Winterstoke Wolves Collection : An MM Mpreg Shifter Romance Bundle

by Sasha Silsbury

  Elyse looks from him to Otto and then back again. She’s scrutinizing both of them as if trying to find the smoking gun.

  There isn’t one, Dan thinks. We’ve been careful. All you’ve got is tuna.

  Dan puts the triangle down and goes over to the sink to wash his hands.

  Otto grabs another sandwich and then says in voice that sounds forced, “Well, I’m done. I’ll be in touch if I need you,” he says.

  “Uh, yeah me too.” Dan says. “I better get back on patrol. See you later.”

  Elyse nods, her green eyes sharper than Dan likes. “Sure, see you later. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  It’s a punch to the gut. She knows.

  OTTO

  arguments and ice cream

  Otto is the king of keeping his scent downwind, a skill he’d mastered playing in the woods around his childhood home and one he never really expected to use for evil.

  He’s laying flat on the pine-strewn floor of the Aylewood forest, Ronmin beside him, and another three wolves behind them.

  There’s a ramshackle cabin ahead, more ruin than habitable home. The sounds of arguing drift through the trees from further away, somewhere closer to the ravine if Otto’s sense of direction is correct.

  Adam Winterstoke’s voice says, “He’s my son too. I have a say in this.”

  The hurt in his voice makes Otto want to cringe. Whatever family drama is playing out past the tree line is about to get a lot worse.

  There have been at least four omegas living in the cabin ahead. Two of the scents are unfamiliar and one belongs to an omega who was at the Warwick farm on the day that Otto helped smash their china.

  The fourth scent is the one that finally reveals Ronmin’s plan. Cameron Roth. He’s a skinny young omega with peculiar ideas about how alphas and omegas should conduct themselves: one of those few omegas who believes that only complete submission to alphahood. Ronmin’s been parading him around like a puppy for weeks.

  This is the reason Ronmin hasn’t needed to rely on information from Dan or Elyse. He has an omega on the inside.

  This is Ronmin’s plan then: the moment Ronmin arrives to find Adam Winterstoke in the same cabin as his ‘stolen’ omega, then all claims and challenges he makes are legal.

  All they need to do is wait for Adam Winterstoke to finish his argument and go back to the cabin so that the Fort Gosford wolves can arrive just in time for the gotcha.

  Otto shifts uncomfortably. Whatever is happening with Adam and the omega he’s arguing with seems deeply personal and should be private.

  Instead, Ronmin and his wolves are listening in, waiting for their chance to pounce.

  Just get it over with. I have canoodling plans, Otto thinks. Somewhere in the town below, Dan is getting ready to leave, packing the car and making last minute arrangements.

  After Elyse walked in on them yesterday, it’s been obvious that they can’t leave it any longer. It’s now or never.

  Or rather it’ll be ‘now’ as soon as Otto can get back down the mountain and get five damn minutes away from Ronmin and his schemes.

  “What the fuck were you thinking, Thomas?” Adam shouts from somewhere beyond the trees, and the pain in his voice must be apparent even to a pure psychopath like Aidan Ronmin.

  Otto grits his teeth.

  There’s a rustling in the bushes ahead just past the ruined cabin and just before wherever Adam and the omega are shouting at each other.

  A small wolf cub appears, running hell for leather.

  Oh shit. He’s coming right this way. Otto has just enough time to get to his paws when the cub races right through the trees ahead and into the small hollow where the Fort Gosford wolves are hiding.

  The cub skids to a sudden stop.

  Otto stays very still. Oh hell. Now what?

  The decision is taken from him by Ronmin who gets slowly to his feet, and then walks around the cub blocking his route back to the cabin.

  Ronmin shifts. He’s a tall, slender man with honey-blond air and when he smiles, it never reaches his eyes.

  He smiles now and puts his hand out. “Hey kid, I’m Aidan. Who’re you?”

  Run, kid. Otto thinks. Run back to the cabin and lock the door.

  The wolf cub looks at him and makes a low nervous sound in the back of his throat.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” Ronmin says soothingly. “I’m a friend of your dad actually.”

  The wolf cub cocks his head, clearly unsure.

  “I am, really. That’s why I’m here. Look, your dad’s clearly busy right now. How about we go get some ice cream, then we can come straight back up once they’re done?”

  Stranger danger, kid. Say no.

  The cub nods slowly.

  Oh man. Otto weighs his options and dismisses them just as fast. There is nothing he can do right now. Ronmin has another three wolves here.

  Anything Otto decides to do, he’s outnumbered four wolves to one.

  Ronmin looks over at the other wolves and grins manically. “Change of plans, boys. Ice cream all round.”

  Otto nods and gets to his feet. This messes up all his plans. He can’t leave Aylewood, not if Ronmin has a kid who doesn’t belong to him.

  The kid goes with them willingly, walking side-by-side with the wolf pack as they make their way down the mountain side.

  Ronmin stays human, walking naked on human feet behind them. Otto makes a decision.

  He shifts into human form and takes his place by his boss’s side.

  “That’s a stroke of luck,” Otto says softly.

  The wolves ahead are starting to increase the distance between them as wolf paws outpace human feet. The kid is at least out of earshot, or so he thinks.

  “Sure is,” Ronmin says cheerfully. “This is going to save a lot of time and arguments. Think I’ll ransom him. What do you think?”

  Otto feels his stomach twist. Think fast, McInnes. “I think you should give him back,” he says casually.

  Ronmin’s eyes spark, and when he speaks, the tone is low and dangerous. “And why do you think that?”

  Otto schools his heart to slow and his mind to stop racing. “Because that way Adam Winterstoke will be in your debt. There’s no proof that we took him. The kid ran into us of his own free will. The Winterstokes are nice. We all know that, but they may not be so nice if we ransom the boy. If we play nice, on the other hand, they’ll assume we’re nice too. Nice people tend to think that way. Might tip our hand to get Adam into a negotiating mood.”

  It’s a long argument and Otto feels like he tripped over his own tongue for most of it, but he can’t do nothing and let Ronmin take this kid back to Fort Gosford.

  That’ll be a disaster for everyone.

  Ronmin looks at him for a long time before he finally nods. “Good man, McInnes.”

  Otto feels a flood of relief wash over him, but he just nods casually, like it was all the same by him either way.

  “We’ll just wait a bit before we hand him back,” Ronmin says, watching the cub as he gambols down the mountain. “It’ll make the reunion all the sweeter.”

  “Good idea, sir,” Otto replies, then he shifts and trots down after the kid and the other wolves, because he can’t be trusted to hold his tongue any longer.

  DAN

  unexpected buzzes and a rental car

  There’s not a lot to pack, but that doesn’t make leaving simple. The main problem is the car.

  Dan’s car doesn’t technically belong to him. It belongs to the Aylewood Sheriff’s department. The town name and big star on the side makes it far too distinguishable for a couple of wrong alphas to take on the run.

  The car isn’t going to go far anyway, just far enough to drive them out of Aylewood and to the first of three airports, but it’ll only one sighting for them to get caught.

  Dan solves the problem by having the car ‘break down’ in Button Oak, or rather by renting a garage in Button Oak where he can store the car while he tells everyone that
it broke down. He’s never been much of a mechanic so he doesn’t try to embellish the story.

  The story he comes up is that it just wouldn’t start so he left it in Button Oak. He hires a nondescript gray sedan in the town, paying cash for the week.

  He parks it behind the police station in Aylewood, forgoing the more generous parking space at the Grand Hotel so Elyse doesn’t notice it.

  He leaves everything in the manager’s quarters exactly as it is: clothes in their drawers, washing in the basket and his toothbrush in the holder by the sink.

  His only luggage consists of a brown paper bag containing a couple of sticks of deodorant, a pair of new toothbrushes still wrapped in plastic , a tube of toothpaste and a three-pack of cheap new boxers that he hopes will be both big and small enough to fit both Otto and himself until they get a chance to buy something more.

  Dan pulls up the carpet at the bottom of the trunk and tucks the brown paper bag into the space behind the spare tire.

  The only other thing he owns that he is taking also fits into a brown paper bag: his life savings stacked into hundred-dollar bills. That goes under the driver’s seat.

  It makes Dan’s skin itch to leave it behind in the car but he can’t risk carrying it around with him.

  He keeps Otto’s secret phone with him: the one that accesses Otto’s bank account. It’s slim enough that he can sew it into the lining of his jeans at the hem. It’s too thin to show against the heavy material, but Dan can feel it when he walks.

  Dan waits behind the reception desk in the police station as agreed. It’s a slow day. A couple of tourists come in reporting a lost wallet, and another comes in having found it. He gets a couple of APBs over the wire, but nothing that is expecting anyone to come close to Aylewood.

  The little town is the end of a long mountain road. It’s not a good destination for anyone on the run, or at least not anyone who has planned where they’re going. There’s nowhere to run to from Aylewood once you get there.

  Instead, Dan occupies himself with finishing up on his paperwork while he waits for Otto. There’s no reason to leave everything untidy for whoever is going to end up taking over.

  He’s between deputies at the moment, with interviews scheduled for the following week.

  Adam will have to take those, he thinks. He wonders what the people of Aylewood will say once he’s gone

  Will it be ‘oh my god, I would never have guessed it of him’ or will they all say, ‘I knew there was something wrong about that man’?

  Dan has no clue which way it’ll go. The only thing that’s worrying him is Elyse. He keeps tossing between fury because he knows she’ll tell on him if she can and worry that Ronmin will take it out on her after he leaves.

  He decides the best thing for her will be to report them before they leave, but have it picked up by someone in the Fort Gosford pack only after they leave. There’s no way for him to arrange that however so he has to keep to worrying.

  There’s still no sign of Otto by late afternoon. Dan has laid off the coffee so he won’t need to stop and pee every five minutes once they do get going.

  The paperwork is done, but his novel is not, so he stays where he is and switches to tea. He’s never been a fan of it, but he needs something to sip and wrap his hands around while he waits.

  It might not be today, Dan tells himself. They said as soon as Otto could get away for five minutes but that means nothing. He’s not going to do it if it’s not safe.

  Dan doesn’t even know what Otto is doing out there.

  Don’t think about it. Whatever it is, Otto doesn’t want to do it.

  The station is empty and completely silent when the lining of his jeans buzzes just past seven in the evening, vibrating against his ankles as he leans back in the chair with his ankles crossed.

  Dan just about jumps out of the chair.

  The phone has no SIM card and no apps other than the banking one so there should be no notifications or messages coming through.

  Otto, Dan thinks. Something’s gone wrong. Otto is the only person who knows Dan has the phone. He’s getting a message through.

  It takes Dan seconds to slice through the bottom of the lining and retrieve the phone. It takes him longer to unlock it using the details that Otto gave him.

  Finally, he swipes right and sees the notification. It’s not Otto. It’s from the bank.

  The transfer you requested has now been requested. There is nothing else you need to do. If this was not you, please call us immediately.

  Dan frowns, confused. Where would Otto be withdrawing his money to? The only other account he has is the one that Ronmin knows about.

  Nausea rises up from the pit of Dan’s stomach. Something has gone wrong.

  OTTO

  apple trees and an addition to the family

  Otto ignores the glares from the omegas in the back of the van, or at least from three out of the four. Ronmin’s omega spy sits expressionless.

  The other three make up for it. If looks could kill, Otto would be six foot under.

  For once, Otto doesn’t have a great deal of sympathy. It’s your own fault, you idiots. Why didn’t you just stay where you were?

  According to Ronmin, they’d been sheltering with the wild wolves but had come back down the mountain for reasons that weren’t entirely clear to Otto. Whatever those reasons were, they were dumb.

  Ronmin was still shit scared of the wild wolves. Any omega who wanted to keep out of his hands should have stayed up there.

  Otto changes his mind when he opens the van doors at the Warwick farm and sees the look on Adam Winterstoke’s face as the omegas get out of the van. The poor sap thought they were safe where he left them. Otto clenches his jaw.

  No. He doesn’t have time for sympathy. He’s done his best to help. At some point, they need to help themselves.

  Ronmin loves it, of course. The man thrives on chaos. But Otto is beginning to realize that’s all he is.

  Ronmin is nothing but chaos, threats and taunting. And everyone is sucked in by it.

  Otto stands, arms folded in his standard I’m-the-muscle pose as he watches chaos reign, even as Adam tries to negotiate and stand everyone down using the offers that Otto had sent him under Ronmin’s name.

  No more games, Otto thinks. As soon as Dan and I leave, no more games. No lies. No pretending we’re doing one thing when something else is going on. Nothing but a simple life.

  He’s not sure that there’s a place anywhere in the world where people are just who they seem to be and no one has a hidden agenda, but by God, he’s going to do his best to find it and when he does, he and Dan are going to set down roots and never leave.

  “C’mon,” Ronmin taunts from the barnyard ahead of them. “Fight me. Everyone will know you’re really the big bad wolf.”

  Oh my God, what a line, Otto thinks. Someone really needs to punch that man in the face.

  To his utter surprise and pleasure, Adam Winterstoke reads Otto’s mind or possibly just finds his balls, because Adam spits out, “Fine, I will. I challenge you. I am going to rip your goddamned throat out.”

  The look of ‘oh shit’ on Ronmin’s face is the best thing that Otto has seen in months and Otto thinks he’s going to think about that moment with pleasure for the rest of his life.

  The fight is an even match in Otto’s opinion. Adam should be the bigger, more powerful wolf but his injury puts paid to any advantage he has. Ronmin isn’t weak but he is a coward.

  The Fort Gosford wolf keeps up the posturing all through the fight preparations but his nervousness is clear. Otto has never seen him fight a challenge. Ronmin wins by bluffing about his strength, using other wolves to fight for him, and taking out his rivals before they are able to get him into a physical.

  Kill him, Otto thinks as he watches them square up. If Adam kills Ronmin now, a lot of problems will be solved. Every pack in a five-hundred-mile radius is going to breath a sigh of relief.

  The fight is over in minutes or s
econds even but Adam doesn’t kill him. Of course, he doesn’t. He’d have had the excuse but he doesn’t. The man simply doesn’t have the killer instinct.

  Too nice, Otto thinks for about the thousandth time. It’s going to be the death of all them.

  Ronmin admits defeat with the kind of smile that tells Otto that someone is going to die for it, even if he doesn’t know who that person is going to be yet.

  But it’s not in Ronmin’s nature to back down, not when he’s got an advantage and the four omegas that they captured coming down from the wild wolves’ territory are too big an advantage for him to give up easily.

  Otto watches as Ronmin picks up his clothes and gets dressed as casually as if Adam Winterstoke hadn’t just whipped his ass.

  “I don’t think you understand how negotiating works,” Ronmin says in an exasperated tone. “I make an offer. You make a counteroffer. You don’t just stand there and snap no at everything I say. If anything, else, it’s just plain rude.” He pulls his shirt over his head and pulls a face. “Okay, one more offer. How about a more old-fashioned agreement. A meeting of families of sorts.”

  Careful, Otto thinks. Ostensibly, Ronmin wants into the Warwick family’s fortune and their network of Taprooms and safehouses, but that’s just getting his foot in the door. He’s not a man who’ll settle for anything other than complete capitulation.

  But it seems that both Warwicks and Winterstokes are tired of fighting because they give in and Ronmin walks away with a Warwick omega for a mate.

  The Warwick omega is disaffected, pretty and clearly completely enamored with Ronmin. Otto puts that down to mistaking arrogance for charisma. Otto has some sympathy. The omega will find out his mistake soon enough. Maybe if he’s lucky, Ronmin will just ignore him once he’s produced enough cubs to cement Ronmin’s claim on the Warwick territories.

  It’s enough to turn Ronmin’s mood and he grins wide as a shark. “Excellent. Well, let’s leave the paperwork to the lawyers. I’ll trust you white hats to stand by your word.”

  He whistles, loud and high-pitched to indicate that it’s time for them to leave, and Otto feels a flush of annoyance. He’s not a dog to be whistled at.