She was only halfway through her meal when the ocelot shifter waitress rushed over with a dessert tray with a slice of apple pie, a slice of cheesecake, and a chocolate brownie.
“I’m Sophia,” she said. “Well, you won’t need to know that, I guess. This is on the house.”
Dakota looked at her, puzzled. Why wouldn’t she need to know Sophia’s name? “Jeez, thanks, but I’m already pretty full from the burger,” she said. “You’d think that this was going to be my last meal or something.”
Sophia burst into tears. “You are so brave!” she wailed, and ran into the kitchen, the swinging doors thwacking open and shut behind her.
Dakota stood up. “Why does everyone keep saying that? You people are officially freaking me out,” she said loudly. She stood there for a minute waiting for someone, anyone, to explain what was going on, but nobody did. She threw a twenty dollar bill down on the table and walked out.
She felt thoroughly rattled. She no longer wanted to explore the town; her earlier optimism was deflated and she felt like a sagging balloon with the last of the helium leaking out.
She might as well go to the meeting house and find a pack that might accept her. Assuming there was one. Given the way everyone was acting today, it was far from a sure bet. And what would she do if no pack took her? She didn’t have the money to pay for a bus ticket out of here, and she had nowhere to go anyway.
Gloomily, she headed for the meeting house. She stopped when she saw a skinny boy with a ragged haircut running from the general store, holding something in his hand, and a shopkeeper running after him, yelling.
The thief was running towards the east, probably hoping to disappear into the treeline and escape capture.
As the boy raced past her, she stuck her leg out and tripped the kid. He went sprawling, and she saw that he’d stolen a bag of cookies and a sandwich. And looking a little closer, she saw that the boy was actually a girl, with a terrible chin-length haircut and shapeless, baggy clothes.
Argh. Kids. She’d grown up an only child. Kids made her nervous. They were fine – at a distance. She just didn’t know what to do with them or how to talk to them.
But she also didn’t want to see some skinny, starving kid punished for being hungry.
She reached into her purse and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill as the shopkeeper came running up. She didn’t have much money left, but this kid needed it more than she did.
“You’ll have to forgive my little sister,” she said to the shopkeeper. “She must have forgotten to pay.”
The shopkeeper snatched the twenty from her. “Bullshit,” he snapped. “That’s not your sister. That little shit’s been here for two months, and you just got here today.”
“Watch your language in front of the cub,” Dakota said indignantly.
“Yeah, watch your damn language in front of me, asswipe,” the scrawny girl said, then turned and ran off, heading out of the town square and behind a thick clump of underbrush.
“You’re welcome!” Dakota yelled after her and, grabbing up her suitcase again, headed off after the scrawny girl at a fast trot.
She pushed her way through the underbrush and found the girl squatting behind the bushes, devouring the sandwich like she hadn’t seen food in weeks.
“Go away,” the girl said around a mouthful of food. “I’m not going to share.”
Was this normal cub behavior up here? Her father would have knocked a cub clear across the room for talking like that, but maybe that was how they behaved in this neck of the woods.
“Where are you staying? Don’t you have a pack to look after you?”
“Mum uff ur biffness.” Her cheeks bulged like a chipmunk’s as she spoke around the mouthful of food. Then she glanced up at Dakota and swallowed the food in her mouth. “You should go get change for that twenty. The cookies and sandwich didn’t cost that much.” Then she scowled again. “Now leave me alone.” She stood up and stuffed the half sandwich into a grimy canvas bag that was slung over her shoulder.
She’d saved it for somebody else, then. For whom? The girl was clearly hungry.
“My name is Dak— Jamie,” she called out to the girl. Dear God. If she lasted a week here without giving herself away, it would be a miracle. “What’s yours?” And why am I trying to help this little brat? she asked herself with annoyance.
“My name is go away!” the girl yelled.
“Really? Your parents must not have liked you very much,” Dakota said, getting irritated by her attitude.
The girl paused for long enough to extend her arm and flip Dakota off, then hurried off into the forest.
Her escape was blocked by a man who quickly stepped out from behind a tree and grabbed her by the collar. He was a wolf shifter – another Alpha Prime.
That was unusual; she’d already met one, and they didn’t generally live in close proximity to one another. Their energy clashed and they ended up fighting.
This guy was good-looking, with his muscular arms and curly, dirty-blond hair, but she didn’t feel that zing of attraction she’d felt with the other Alpha Prime. His face was scarred, which meant he’d had a fight with a wolf shifter and taken some serious damage
As she approached him, she felt the angry energy rolling off him. Here was a guy who didn’t bother dampening his emotions; he didn’t care what anyone thought or felt about him.
“Don’t kill her,” she said quickly.
“Let me go!” the skinny girl wailed, flailing in panic.
“I told you what I’d do if I caught you stealing around here again,” he growled at the girl. “I don’t like thieves.”
“Don’t eat me!” The girl’s voice rose in terror. “I don’t have any meat on my bones! I’d taste terrible!”
Eat her? Surely he’d just said that to scare the girl?
“Look, she was just stealing food,” Dakota pleaded. “Look how skinny she is! She’s hungry!”
“So? A thief’s a thief.”
“And an asshole’s an asshole,” Dakota snapped at him.
She hurled herself against the guy and knocked the kid from his hands, and the skinny teenager landed on the ground. For once, Dakota was happy to be big and bulky; it had taken every ounce of her strength to jar the girl loose.
The girl quickly shifted into wolf form, dropping down to all fours. Her tattered clothes fell off her lean, furry frame, and she ran for her life, ears flattened on her skull and tail between her legs. Her canvas bag and the bag of cookies lay there in the dirt. Dakota picked them up and unzipped her suitcase, stuffing them in. She’d try to find the girl later.
The man turned and glared at her with anger sparking in his eyes. “I don’t usually kill women, but I might be willing to make an exception in your case,” he said coldly.
Dakota met his gaze boldly. “So you bully children and you threaten women. Ever pick on someone your own size?”
His lips quirked in a cruel grin. “On the rare occasion that I run into someone my own size, yes. Then they die.”
He looked her up and down, then said, “You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that. Who knows, you may be a good fit for Greenlands. But if you cross me again, I won’t be as nice. Yes, this is me being nice. My name is Creel. Stay out of the eastern territory.”
“Since you’re there, it will be my pleasure,” she snapped at him as he walked off, strolling into the woods.
She pushed her way through the thick, scratchy underbrush, headed back towards the town square. As she strolled down the street, she felt a sizzling in the air, and her inner wolf quivered with anticipation.
The handsome guy she’d shot down earlier walked up and thrust his hand out in greeting. She felt that same zing of attraction, and made a mental note that she should stay as far away from this guy as possible; he was way too tempting. That grin, the musky, masculine smell, the gleam in his eyes…
He was accompanied by two other male shifters, who hung back behind him and watched. One of them looked so much like him
that they had to be related, and he was stifling an amused grin.
“Oh goody, I was wondering where you went,” she said to him with exasperation.
“Well, this is your lucky day, because here I am,” he said, her sarcasm completely sailing over his very handsome head. “So you may not have picked up on this before, but I’m the Alpha Prime. Now, around here, the Alpha Prime gets what he wants, but if they do things differently where you’re from, I can move a little slower. How about we start off with dinner?”
She reluctantly shook his hand. She’d probably made enough enemies for one day. She might as well at least try to be civil.
“Hello again. Sure are lots of Alphas around here,” she said.
His eyes narrowed. “Only one that counts,” he said. He sniffed at the air. “Oh, I scent that Creel stopped by for a visit. He has the eastern half of the territory.” He raised an eyebrow. “Did he give you a hard time? Or hit on you?”
“Neither one,” she lied. No sense stirring up even more trouble.
“Good.” The sexy grin returned. “I didn’t catch your name. Or what time we’ll be having dinner.”
“My name is Jamie Roberts, and thanks but no thanks,” she said, and his eyes widened in shock. One of his companions actually gasped.
“What?” she said to the hot guy’s friend. “This can’t be the first time anyone’s turned him down. He really doesn’t have much game.”
She could feel waves of anger radiating off Mr. Tall Dark and Sexy, and his brows drew together in a glower. “You’re Jamie Roberts? Is this some kind of joke?” he demanded.
“Is my name a joke? No. I like to think I have a better sense of humor than that,” she said, getting annoyed now.
He looked her up and down. “You’re female.”
All right, so he was gorgeous but stupid. “My goodness, I can see why you’re Alpha Prime. Your powers of observation are simply amazing.” Oops. She’d meant to stop smarting off. She really had.
“They sent a female.” He shook his head in disbelief.
“Uh, yes, you may not have noticed this, but there was a whole bus full of females who just arrived. A couple of dozen.”
“No, I mean the Montenegro pack actually sent a female to death-challenge me. Did you not hear me when I said I was the Alpha Prime? Miles Williams. I killed your cousin Shaun last week when he stole tools from our job site.”
Dakota felt her heart stutter in her chest.
Death challenge? What the hell? What had Tina gotten her into?
And apparently word had spread among all the other shifters – which would explain why they’d been staring at her with pity and amazement. And it explained why everyone kept giving her food. They really did think it would be her last meal. Maybe they were right.
She took a deep breath and tried to think. What would her father do in this situation? Whatever he would do, she’d do the opposite. Her father would bully and attack. So she’d stay calm and use reason. Well, she’d fake being calm; right now her heart was beating so fast she thought it might burst through her ribcage.
“Well then. What proof do you have that he was stealing?” she asked.
“Proof?” He stared at her in astonishment.
“Yes, proof. If you were going to kill a man for stealing, you’d want to have proof of it. Otherwise you’d be a cold-blooded murderer. And I don’t think you are, or you’d have killed me already.”
Miles’s lip curled in a sardonic smile.
“Proof? Me and my Omega, Baldwin here, caught him in the act. So unless you’re calling me a liar…”
“No, you have no reason to lie.”
He shrugged. “So. Death challenge is off, then, unless your pack defends thieves.” Obviously, no pack would openly defend a thief. Challenging another pack for territory, women, or property was acceptable – whether it was two Alphas going up against each other or all-out pack war. Sneaking in and stealing in the middle of the night was viewed as cowardly and weak.
“Of course we don’t,” she said indignantly.
“Then I guess you’ll settle for the other half of your mission.” Wait, there was more? “Taking custody of your nieces and nephews. Since nobody else is claiming them, and frankly they’re a real pain in the ass and I’m sick of tossing food their way.”
Oh God. What had she gotten herself into?
“Keeping in mind I have absolutely no experience taking care of kids and all that…”
“The sooner the better,” he continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “While we’re at it, the head schoolteacher told me she needs an English teacher. I think it’ll be you.”
Ha. That would be easy to get out of. “One little problem with that. I don’t have any experience as a teacher.”
“You speak English?”
“Last time I checked. But I’m pretty sure there’s more to it than—”
“It’s settled. Be at the schoolhouse Monday morning at seven a.m.”
As Alpha Prime, he certainly had the right to assign any job in the territory to anyone he wanted. But he looked like he was enjoying this far too much.
“Are you doing this to punish me because I came up here to kill you?” she asked suspiciously.
He grinned at that. “Maybe. Consider it payback for the sheer terror I’ve lived in ever since I heard you were coming my way.”
“Yeah, I can only imagine how much sleep you’ve lost.” She scowled at him.
“All right, then. Since I’ve given you a work assignment, you’re under my pack’s protection, until and unless you find a pack to join. Oh, and don’t worry, we’ll have security assigned to the schoolhouse,” he added.
“Why, are the kids that bad?” she joked.
“Only some of them. Including your nieces and nephews.”
He was serious. Yikes. This just got better and better.
“But mostly it’s because the territory’s like the Wild West out here. Warring packs, and then the humans keep sending in the worst of the worst shifters so we’ll all fight it out and there’ll be a lot less of us left alive at the end.”
“And even knowing what the humans are trying to do to you, you’re staying here?” she blurted out.
He stared at her. “Of course. Once in a lifetime opportunity to get some of the biggest territory of any pack in the country? New land, new life? Sooner or later, the rogue shifters will get the message. The message being, make trouble in my territory and you’re dead before morning.”
Before he could continue, Naomi ran up to them. She was carrying a big stick that she waved like a club.
She marched up to the three men. “Are you Miles?” she demanded of Miles’s Omega, Baldwin.
“Who wants to know?” He raised an eyebrow at her.
“Death-challenge my friend, will you?” she shouted, and ran right up to Baldwin and whacked him as hard as she could across the chest with the stick.
Chapter Six
Before Dakota could say anything, Macy ran up too, along with several other women from the shuttle bus. “Death-challenge a woman, will you? Well, how do you like this?” Macy yelled, and shifted into fox form. She latched onto Baldwin’s work boot and gnawed it savagely.
A couple of the other women looked around for weapons and, failing to find any, picked up pine cones off the ground and began pelting him.
“Bully!” Naomi yelled.
Miles and Baldwin and Anders just stood there, staring at the women in astonishment.
Naomi kept hitting Baldwin with the stick. He was about six foot five. He looked to weigh about two hundred and eighty pounds of solid muscle. Naomi was tall, but she was as skinny as a beanpole. She probably weighed a hundred and ten pounds if she’d eaten a big breakfast. But she still kept hitting him.
Baldwin glanced at Miles. It took a lot to rattle him, but he did look mildly peeved at the moment. “Help,” he said in an annoyed tone. “I am very afraid. I’m not ready to die. I’m too young and pretty.”
Naomi smac
ked him on the shoulder with her stick. “You vile, woman-murdering pig! We won’t let you get away with it!”
“Wolf shifter,” Baldwin said. “Nothing against pig shifters, mind you. Wait, who did I murder?”
Miles glanced at Anders, who was howling with laughter and pointing at Baldwin.
“Oh shit, look at his face,” Anders gasped.
“Quit laughing.” Miles tried to look annoyed, but one corner of his mouth kept tugging up like he wanted to laugh too. “It’s not a full moon for two more weeks, right?”
Whack.
“No sir, it isn’t.” Anders put his hands over his mouth, but he was laughing so hard that his shoulders were shaking and his eyes were filled with tears.
Whack.
Baldwin idly reached up to block Naomi as she tried to land a blow to his head. He swatted the stick away, but didn’t bother trying to take it from her.
“Any possibility that these women might have all imbibed a mind-altering hallucinogen at the same time?”
Whack.
“Seems...” Anders was gasping with laughter. “Seems unlikely…” He couldn’t help himself. He doubled over and howled with merriment, and Baldwin glared at him.
“So these women are just batshit crazy,” Miles observed.
“How dare you?” Naomi shrieked, and tried to lunge forward to hit him with the stick, but ended up tripping over it and sprawling on her face in the dirt.
Macy paused in her attack, growling, and spat out a small piece of Baldwin’s boot that she’d gnawed off. Several women stood poised holding pine cones in their hands.
Naomi looked up accusingly at Dakota. “A little help here? This is your life I’m defending!”
“Oh! Yes, of course,” Dakota ran over, grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet.
“Are you laughing?” Naomi demanded.
“Possibly a little. You should have checked with me before you started whacking him. First of all, you’re hitting the wrong guy. That’s Miles,” she said, pointing.
Shiftily Ever After: A BBW Paranormal Romance (Alpha Prime) Page 4