she can eat. Hands and teeth to yourself.”
Baring my teeth at Frank’s mate wasn’t one of the smartest moves I had made recently. She jumped on me and sank her teeth into my throat. I yelped at the flash of pain, but unlike my mate or Desmond, who could floor me with their bite, I stood firm and growled a warning.
“Mom! If I can’t bite, you can’t either. Leave him alone until after dinner.”
“Deserved it,” my mate muttered.
“Don’t side with the other bitches. That’s not fair.”
Vivian released me, pried my hand off my mate’s throat, and shoved me in the direction of the kitchen.
My mate growled. “March, Richard.”
With all three of them poised to tear chunks out of me, I headed for the kitchen, showing my teeth in a flimsy defiance of the order I couldn’t disobey.
Kelly took charge of dishing out the stew. The first bowl triggered my mate’s feeding frenzy. Growling around every bite, she inhaled her food, choking several times in her efforts to shovel more into her stomach faster. Fascinated by her determination to demolish the entire stock pot of stew on her own, I slid my bowl over to her when she ran out.
Vivian scowled at me. “Richard Murphy, stop feeding her your dinner. So help me, if I put you on the scale and you weigh less than one seventy, I’m going to dose you with so much wolfsbane you can’t see straight until you’re back to two hundred where you belong.”
“Too bad you’re not my boss,” I muttered.
“Nicole, darling. Order him to obey me, please.”
“Richard, do what she says, but she can’t take away my ability to boss you around.”
Kelly laughed and gave me a new bowl of stew. “She caught on to that quick.”
“Of course she did. That’s what I get for marrying one of Desmond’s daughters.” I scowled, but picked up my spoon.
My mate lifted her bowl of stew and dumped it over my head. The steaming liquid dribbled down my back, and I hissed from pain. “I may have deserved that.”
“He can be taught. Amazing.” Removing the bowl from my head, my mate scooted her chair back and headed for the sink, rinsing her dish before serving herself more stew and returning to her seat. “Sorry, Kelly.”
“Don’t worry about it. Cleaning up will keep him out of trouble for at least ten minutes. We can watch him scrub the floor. It’ll be fun.”
Heaving a sigh, I got up, and stripped out of my shirt. “Oh, yes. It’ll be so much fun watching me scrub the floor. I smell like moose.” Depositing my shirt in the sink, I turned on the faucet and ducked my head under the faucet to rinse the stew out of my hair. “I better get clean before you predators decide I’m dinner.”
Driving away all the eager females over the years had made me keenly aware of being watched, and three pairs of eyes tracked my every movement. My rank as an Alpha played a part of it; when I postured, others watched—especially when the others were members of my pack or from a rival pack. While courting, Kelly counted as an eligible female, and with winter right around the corner, her attention would be riveted by any male who strolled by.
Frank held the dubious honor of being the first male in the pack to rut season after season, which meant Vivian followed shortly in his wake, unable to resist his influence through their mating bond. Smirking, I took my time getting the stew out of my hair, well aware Vivian would be desperate for Frank within a few days, especially if I started posturing in my effort to capture my mate’s interest.
It’d do my Third some good to have his mate rut first for a change.
Vivian inhaled. “That’s cheating.”
I shook the water out of my hair, grabbed the dish cloth, and went to work getting the rest of the stew off. Straightening, I stretched like a cat and contorted in my effort to reach my back. “What’s cheating, Vivian?”
“You son of a bitch,” Frank’s mate growled.
I turned to her and widened my eyes. “Do you think Frank’ll figure out I headed here any time soon?”
One day, I would learn not to taunt the bitches in my pack, especially when I knew they had volatile tendencies, a lack of regard for mugs, and good aim. I ducked. Instead of the mug cracking me in the middle of my face, it grazed my forehead before crashing into the counter behind me.
Somehow, I avoided being hit by any of the shards. Chuckling, I went to work picking up the pieces.
“Second Dad won that round, Mom. He’s got to be at least half dead as scrawny as he is, and he still won. That’s not fair.” Kelly drummed her fingers on the table. “It should be illegal for someone so sickly thin as you to still look so good. What is wrong with you?”
“I’m going to go with malnutrition.” Once I cleaned the shards off the floor, I leaned against the counter and watched my mate devour another bowl of stew. When sh
e neared the bottom, I grabbed a clean dish from the cupboard, lifted the lid from the stock pot, and ladled another serving, passing it over to Kelly.
Frank’s daughter looked me over, sliding the dish to my mate without her eyes leaving me. “I can’t argue with that. I should be yelling at you for not eating, but you’re not going to do more than forage for scraps until your mate’s stuffed, are you?”
“I’m so glad I don’t have to explain this. Anyway, Wendy fed me two large meals back to back, and I ate a lot at one of my hotels the night we flew the coop. After I get some sleep, I’ll make enough to contend with both our appetites.” Returning to my task of hunting down every last ceramic shard and disposing of them, I stole glances at my mate, who was so absorbed in satisfying her hunger I doubted she was aware of the conversation around her. “Let her satisfy herself. Hopefully, she’ll sleep it off and stop throwing up all the time.”
Vivian watched my mate, getting up to refill the second bowl. “How was she today?”
“Not bad, but I’m convinced it’s only because I knocked her out and kept her that way between Fort Vermillion and here.”
“It’s been weeks, Richard. Will she be okay? Alex was only sick for a week.”
“Did he tell you about the sorcerer?”
Both Vivian and Kelly grimaced before nodding.
“Lisa was in really bad shape, and Nicole’s paying the price for her twin’s mistreatment. Add in ritual sickness, and it’s not a pretty combination. She’ll be fine. She just needs some peace, quiet, and time.”
“So you brought her here?”
“It’s one of the last places anyone would expect me to go right now, isn’t it?”
Kelly bit her lip. Her mother sighed. Neither said a word. I didn’t push the point, content they both understood. What had happened to Nicole hadn’t been their fault, but guilt had a scent, and they both stank of it.
Most of the wounds were mine to bear and suffer through, but my pack suffered, too, and only I could begin healing the damage done by time and distance. Vivian and Kelly made it easy to let go and relax my guard.
“What’s done is done. She’s home now, and that’s all that matters.”
My mate paused in her frantic devouring of her stew and smiled at me.
Nicole ate every last scrap of stew, and when the pot proved empty, she whined her disappointment, rested her arms and chin on the table, and stared at me beseechingly. The glaze of food coma clouded her eyes, and I helped her along by kissing her cheek and stroking her throat.
It didn’t take much to put her to sleep.
“If she’s not awake, she might not throw up?” Vivian whispered while Kelly tiptoed around my kitchen in her effort to clean up the mess.
“That’s the idea. It worked in the car, once I got tired of her throwing up so often. All Desmond would have to do to find her is figure out which direction I went and follow the scent trail.” I wrinkled my nose, worked my arms beneath my mate, and lifted her up. “I’ll get her tucked into bed. Then you can fill me in on what I’ve missed lately.”
I headed for my bedroom, and Frank’s mate followed at my heels. “There’s nothing much, truth be told. The pack went crazy when Lisa came home. When they find out her twin’s here, and she’s your mate? They’re going to go ballistic.”
I grimaced. “What sort of ballistic are we talking about here?”
“A good ballistic. Stop automatically assuming the worst. The pack’s already been discussing how to free you from Desmond’s clutches. Given another week, I’m certain someone would have come up with the bright idea to raid his home to rescue you. I think they were hoping Alex, Lisa, and Frank could take care of the rescuing.”
Vivian’s annoyed tone suggested she wanted to see them put in the effort, although I had no doubts Desmond would handily win against the entire pack. Maybe Alex could offer the old Fenerec a challenge, given a few years and some experience, but in the pack’s current state, I doubted their efforts would result in much.
“Getting their tails kicked by Desmond won’t do much for pack cohesion,” I reminded her.
“That doesn’t change the fact they—we—have a lot to prove.”
I settled my mate on my bed, taking a moment to breathe in her scent before covering her with my blanket and tucking her in. While I wanted to join her, I slipped away, herding Vivian back into the hallway. “I’m as much at fault as everyone.”
“She was in a coma for a year, Richard. A year of her life, gone just like that. Because of a few jealous, stupid puppies. We all contributed, every last one of us. We didn’t see what was right in front of us. If we had bothered to, for a single fucking moment, really look at you and how you looked at her, we all would have known. We were blind and stupid.”
The distress in Vivian’s scent and voice worried my wolf. Holding up my hand, I brought Frank’s mate to a halt, shaking my head. “Hindsight is ever perfect. When she’s ready to face what happened, she will. For now, she doesn’t remember a lot. I’m not going to force it. When she’s ready, she’s ready. And when she is, I think you’ll find she’s equal to the task of dealing with it.”
“And you’re happy with just leaving it at that?”
“She came home, Vivi. Last week, I didn’t even have that much. I wasn’t sure I would.” My voice cracked, and I stared helplessly at Frank’s mate.
Vivian cupped my face in her hands, and when she pulled me into her embrace so my face pressed to her shoulder, the burden of having come so close to losing my mate finally broke me.
Vivian took the brunt of the misery I shared with my wolf. She could have drawn on Frank and the rest of the pack to buffer them from my emotions, but she didn’t. Instead, she gripped the back of my neck and held me in place.
I struggled to regain control of myself and smother my presence within the pack bonds, and Frank’s mate rebuked me with a flick of her nail.
“A little backlash isn’t going to do any harm, Richard. Leave the pack bonds alone. Take a few deep breaths. Your mate’s sleeping in your bed, safe and sound. You’re tired, you’re probably hungry, and you’re anxious, as you have every right to be. I’d be grumpy, too, if I blitzed all the way from Seattle to here while Frank was ill. Actually, I’m not sure I’d make it halfway before I hunted a place to hole up, den, and snarl at anyone who got too close.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled, closing my eyes and leaning against Vivian.
“I’m pretty sure I went over this already. You have nothing to be sorry about.”
Vivian’s phone rang, and she tightened her hold on my neck, shifting her weight as she dug around for the device in her pocket. “It’s Frank.” Instead of answering, she pulled me in the direction of the living room couch, snapping her fingers and giving me a push until I sank down onto the worn leather. “I’ll call him back and just say I was in the middle of something—true enough. Kelly?”
Frank’s daughter strolled in, holding up her phone, which started to ring. “I’ll take care of Dad. I’m a better liar than you are, Mom. I’ll give him a few minutes before calling him back.”
Sitting beside me, Vivian made herself comfortable before patting her lap.
My wolf needed no other encouragement, and it was easier to give him his way than to fight a battle I would lose. I grabbed a throw pillow and flopped down, pressing my nose to her stomach and breathing in her scent. The faint hint of Frank, marking her as his mate, soothed me almost as much as being close to someone in my pack.
“Can you check on his mate and make sure she’s still asleep?”
“Sure.” Kelly’s footsteps headed in the direction of my bedroom, and I voiced a single, low growl.
“Relax, Richard. We’re not a threat to her.”
The wolfsbane forced me to obey, and I went limp on the couch, easy prey for Vivian, who stroked her hand over my hair.
“She’s tossing and turning a little but still asleep,” Frank’s daughter reported.
“All right. Sit here wi
th me and Richard, and give your father a call. Put it on speaker. Richard, you will stay silent. Am I understood?”
“Yes.”
“I’m so glad I asked his mate to give me his leash. This makes things so much easier. How much feedback are you getting from him, Kelly?”
“Enough. The rest of the pack is probably freaking out right now.”
The worry in Kelly’s voice coaxed a whine out of me, and Vivian’s hand dipped from my hair to my throat. Her touch remained gentle, and I sighed and burrowed closer to her, rubbing my nose against her shirt. I shifted my weight until I could work an arm around her.
“When the rest of the pack sees this picture, they’re going to be so jealous.” Kelly laughed and gave my shoulder a pat before sliding her way beneath my feet. “All right. I’ll call Dad, so keep quiet, Second Dad. If they want you, the rest of the pack will have to earn it!”
Kelly activated the speaker phone, and on the second ring, her father answered, “I was starting to worry when you and your mother didn’t pick up.”
“Sorry, Dad. We had our hands full doing some chores at Second Dad’s house. What’s up?”
“I don’t suppose Richard has called you, has he?”
The worry in Frank’s voice upset my wolf, but Vivian’s order to remain silent and a warning scrape of her nail on my throat kept me obedient and quiet.
“No, he hasn’t called me. What’s going on?”
“He flew the coop with one of Desmond’s daughters. Of course, from what Wendy and Amber have told me, Desmond’s devil daughter may have actually ordered him to do it since he’s drugged with wolfsbane.”
“Devil daughters?” Lisa protested in the background.
“Yes, devil daughters. She stole Richard!”
“No. Richard stole my daughter. That thief,” Desmond snarled.
I cracked open an eye and stared at Kelly, who bit her lip in an effort to keep from laughing. When her expression calmed, she asked, “Whatever are you talking about, Dad?”
Frank sighed. “Richard mated with Desmond’s older daughter, and they ran away.”