She pulled his hand away from her face. “So, you love me and I love you. Right?”
He nodded curtly.
“Then maybe we could kiss? You could let me hug you? Or something?”
Nodding again, and with a frown, he hooked an arm around her waist and dragged her onto his lap. He brushed a quick, hard kiss across her mouth before he buried his face in her neck, hugging her so tight she let out a little squeak. His hold relaxed a bit. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and cradled his head.
They rocked together like that until she said softly, “Hey. Cade?”
“Mmm?”
“I said I wouldn’t keep secrets from you anymore, and I won’t. I know you’re exhausted, but…”
“But what?”
She pushed his hair back from his eyes and kissed his forehead. “But, baby, you really, really need a shower.”
A slow, tired grin spread across his face. “I’m pretty wiped. Can you help me?”
“Happy to.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The next day he declared the ranch on lockdown—no one to enter or leave without his approval. Pack members living in town were still looking for Stapkis and the Fae. His wolves understood without being told that the lockdown instructions were primarily for the protection of Ally and Rebecca. He’d expected Ally to raise holy hell at being told she couldn’t leave the ranch without his permission and an escort. His mate still pretended to be unclear on the overall concept of submission to the Pack Alpha.
To his surprise, though, she agreed to the restrictions after only token protest. Then he figured out why. She was obsessed with the MacSorley situation.
Both Ally and Michael spent the day hounding him to call the Irishwolf. He’d been glad his best friend and his mate got along so well, but now he wished they didn’t. They’d spent all morning speculating about MacSorley’s role in Cade’s past. Neither paid any attention to Cade’s repeated order to drop the subject.
After a dinner of cold sandwiches and chips—and still no sign of Sindri—Cade lost his temper, roaring for both of them to shut the fuck up and leave him alone, which they finally did—at least for a while.
It wasn’t just the nagging, though. That pissed him off, but Sindri’s behavior disturbed him more. The old man was the rock and the rudder of Cade’s life. If he was too distraught to speak to them or come out of his den—not even Becca, kneeling by the door and pleading, could get a response—Cade would do whatever necessary to get some answers. Even if that meant talking to the wolf he still couldn’t think of as his uncle.
He locked himself in his office before dialing MacSorley’s cell phone because he didn’t want Michael or Ally to know they’d finally worn him down. And after all that, he got the bastard’s voicemail. He left a two word message: “Call me.”
It figured, Cade thought sourly two days later, that his uncle would finally call back just as a new crisis erupted.
“Cade? I apologize for not calling you sooner, pup, but I’ve been out of pocket.” His tone held none of its usual cockiness. Only the pup kept him from sounding downright submissive.
“Are you still in town, MacSorley?”
“Yes.”
“Sarah Jane back yet?”
“She should—wait, did Ally tell you where she went?”
“Ally’s not keeping secrets from me anymore. I want to know why Sarah Jane went to Iceland and how she’s involved in all this. I want to know a lot of things, but at the moment I’ve got something else to worry about.”
“What’s that?”
“Becca’s sick.”
“What’s wrong?”
“She’s got a fever. It’s up to a hundred and two. I’ve had the ranch on lockdown, but Ally wants to take her to the doctor.”
“Could you ask the doctor to come to you?”
“Ally swears it’s strep, and that means they’ll need a culture. I won’t send them into town alone.”
“No, of course not. Until we know where Stapkis is, I don’t think she should go anywhere without a couple of wolves with her.”
Two days ago, Cade would’ve demanded to know who the hell the insolent son of a bitch thought we might be. Now, with a superlupine effort he wished Ally were there to witness, he said instead, “Michael and I are going.”
“Why don’t I meet you there? Maybe we can grab some lunch, talk a bit?” When Cade didn’t answer immediately, Dec added, somewhat hesitantly, “If that’s okay with you. If you want me to wait, I under—”
“No, no. I was just thinking. Yeah, why don’t you meet us at the doctor’s. I’ll take another wolf as well, just in case we run into the Fae. Fremont Pediatric Associates, on McCoy, two blocks off Field. We’ll be there in about an hour.”
“Good. I’ll see you then. And Cade—thank you.”
He’d planned on taking Roman and Michael, but Dylan asked to come along. It pleased him that the pup wanted an active role in the pack.
Michael slid behind the wheel of the Rover, starting the engine while everyone else piled in. “Look, Cade, I’ve been thinking. Maybe we need to take a few more guys with us.”
“Why?”
“Well, it’s just—” He frowned at the steering wheel. Cade got the distinct impression his second was embarrassed. “I’m just thinking—if Rufus is in town and decides to do something crazy, the more muscle we’ve got, the better.”
“You were just saying yesterday how you thought Stapkis had probably killed himself already.”
“Yeah, but what if he didn’t? What if he’s just been lying low, waiting for us to give up?”
“He’s got a point,” Ally said from the backseat.
“Thirteen guys would’ve found one broken-down, crazy old wolf by now.” When Michael turned his head to look at him, Cade was shocked at his expression. “Michael. What’s got you so worried all of a sudden?”
His lieutenant shrugged miserably. “It’s just—just a feeling, that’s all. Like something bad is gonna happen.”
“There are three of us right now, four when we meet up with MacSorley.”
“Five, you mean,” Dylan piped up from the backseat. “We’ve got Ally too.”
Michael rolled his eyes while Cade and Dylan grinned at each other. Cade had no idea how he’d explain Ally’s nature to Michael. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to try. If Michael thought he’d seen strange stuff… “Five against one, bro. Stapkis shows up, we’ll handle it.”
Michael gazed at him another minute and then sighed. “Yeah. You’re right. We’ll handle it. I’m acting like a chick.”
Cade laughed, then glanced back to see Ally leaning over with her cheek against Baby Girl’s forehead.
“I gave her Tylenol before we left, and she’s still hot, and it’s hurting her to swallow.” She looked up at him. “Definitely strep.”
“She didn’t tell me about the swallowing.”
“Me neither. I could just tell by watching her eat.”
“So where’d she pick it up?” It wouldn’t have been from the wolves.
Ally shrugged. “Some other kid she’s been around.”
“Shit,” he muttered, turning back around in his seat. “It’s the kids in town. Town kids have germs.”
She seemed to find that funny. “All kids have germs, baby, even Becca. She just hasn’t had a chance to build her immunity.”
“She didn’t need immunity before y’all started taking her into town all the time.”
“So what do you want to do, keep her on the ranch?”
“For a few more years, yes.”
“Well, we’re not doing that.”
He turned to look at her. “What do you mean, we?”
The car got quiet. Michael kept his eyes locked on the road. Dylan stared out his window.
Cade and Ally stared at each other.
Her jaw trembled—just the tiniest bit, but enough that he noticed. “We—you and me. I just assumed— I mean, I’m your mate.” Her voice began to quiver
as she dropped her gaze. “She needs a mother, Cade.”
“No.” He cleared his throat to cover the catch in his own voice. “She needs you.”
Her eyes snapped back up to his. He took a deep breath. “And I guess if you’re going to adopt her, we need to get married first.”
Ally smiled.
The air in the car felt lighter. So did his heart. When he tried to speak, his voice caught again. Just as well—he didn’t have words for what he felt. He reached back to touch her face. She took his hand, pressing her cheek to his palm. Her damp lashes tickled his skin.
“What, Tough Girl’s crying now? What a pansy,” cracked Michael.
“Watch it, dude,” Dylan said softly. “Don’t fuck with her when she’s crying.”
“Don’t say fuck,” Ally hiccupped. She brushed a kiss against Cade’s palm and pushed his hand away, rolling her eyes. Barely sniffling, she said, “Michael’s just jealous ’cause he doesn’t have a female.”
Michael snorted. “Michael’s got plenty of females. Don’t worry about old Michael.”
“Yeah, well, you don’t have a mate.”
“Yeah, well, why would I want a mate? Only sleeping with one female, having her telling you what to do all the time, not being able to break up with her even if she’s a bitch—shit! Watch it, I’m driving here!”
She’d thumped him on the back of the head. Dylan started laughing.
Michael was on a roll. “Women can’t stand to see males running around loose. Reminds all the collared guys of their free range life, everything they had before they got tied down. See, like poor Cade over here—”
“Poor Cade?” squealed Ally.
“Hush, you’ll wake up Stinky Butt. Now, poor Cade probably looks at me and thinks, damn, three months ago I would’ve gone into town and picked up a hot college girl just like Michael’s doing, but now I have to stay here and—”
“Cade? Did you spend a lot of time chasing hot college girls?”
“I can’t remember anything before you, baby.”
She didn’t hear him. She was too busy explaining to Michael that he only fucked lots of different women because he was afraid to fall in love, while Michael was trying not to laugh long enough to explain that he fucked lots of different women because he could. Dylan was laughing at both of them, Baby Girl slept right through it, and Cade put his head back, closed his eyes, and basked in the sound of his family.
The doctor deemed Becca’s strep a mild case and said she’d be better in twenty-four hours with the antibiotic he prescribed. Ally didn’t say I told you so, which made Cade love her a little bit more.
As they walked out of the doctor’s office, MacSorley waved to them from across the street, where he stood chatting with Michael and Dylan next to Sarah Jane’s rental car. Cade pressed the remote to pop the lock on the Rover. “I’m hungry,” Becca whined. She was grumpy too. He walked around the car to join them.
“Hi Daddy,” Becca slurred, sleepy once more.
“Hey, baby.”
Ally turned to smile at him as she finished buckling the car seat. A honey blond hank of ponytail had worked its way loose. He tucked it behind her ear, skimming his thumb across the soft curve of her cheek.
“We could send the guys home with Becca and go get some lunch.”
“Sounds great, but aren’t you supposed to sit down with Dec?”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“I’d rather lay down with you. Let him wait. We can grab a few hours alone, maybe talk about a wedding. I’ll look at rings if you want to.”
A car pulled into an empty spot a few feet away.
Michael yelled his name.
Ally smiled more easily this time, one hand still on Becca’s knee. He bent his head for a kiss, blocking out everything but the beloved scent of saltwater and lavender.
Her eyes flew open. She gave a little start. Some corner of his brain registered the scent of a strange wolf.
Michael called to him again.
As he raised his head, a vaguely familiar voice said, “Got yourself a mate now? Think you’re gonna have a wife and family like I did, you son of a bitch?”
Before he turned his head to look at the interloper, he noted two things simultaneously.
The voice belonged to Rufus Stapkis.
And there was a red dot on Ally’s chest, just below the hollow of her throat.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Michael, who’d been paying attention the way Cade should’ve been, yelled again.
Transfixed by the red dot of the laser sight, Cade didn’t turn his head to Stapkis or look up at Michael across the street.
For the first time in over twenty years, he’d ignored his surroundings, too busy mooning over his mate to protect her. As a result, his worst enemy stood a foot away with a gun pointed at Ally and his daughter. Their daughter.
A funny taste burned the back of his mouth. He felt dizzy and sick to his stomach. This was worse than the sudden, powerful urge to shift, which he could control.
This was fear—abject, borderline hysterical fear. He’d never felt this before, not even in combat.
He raised his eyes to Michael, whose face mirrored his own queasy fright. Michael, Dec and Dylan stood paralyzed. No wolf could move faster than a bullet fired at so short a distance. If it were only Cade, they’d take their chances, but not with Becca and Ally there.
Thirty, maybe forty-five seconds had passed. Now, when it was too late, he could smell nothing but the Seattle Alpha’s madness and rage.
And Ally. He could still smell Ally.
God bless his magical mate, he caught barely a whiff of fear. Mostly he smelled anger. She was still, as still as a wolf, and she was staring at him, waiting for him to show her what to do, because she trusted him.
It calmed him and helped him resist the urge to change. He needed to be on two feet to handle this.
So when he spoke, holding her gaze and drawing a strength from her he’d never imagined he would need, his voice was as steady and dry as when he discussed ranch business.
“Rufus. Why aren’t you off somewhere killing yourself like an honorable wolf?”
“What honor? You took my honor, MacDougall. Like you took my pup.”
“I didn’t take Aaron. He left you. He tried to kill himself because of you. Whatever Courtlandt told him, it must’ve been bad if he thought suicide—”
“Shut up!” Cade recognized murderous fury in Stapkis’ snarl. He shut up.
“In the car, female.”
Ally’s eyes went to Stapkis. “Excuse me?”
“Get in the truck. MacDougall, give me your keys.”
Now he turned to face his enemy. This wolf barely resembled the barrel-chested giant Cade had seen in photos. Stapkis’ salt-and-pepper hair, a matted, tangled mess, trailed below the collar of his sweat-stained white shirt. His stringy gray beard straggled halfway to his chest. The Alpha hadn’t slept or shaved in some time. A quick glance at his pale brown eyes revealed empty madness. This wolf probably couldn’t even shift right now.
“Leave them out of this, Rufus. You want me, you got me.”
Stapkis’ harsh laughter serrated Cade’s nerves.
“I’ll get to you. Give me the keys and back off or one of your females dies.”
“I’ll go with you, but leave Becca here.” There was no trace of fear in Ally’s voice. “She’s only four, and she’s sick.”
“Shut up and get in the truck. Don’t make me tell you again.”
“You’d never get out of here alive, Rufus.”
Stapkis smiled. “Think I care about that anymore?”
And there it was. Cade had no options. Stapkis didn’t care about his own life, and Cade didn’t care about anything but Becca and Ally’s lives, and the two Alphas knew it. He handed the keys to Stapkis and stepped away, keeping his hands out to either side. He could feel his wolves’ frustration. He trusted them not to do anything stupid.
His heart lodged in his thro
at when Ally tried to climb into the backseat with Becca. Stapkis shoved her toward the front seat.
With a morbid despair, Cade realized he might never see either of his girls again. It took all the strength he had, and more self-control than he’d known he possessed, not to ask Stapkis to let him kiss Becca.
But another thought occurred to him then, a thought that immediately banished the despair.
Stapkis believed he held a human hostage. He didn’t know he had a female with strength, speed and senses to rival his own.
To his amazement, Cade found he had to suppress a smile as a new, more familiar sense of control and resolve flooded through him.
“How’d you track me, Rufus?”
Stapkis’ lip curled in a sneer. “Easy. I spotted you in town the other night. While you were in the police station, I slapped a GPS locator on the Rover. A real Pack Alpha’s not so careless about security, MacDougall.”
This time Cade let the smile break out across his face. He shrugged. “It’s embarrassing, I gotta admit.”
“I’ll call you with instructions. Don’t even think about following me.”
Stapkis slammed the driver’s door and took off with Cade’s whole world.
“Think you’re a tough little thing, don’t you?”
“You have no idea.”
Staring out the window on her side as if she didn’t care they’d been kidnapped by a sociopath, she kept an eye on the rearview mirror. She saw several cars behind them, but couldn’t tell which one was Sarah Jane’s rented Lexus. She had no doubt Cade and the others had followed immediately—she just worried they wouldn’t be able to keep up without Stapkis spotting them.
So far she’d succeeded in stuffing the fear deep, deep down inside. She was almost certain he couldn’t smell any on her, and she hoped it was freaking him out.
“How old are you, anyway? MacDougall land himself a teenager?”
She didn’t answer.
“That’s fine. You just sit there and keep quiet. You and the kid will be fine as long as your wolf does what I tell him.”
Yours, Mine and Howls: Werewolves in Love, Book 2 Page 27