But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Neither Mari nor Abby wanted to get into what had happened when Tek had become jealous of a D.A. who was looking a bit too closely at the group for their comfort, and who just happened to be dating Mari, to boot.
The cops – and that D.A. – had shown up at the showroom for an old Harley dealership, which the club had bought long ago. They used it as a meeting area, business offices for the legitimate companies they used to float money through from more questionable sources, and a general clubhouse with a bar, bedrooms for those who wanted to spend the night as well as showers and a pantry full of snacks – and all hell had broken loose.
When all was said and done, the eager, up and coming D.A. was dead, and Tek was in jail for his murder, where he stayed for seven years.
The club had to go underground after that, only reemerging after years of skulking around that grated on Alt so badly that he barely lasted a few months after Tek went free, and then the shit storm happened around Cash's ascension.
Mari, who many of the pack blamed for Tek's stint in jail, since it was well know that he was a jealous hothead where she was concerned, had left town not long after Tek's conviction. Her brother asked her, in person, no less, to keep away from the group once she'd moved back, at least until things had a chance to settle down.
That was almost five years ago, and she had only just begun to spend time with that very special family – one she had grown up immersed in – again. She'd almost forgotten what it was like to sit around talking with weres and their families, until Abby had thrown her a surprise birthday party months ago. Almost everyone who attended was were, or a were's human female mate, and it had hit her like a ton of bricks just how much she'd missed that particular brand of closeness. Having that kind of a secret – that some of your nearest and dearest kin wasn't quite what one expected – brought people closer than normal human bonds allowed, and Mari hadn't realized until recently just how bereft she'd felt without it.
She had cornered her brother not long afterwards and asked him – formally – if he thought she could begin to attend pack events again. He had looked surprised at her request – or maybe he was more surprised that she had actually asked him for his permission to do so, since that definitely went against his sister's grain. And it had taken him a few days to get back to her, but he'd said yes, as long as she didn't just try to jump in with both feet and kind of eased her way back in.
But he'd also reminded her – with what looked exactly like their father's index finger shaking in front of her face – that if she assimilated into the pack, then she would be under his authority, and thus would have to obey his rules. And they both knew that there was only one situation in which Cash would feel that he needed to lay down the law to his sister, and that was the relationship she was not allowed to have with his enforcer.
Mari had, of course, crossed her fingers behind her back and agreed solemnly. After all, she wasn't coming back to the pack for Tek. She wasn't. She was coming back because she missed the fellowship.
She had thought that seeing Tek would just be a very pleasant, eye candy bonus.
Last night, at the small, informal birthday party for Hoss – a long-standing pack member, older than most of them, whom Cash had come to rely on for advice as almost a surrogate father –had only been about the third time she'd been there with everyone else. And, although some of the members who had held a grudge against her – Alpha's daughter or not – were gone, a few remained, and they had memories like elephants, these werewolves. They were quick to anger and positively glacial about forgiving.
And they all knew that she and Tek were not supposed to be seeing each other. Abby, as the Alpha's mate, pretty much had to toe the party line, even when it went against her best friend's interests – not that she saw it that way in the least.
"You shouldn't have come to the pot luck."
It was as close to an accusation as Abby had ever gotten, and it wasn't like it was something that Mari didn't already know.
But it hurt to hear, nonetheless, coming from her best friend. She had made her preference for living outside of the confines of that heavily regulated group the day she had announced to her father that she intended to go to college and get a degree, then move to Los Angeles to pursuit her interest in interior design.
Alton had been all for it. He had seen how independent his daughter was and had encouraged her at every turn. Pack life wasn't right for everyone, and – even after their mother died suddenly when Mari was just fourteen, of a heart attack, which devastated them all – he had never tried to force her into doing something she didn't want.
But Dad was gone now, and she wanted back in with all her heart. When all was said and done, though, Cash was the Alpha, and what he said, went, no questions asked, and he wouldn't hesitate to discipline any pack member who stepped out of line. She knew that didn't stop at her, or his wife, either – although he didn't beat them into submission like he did with the males, but he did spank her when he felt she needed it, just as their father had spanked them and their mother, and their grandfather had done the same thing, back as far as anyone could remember.
They were still close, though; keeping in touch when she was living elsewhere by phone, text and email, and then slipping right back into that closeness once she'd moved back home. Mari, Cash and Abby, before she had decided that she wanted to get back into the fold, had met separate from it, sometimes for an early morning breakfast, sometimes for a dinner at his and Abby's home.
She had treasured those times together, but also had come to look forward to becoming more active within the pack, although it looked from the sounds of it as if Abby didn't particularly want that.
Mari wondered if she'd said that out loud when Abby came out with, "Look, Mari, I'd love to have you get in touch with that part of your heritage. The pack was a part of your life for a long time before you left. You grew up with it." Abby hadn't, and Mari had sometimes wondered if she was a bit jealous of Mari's long ancestry with it.
"But neither Cash nor I will allow you back in if you're going to cause problems."
Mari was taken aback. "Cause problems? All I did was –"
"All you did was ignore a direct order from the Alpha – from the pack leader."
She snorted back at her friend. "Well, if that was any reason for someone to get huffy then I would have been shunned a long time ago! I ignored almost everything my father ever said to me from the time I was twelve or so until I left for college!"
"You were a child then," Abby shot back. "You're an adult now, and what you do or don't do, whether you like it or even realize it or not, affects the group. You're either going to live within the structure of the pack, or you're not, Mari. You need to decide which one it is."
With that, the phone went dead in her hand and Mari felt a chill run through her body. Abby had never, ever, hung up on her. They were best friends, weren't they? Their loyalty had always been to each other, through thick and thin, bullies and mean girls, being stood up for dates and worrying together while waiting for the results of a home pregnancy test.
Mari's head sank to her desk again, and she had to stop herself from wondering how the day could get much worse, knowing that would be all the signal karma needed to rain Armageddon down on her.
* * *
The answer to her unspoken question arrived on her doorstep just after she'd finished an early dinner, in the form of her brother, who spoke to her while keeping a weather eye on the rapidly descending darkness.
He refused to sit when she offered him a seat, and she nodded her understanding. Times like this – just before the sun set on the nights of a full moon – no wolf could sit still. He took up pacing across the living room as he spoke, much like their father would have. "Look, I'm here because Abby told me about your conversation this morning."
Mari had thought as much, although she still felt weak kneed enough that she sat herself down on the big ottoman in front of her easy chair.
She may have been female, and not subject to the change, but she had enough wolf blood in her that she recognized the solemnity of his visit. He wasn't her brother now, he was the Alpha, and she had to think that coming to her so close to the point of no return tonight wasn't necessarily an accident on his part.
She opened her mouth, but Cash held up his hand to forestall her from saying anything. "Let me talk. You know I don't have a lot of time. I know you and Tek have been..."
Was he actually blushing?
"Seeing each other," he settled on the most generic term for what he knew they had been doing, much preferring not to think about any of the specifics. "For a while, despite the fact that you have been told, numerous times, by myself and our father, not to."
For once in her life, Mari's mouth remained closed.
"Not going to deny it?" Cash asked.
Mari shrugged. "No, I'm through with lying and with covering things up and sneaking around. And Tek knows nothing about my little confession here, by the way."
She could see the muscle jumping in his jaw that meant he was truly angry. "He should never have allowed himself to become involved with you – again. He should have known better."
"Should he? We're not adult enough to choose our own lovers, either of us? I'm not so sure I want to sign on to the idea that someone else can determine who I sleep with."
Her brother looked truly puzzled. "Then why did you ask me if you could come back to the pack?"
"Because I miss it! I miss the parties, the poker nights, and the wives' coffee klatches and always knowing there was a brother or sister member around to help if I needed it...I just miss it," she stated baldly, staring down at her hands.
Cash ran his hand through his thick, gold blonde hair. "So you want the best of what we have without having to conform to our – to my – rules."
She gave him a watery smile. "You know how much of a brat I am. I like things my way. Are you really that surprised?"
He almost chuckled, but not quite. It was too close to the change for that. It came out as more of a bark. "No, I can't say as I am." He startled her by reaching down to grasp her arms just below her shoulders and stand her up in front of him. "But it doesn't work that way, Mari. You have to grow up and decide what you want – either you're in the pack all the way and you'll abide by the rules I set or you're out – and this time for good, or you're all the way out, as in shunned." It hurt him just to say the word in regards to his sister, but that was what was going to have to happen if she screwed up again. "I want you to take some time – by yourself – and I mean without Tek, too – and think about that. I'll get back to you in a month or so, and you can give me your decision then."
"A month of no contact? With you or Abby, either?" she wailed.
She could see him grit his teeth at her whine, and whether that was because it annoyed him or because it was his impulse – along with her father's – to give her what she wanted to prevent her from making such a sound that grated painfully over his sensitive ears.
"Yes. With no pack contact at all. So you can approach this with a clear head." Cash watched a single tear trace down her cheek, and it darn near killed him not to give in to her. "Take this time to think, brat. You've been all over the road on this, in and out and half in and half out, and large, testosterone filled groups like ours don't function well with uncertainty and inconsistency. You told Dad you had no interest in living the way we do before you left for college, and you've come back and left again several times since then. None of it seems to have made you happy, and that's very hard for the people who love you to see."
She knew he didn't consider that Tek was among those people, and she wasn't sure that he was, either. But she certainly hoped, no matter how much she tried to tamp it down.
"But, like Dad said, pack life's not for everyone, and it's probably hardest on the females. So you really need to consider your options very carefully, sister." With that, he kissed her hastily on the forehead and left her there, roaring away from her at breakneck speed, headed for the huge chunk of desert the club owned that was well away from humanity, where they would all run free – safely – for the next few nights.
* * *
Mari had actually spent the past month doing exactly as her brother had suggested she do. She had followed his dictates about not interacting with anyone from the pack – including Abby and, to her surprise, Tek – to the letter. She had brought work home to mow through, mostly things she avoided doing as long as she could, which meant bills and paperwork, when the ringtone "Werewolves of London" began to play on her cell and a picture displayed of Cash standing next to a ten point buck he'd shot while hunting when he was seventeen. Mari liked the dichotomy that the picture and the song created. She knew he had been very proud of himself at the time, since hunting as a human was that much harder for a were. The prey was that much more heightened in their presence than they were with humans – and she smiled every time he called her.
"Hi, how are you?" she gushed.
He chuckled on the other end of the phone. "Wow, I don't think I've ever heard you quite so enthusiastic about talking to your brother!"
"Well," she said, moving crap off her lap so that she could focus on the conversation, "I've missed you. It's been a lonely-assed month."
Everything in him wanted to apologize to her for that, but he stopped himself. "And has your alone time helped you sort through what it is that you want?"
She hated to admit it when he was right, but he was. It had been shocking – and humbling – to hear that he thought she was flighty at best and unreliable at worst. When he'd said he'd thought that she'd been all over the road about whether she wanted to be a part of the pack, she'd been insulted at first, then hurt and insulted. But somewhere during those long weeks, she'd taken a good hard look at how she'd acted and realized – to her horror, on a lot of levels – that the son of a bitch was right.
Living in that kind of family environment, with lots of rules governing her behavior – even more so for her as the daughter of the Alpha – had her wanting to rebel just for the sake of rebelling when she was younger. And when she'd moved back, then away, then back again, she'd desperately wanted to cling to the parts of that life she liked – like the sociability of the pack gatherings, and, of course, Tek and everything he represented to her about sex and power – and reject the ones she felt stifled by.
But she couldn't do that any longer, not only for her own mental health, but for the good of the club itself. Cash had, indeed, followed in his father's footsteps, and had become one hell of a pack leader, despite all of the turmoil that had surrounded his reign – most of which, she had to admit – she'd had a hand, or more, in, much to her shame.
But no more. She had determined that, in this conversation with her brother, in his capacity as the Alpha that she would either commit to being a part of the pack, or agree to remain completely apart from it from that point on.
And the biggest part of that was Tek, regardless of which decision she made. If she was shunned, Tek couldn't come near her, without fear of being shunned himself. And if she rejoined them, they would both be held to Cash's rule that they not be involved with each other.
He hadn't tried to contact her since her brother had commanded her to cloister herself and think, but then she knew that Cash would have filled him in about exactly what was going on, since he was his right hand man and the situation involved him. And she was quite sure that he had been physically chastised for going against Cash and seeing her behind his back and was probably warned again to stay away from her.
"Yes, it has."
"Well, why don't you meet me at the club in thirty and we'll talk?"
Mari checked the time. It was just past seven, and getting close to dark, but the moon was waning, so there was no rush. She had lived almost her first twenty years always checking the calendar for the phases. The men had no need for artificial calendars; they knew the cycles by instinct, by an ancient, internal clock. She had
often laughed at the fact that, in her family, it wasn't her time of the month that really mattered.
Cash had a big office down at the clubhouse, as if he was the CEO of a rising, prosperous company. And in a lot of ways, he was.
"Use the private door."
In other words, he didn't want her coming through the front door for everyone to see and speculate about.
Uncertain just what that meant for her, Mari nonetheless agreed.
Chapter Four
Less than thirty minutes later, she was sitting in his office, waiting. It wasn't like him to be late, but then, it all fell on his shoulders now, and she cut him more slack than she might have.
Suddenly, the door out to the club opened and Tek came in, and he was obviously not expecting to see here there. His hand went immediately to the gun he always had tucked into his waistband, but he stood down as soon as he recognized her. An awkward silence ensued, which made Mari sad. It had never been that way between them before.
And what was worse was the fact their bodies reacted as if nothing was different between them, as if they were inches away from a big, comfortable bed, as they so often were when they were together. Her nipples hardened behind the filmy lace of her bra, which was no protection at all against his eager eyes watching them doing just that, and it was all she could do not to shift in her chair as she felt her own juices leaking out onto her fresh white panties.
There was no disguising the bulge in his pants, so he didn't even bother, and Mari wasn't sure whether that was a disrespect or a telling sign of how comfortable they had once been with each other.
Packed: The Enforcer: A Shifter Paranormal Romance Page 4