Yours, Mine and Howls: Werewolves in Love, Book 2

by Kinsey W. Holley

  She waved the question off. “I just mean, has anything unusual, or unusually bad, happened?”

  “One of my wolves attempted suicide this week. That’s very bad.”

  “No, that’s not what I mean. I mean something closer to you, something about you or Becca? Maybe Dylan…” She played with the rings on her hands as she talked, her brows knit in worry. A strange anxiety had crept into her tone.

  “No. The packs, the nannies and Aaron. That’s it. Why?”

  “It’s nothing. I think I’m just turning into a superstitious old woman. Forget I brought it up.” She beamed at him. “Oh, and that Dylan. What a beautiful boy! He looks just like you and Carson at that age. Allison must be a remarkable girl to have raised a kid like that.”

  He didn’t attempt to hide his smile this time, secretly glad for the opportunity to talk about Ally. “Yeah, yeah I think she is. She’s definitely remarkable. I’m just not sure how. There’s a lot about her I haven’t figured out yet. In fact,” he said, draining his cup, “that’s what I’m about to do now. I need to have a chat with Ally.”

  “I think I’ll take Rebecca into to town with me, if that’s okay with you?”

  “You’d better bring her back.”

  “That’s not funny.”

  “I’m not joking.”

  “Do you honestly think I would kidnap my own—bah.” She broke off with an exasperated wave of her hand. “Never mind. I’m not about to start a fight at this point.”

  “Wise decision.”

  On her way out, she paused at his chair and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks for letting me stay.”

  He looked up at her with a half smile. “I didn’t say you could stay. I’m just not kicking you out right now.”

  She startled him by laying a hand against his cheek as she looked at him almost fondly. “All right, then. I’ll be here to help as long as you let me.”

  “I don’t need your help, Sarah Jane.”

  “I hope you’re right, Cade. I really do.”

  He smelled Ally’s lavender scent as soon as he walked out of the kitchen. It came from her room. On the way up the stairs, he called out to Michael to get the wolves back. They were his pack and this was their home.

  He knocked on Ally’s door. “It’s me. Can I come in?”

  A pause.

  “Just a minute.”

  He heard some scraping and bumping, and she opened the door.

  His heart started tripping to a happy staccato when he saw her there in bare feet, faded jeans and a soft yellow tank top. She looked drawn and tired, with heavy eyelids and dark circles under her eyes. He should pick her up and carry her back downstairs to bed. He stepped forward, intending to kiss her, but she backed up to open the door wider, so he walked in past her.

  She stood with one hand on the doorknob, the other stuffed in her pocket, not looking directly at him. MacSorley was right. She was uncomfortable about last night. That touched him, arousing his protective instinct.

  He had to tell her he’d claimed her.

  “Hi,” she said.

  “Hi yourself. Why’d you disappear?”

  “I woke up early, and I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I thought I’d just get up.” She tucked her hair behind her ear as she glanced from the bed, to the carpet, to him, and back to the bed.

  “Why don’t you come downstairs with me, and…” Something in the closet caught his eye. Or, rather, something didn’t catch his eye, because he saw nothing there. He knew she’d hung some clothes up, but now the closet was empty. He turned back to Ally, who wouldn’t meet his gaze.

  He walked into the bathroom. The counter was bare. When he walked back into the room, he spied the corner of a suitcase sticking out from under the bed. He reached down to pull it out.

  It was full.

  He dropped the case and stared at her. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  She flinched and crossed her arms tightly, looking down as she whispered, “I think I need to— To just…”

  “To just what? What, Ally? What do you think you need to do?”

  He advanced on her. She retreated until her back hit the bedroom wall, hugging herself with her eyes downcast and her hair obscuring her face. He didn’t care if he frightened her. He wanted to yell at her, to shake her ’til her teeth rattled, to lock her in that goddamned closet ’til he could figure out what to do with her.

  “I think I need to leave.”

  He heard it, but he couldn’t quite believe it.

  “Why?” he snarled.

  No response.

  “Why?” he roared, and she shrank back, covering her face with her hands. A part of him was ashamed of frightening her like this. But a bigger part, the bonded wolf with a mate he couldn’t trust part, didn’t care.

  She’d made him feel like a fool.

  He placed his hands against the wall, trapping her between his arms. Leaning in until their bodies almost touched, he stared at the top of her head and willed her to look up at him.

  “How did you plan on leaving, Allison?”

  “The Cherokee,” she whispered, close to tears.

  “It’s yours?”

  “No, Seth’s.”

  And here came the tears. She’d get no comfort from him, not this time.

  “Okay.” He stalked out of the room. Leaning over the railing, he called for Seth and waited in the hallway while Ally stayed in her room, quietly sobbing.

  She was a better actress than Mary Ann, he’d give her that. She’d tried to slink away without a word to him and when he caught her, she manufactured tears. A wolf’s mate could manipulate him six ways from Sunday and he might never know it, so strong was the bond. Ally had a gift for manipulation. He’d be a fool if he gave her the chance to use it again.

  Seth came jogging up the stairs, slowing when he saw the expression on Cade’s face.

  Her eyes widened when she saw Seth. “Why did you—?”

  Cade cut her off, holding out his hand to Seth. “Give me your car keys.”

  The beta, ashen-faced, looked from Cade to Ally. “What?”

  “Your keys. Give them to me.”

  For a minute he thought Seth would ask him for a reason, but Guidry was smarter than that. He handed the keys over silently, casting a worried sideways glance at Ally, who stared at Cade with mounting sullen anger.

  “You can’t make him do that,” she said through gritted teeth.

  Cade smiled grimly. “I just did, sweetheart. My wolf does what I—”

  “Your wolf?” She looked stricken.

  “My wolf,” he replied with satisfaction. “He’s in my pack now, and he’ll do what I tell him.”

  His resolve almost faltered at the agony that crossed her face, an expression bleaker and sadder than the one she’d worn the night Seth confessed to killing Guy.

  But as soon as he saw it, the look disappeared, replaced by one of glowering fury. She balled her fists at her sides as her chest heaved in short, shallow bursts. This petite female smelled deadly furious. If she were a wolf, he’d be in defensive posture by now, expecting an imminent attack.

  “Cade, for God’s sake, what’s going on?”

  Another spasm of pain crossed Ally’s face at Seth’s plaintive question, but then the anger returned.

  “Why don’t you ask Allison?”

  Seth turned to her. “Ally?”

  She kept her gaze on Cade as she said with exaggerated calm, “I think it’s time I left, sweetie. I was going to borrow the Cherokee to get to town, but it looks like Cade objects.”

  She smiled at him then, a cold, hostile grin, the kind he saw more frequently on males than females, a smile that challenged and defied without a trace of tears or hurt or weakness. A fuck you smile, from one alpha to another.

  “Where are you going?” Seth whispered.

  “Home first. Then I’ll figure something out.”

  Seth was shocked. “What about Lind?”

  “Tomas called. No one’s se
en Jakob in a week.”

  “But he might—”

  “Oh fuck no, we’re not doing this again. Seth,” he barked, and the beta’s attention snapped back to him, “who’s Tomas and who’s Lind?”

  He could see that Seth wanted desperately to look over at Ally, but his Alpha’s command was too strong. He submitted, lowering his head. “Tomas is a friend of ours, a cop. Jakob Lind’s a guy who— A guy Ally went out with for a while. He turned out to be a head case—”

  “Went out with?” Cade asked sharply as he stared at Ally. “How long?”

  She shrugged as Seth replied, “Not long. Couple of months.”

  “Were they lovers?”

  Ally rolled her eyes.

  “No,” Seth said.

  “How do you know?”

  “I always know who she sleeps with.” The wolf sounded more miserable by the minute.

  “What’s he got to do with Ally going back to Houston?”

  “Well, see, she, um…”

  “She what?” Cade barked.

  “I beat the crap out of him.”

  She wasn’t hunched up and shaking any longer. She stood with her hands on her hips, watching Cade and Seth’s exchange with something like amusement. He’d never seen a female so cocky while so pissed off.

  “Why’d you beat him up?” he asked, intrigued.

  “I broke up with Jakob because he seemed too interested in Dylan. His ego couldn’t handle it. He showed up at the stables one night and tried to attack me.”

  Rage clouded his vision at the thought of someone harming his mate. “What happened?” he ground out.

  “I threw him across the stable. Then I hurt him.”

  “You what?”

  She shrugged again. “He shouldn’t have tried to jump me when I was on my period. I beat him up a little too much, and it would’ve been hard to explain since the scumbag is twice my size, so I dumped him in the parking lot of a nasty wolf dive. Then I thought maybe I should get out of town for a while in case he talked about it.”

  “So you came up here.”

  “I wanted to go somewhere by myself, but—”

  “I didn’t want her to,” said Seth, still in submission to Cade. “We’d talked about bringing Dylan up here, and it seemed like a good time to do it.”

  “Pretty goddamned convenient for Ally, wasn’t it?” Cade said quietly. “Good thing you had the pup for an excuse to leave town.”

  Ally flinched as if he’d slapped her. Then her eyes narrowed. Her lips curled in a sneer, drawing out the words with contempt. “Fuck you. Seth, I’ll leave the keys at the bus—”

  “You’re not going anywhere.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I’m keeping the keys to the Cherokee, and you’re sure as hell not taking any of our vehicles.”

  “You can’t keep me here!”

  “I’m the Alpha, sweetheart. I can do anything I want.”

  “What, you’re going to post a wolf outside my door?”

  “Oh, you don’t have to stay in the house. It’s thirty miles to town. I think it’d take you a while to walk it.”

  She cocked her head. “An hour if I jogged, thirty minutes at a flat run. Of course, that’s without the luggage. If I had to carry suitcases…”

  He grunted in disgust. “On second thought, smartass, you can stay in the fucking house.”

  “Hell I will.”

  “We’ll talk later.”

  “No. We won’t.”

  “Seth, go. Remember, Allison—” he couldn’t help grinning at her fury “—inside the house. If you try to leave you’ll only embarrass yourself.”

  He almost imagined he heard a low growl. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, she slammed the door so hard the floor vibrated. A picture fell off the wall.

  Where’d she get that kind of strength?

  Michael had heard it all.

  “Cade. You can’t hold her here. That’s false imprisonment. What if she calls the cops?”

  He sighed. “I’m not gonna keep her locked up for long, Michael. Just…for a while.”

  “Well…I think it’s a bad idea. But we’ve got another problem.”

  “Great. I need another problem.”

  “I just got off the phone with Trey. He was at the hospital with Roman and Shawn. Rufus Stapkis showed up.”

  “What happened?” Cade barked.

  “Shawn was alone in the room. Rufus attacked him—”

  “What?”

  “Shawn’s fine. The guys heard him yell. Hospital security showed up, ten kinds of hell broke loose. Stapkis got away and no one knows where he is now.”

  “Fucking hell.”

  They sat down in his office.

  “What do we do?” Michael asked.

  “Was he alone?”

  “Yeah, I think so. No sign of any strange wolves.”

  “Hmm. You said the Seattle pack acts spooked, right?”

  “Yeah. There’s been talk about him being loco, and we know they don’t know where he is.”

  “So. There’s no reason to assume we’ve got a pack war brewing. This could be one crazy old Alpha acting alone.”

  “Probably.”

  “Good. Call Seattle. If anyone hears from Rufus, he needs to know if I see him, he’s mine.”

  Cade wouldn’t have to challenge at this point. His unprovoked attack on one of Cade’s wolves left Stapkis without any rights, especially since he’d entered Rocky Mountain’s territory without notice or permission.

  “I want every wolf in the state on the lookout for him. He knows we’ll be after him now. He’s not entitled to protocol, so he’s got no reason to behave with honor.”

  “You going up to Colorado Springs?”

  “Shit. I should.” His mate or his enemy? Take care of the problem at home, or the problem roaming around somewhere in the vicinity of the whole fucking state?

  “How’s Aaron?” He should’ve asked before now.

  “No change. They’re not calling it a vegetative state yet, but he’s still out.”

  Cade ran his hands through his hair and tugged hard. If wolves could go bald, this week would do it. “All right. Stapkis might show up, so I’m staying here. I want you to go to Colorado Springs. Talk to the guys, ask around, start putting out the word.”

  “Leaving now.”

  “Good.”

  Cade had heard his wolves outside. Everyone had returned from exile. He stretched in his chair and closed his eyes.

  He didn’t often find himself without a clue how to handle a situation. He could handle Rufus Stapkis. He could handle Sarah Jane and his daughter’s need for companionship. Apparently, though, he couldn’t handle his mate.

  He couldn’t even tell her she was his mate. He’d thought after last night she’d be all soft and gooey, radiant with, if not love, at least affection for him. Instead, he hesitated to turn his back on her.

  Worst of all, underneath his anger still lay the primal urge to cherish and protect her. He couldn’t forget the pain in her eyes when Seth submitted to him, or the head-swimming rage he’d felt when he heard about Jakob Lind. Maybe he should try to talk to her…

  Hell no. Let her stew.

  So here she sat, under house arrest and the paw of an arrogant, control freak alpha asshole who was happy to screw her, needed to dominate her, and had no long-term interest in her.

  She regretted slamming the door. Losing her temper had put her on the path to Colorado in the first place. For thirteen years she’d maintained control of her strange nature. That control had slipped when Lind attacked her. Since she’d arrived here—since she’d met Cade—it was disintegrating bit by bit, and she didn’t know how to stop it.

  She lay flat on her back, trembling, clenching and unclenching her fists. Counting to five hundred, she took long, deep breaths and waited for the ache in her chest to subside, the knot in her throat to ease. She was as livid as she’d ever been, but just beneath the fury lay stark terror and more heartbreak. Everyt
hing she’d feared would happen had happened.

  She’d lost Seth.

  She didn’t blame her cousin for submitting to a powerful Alpha. Seth needed a pack. If he hadn’t felt he had to stay with her and Dylan, he’d probably have settled down with a woman by now.

  No, she didn’t blame Seth for submitting. She blamed Cade for making him. He’d done it on purpose—to hurt her, to teach her a lesson, just to prove he could.

  “Remember, Allison,” she said out loud in a perfect imitation of Dylan’s nyah-nyah tone, “inside the house.”

  Asshole alphas.

  Seth belonged to Cade now, and Dylan probably did too, and it hurt. It hurt so bad she could barely breathe.

  But if Cade walked in the room in the next five minutes and tried to kiss her, she’d let him.

  She hated herself for not hating him.

  She sat up. Maybe she couldn’t think clearly enough to figure out her next move right now, but that didn’t mean she would just sit here like a good little prisoner. She didn’t need a door to escape.

  After donning shorts and running shoes, she opened the bedroom window, which faced the back of the house. There was no one out there right now. It looked about thirty feet to the ground, forty at the most—nothing to a wolf or a woman with wolfish abilities.

  At the very least she’d burn off some rage. Best case scenario, Cade would come looking for her and have a heart attack when he saw her gone. Grinning as she imagined his reaction, she jumped.

  “You cannot treat your mate like this. It is shameful.”

  Cade turned away from the computer in exasperation. “Sindri, I’m not going to discuss it. Allison and I are having issues, and you don’t know everything about—”

  “I know more about her than you think. I know she is a good female, and she is supposed to be here.” The brownie’s wizened face tightened with anger.

  “Well, she doesn’t know she’s supposed to be here, because she was getting ready to leave without telling anyone.”

  Sindri frowned and pursed his lips.

  “Yeah. She tried to make a run for it. And she hasn’t been telling the truth, and—”

  “None of that matters. She does not deserve this treatment. Your parents would be ashamed of you. I am.”