“What did he do?” Those eyes stared down at her like a little boy’s waiting for the finale of a bedtime story.
“The Athabascan deeply believed that all creatures and some inanimate objects had spirits that were active and powerful.” Fallon explained. “These spirits enabled an animal to know more, feel more than what was immediately apparent to them. So if they—as people—did something to displease an animal’s spirit, the animal itself would stay distant. The Shaman believed that at some point, his tribe had done this, that they’d caused offense to the spirits around them which was why hunting became so hard. Their natural sources of food eluded them because they’d been upset at some point. He figured the only way to right this offense was to beg forgiveness and to sacrifice his own spirit as an offering.”
“Wait,” Ransom dragged himself upwards, resting against the headboard. “Sacrifice as in on an altar sacrifice?”
Fallon shook her head. “It wasn’t necessarily ritualistic in nature. It was more so quieting everything around him after discussing it with his tribe, finding a center, calling upon The Great Spirit in the light of the full moon and dying to himself; dying to his own desire to thrive so that his people could. He asked that the Dena be restored back to their original strength and that they be forgiven for their transgressions. In answer to the Shaman’s willingness to unselfishly sacrifice himself, The Great Spirit did what the Shaman asked and left the tribe with the gift of one of the most powerful predators around them.”
“The wolf.” He filled in easily enough.
Her lips curved. “Yes. Not only were my ancestors restored ten-fold but they now had the ability to survive the harshest of seasons and the skill to hunt like the creatures they’d once existed apart from.” Eyes closing, she enjoyed the simply feel of Ransom running his hand through her hair. “I don’t know how the gift spread or how bloodlines mixed and extended to where they are now but I do know Cree’s original pack was a separate branch of the Athabascan that apparently had the gift of more than one animal.”
His hand stilled. “Meaning they’re not just wolves?”
Fallon yawned. “Some of them are, yes, but a very small portion are more shapeshifters than anything else. Like the skinwalkers of the Navajo tribe.”
He was quiet for several beats before he asked, “Can Cree...?”
“Yes.” She answered. Strangely enough, the one thing that only she, Cree, Anoki, and Makya knew, she’d told Ransom without hesitation; somehow knowing that it wouldn’t make a difference to him, that he’d keep it to himself. “But her scent is purely wolf so no one can tell.” The urge to curl up into his warmth and drift off got stronger. “We’ve kept it a secret this long because not everyone would believe it’s a gift. At her core she is, in fact, half wolf but the rest of her...” Fallon allowed her voice to trail off.
“That’s the reason she left her original pack and joined yours.” His body settled back down next to hers and she threw an arm over his waist.
“That’s a long story for another time.” She murmured.
“But you will tell me this long story of your people’s people right? The same way you told me your tale of triumph and pain?” He teased.
Fallon could feel the sweep on his lips over her left brow and answered as she drifted off, “Yes, Ransom. I’ll tell you.”
***
They expected him to yell or at the very least wince but he wouldn’t. To show that kind of weakness would be putting his new position in jeopardy. So instead, he simply clenched his fist and kept his face blank, eyes focused on the back wall as the pack healer stitched up the gouges in his chest from where his brother had purposely dug his claws before raking them downwards. Mason had always been a sadistic little bastard and had no problem not pulling back the moment he realized Brody was done playing nice.
It hadn’t taken Brody even a second to make a decision about pushing his brother out of the pack. It had to be done. Mason was too far gone on his search for whatever he thought would make him a better alpha so Brody did what any good leader would do, he’d fought his own flesh and blood, pinned him and made him offer up his underbelly in submission.
In the same yard that he’d watched pups play just this morning, Brody had almost taken his sibling’s throat. It started as a calm enough conversation really, but reason just couldn’t seem to prevail in his previous alpha’s mind. Mason explained that his plan was to send either Brody or Aaron over to Wilder territory slightly bruised and bloodied so that they could tell Fallon they’d fought with Mason and chased him out of the pack; leaving Fallon alone with a new level of confidence so that she’d be comfortable enough to let her guard down being that her greatest threat was supposedly gone.
“You can tell her that you didn’t want to be a part of the feud anymore and that you got tired enough to push me out.” Mason had said, a gleam in his eyes that was completely insane. “She’ll get comfortable as weeks go by without a sign of me and the appearance that you’ve fully taken over. Then, when she’s so immersed in whatever the fuck is going on with that little pack of hers, we strike and we strike hard.”
Brody stood and stared at the other wolf, watched Mason twitch under his gaze as he so obviously resisted the urge to turn his eyes away from Brody’s steady stare and look weak. They’d both known for a long time who was truly meant to rule the Jericho pack but Brody stepped aside because being responsible for the lives of others on a daily basis was never an interest of his. “No.” His answer had been simple and straight to the point.
Mason’s head tilted to the side as Aaron’s gaze bounced between the two of them. “No?”
“You heard me.” Brody’s voice was clear. “I said no.” He leaned forward. “Leave Fallon alone. Leave Wilder land alone, Mason. Stop this shit before it heads down a road you don’t want to travel.”
“I’m alpha here!” Mason slapped his chest. “Not you! Never you! Because you’re too fucking weak to run this pack! I do what the fuck I want! You don’t tell me to—”
His words were cut short with Brody’s hand wrapped around his throat, claws resting near major arteries. “If you think that I won’t rip your tongue out of your mouth a reattach it to your forehead just for my own fucking amusement then you clearly do believe the bullshit you’re spewing. There’s a difference between not wanting to rule and being incapable of ruling.” Brody felt Aaron step forward and turned his gaze to his youngest brother while pressing his claws closer into Mason’s throat. “I will snatch the skin from your ass and wear it as a suit jacket, boy. Step. Back.”
Aaron did as he was told, the tension in the room growing as Mason’s group of dumbasses shifted from one foot to the other, unsure of what to do.
“I’m going to graciously let you go,” Brody calmly said. “And you’re going to walk away. Then you’re going to go have a talk with God and decide that maybe, just maybe, your life plan is to be something of use instead of an entitled little motherfucker with nothing better to do than have people licking his taint all day. Are we clear?”
Hate in his eyes, Mason bit out, “We’re crystal.”
“Good.” Brody let him go as promised and turned his back on him. He could hear the deep inhales from the others in the room, understood that it came from the fact that he’d just insulted his brother more than anything by turning his back on him as though he weren’t the least bit worried about Mason’s obvious anger.
But he should’ve known it wouldn’t end there; that his brother just wasn’t going to sit quietly by like a good pup. He felt the claw swipe coming before he saw it, moving to the side as his brother raked through air..
Turning back around, Brody said, “You don’t want this.”
The roar that Mason let out before lunging at him again let Brody know that he did, in fact, want it. And he got it when Brody tossed him head over ass out of the backdoor, their pack parting to form a circle around them as the siblings shifted and went after each other. When it was all said and done, Mason’s p
hysical injuries were more substantial as were the ones to his pride.
Brody had stood strong over his brother after making him submit; barely resisting the urge to finish it. “You leave and you leave now. You take whoever wants to follow with you and you never fucking come back.” He spun on his heels then and walked away, knowing that his new rank now allowed him betas that would see to Mason’s leaving.
He wasn’t surprised that Aaron followed with almost twenty other wolves and he couldn’t be bothered to give a fuck because he knew that Mason understood what coming back to Jericho territory meant—death. Brody had spared him the first time but he wouldn’t do so again. Even though the look that Aaron shot him before traipsing off with their brother was full of regret, he’d made his decision and Brody could accept that or fight it. He chose to accept it.
Now as he sat staring at that same wall, the healer almost done, he hardened his heart against any guilt. He’d done what was best for not only himself but his pack. And that was all anyone could ever ask of a good alpha.
“Brody?” His new second, Craven, said from the doorway.
“What?”
“Do you think we should tell Fallon? It may be a good idea to warn her considering that your brother made his plans clear.”
He hadn’t considered that as of yet; still too wired to really concentrate. He needed to hunt, to kill and take the edge off. Or maybe he’d find a willing female to help with his tension. Good sex was sometimes the best way to relax and with the way he felt right now, it could only help. Brody waved a hand. “I’ll handle it. I doubt Mason is stupid enough to come back here but I wouldn’t put it past his desperation.”
Then Craven was gone as silently as he’d appeared and Brody was left to wonder if his brothers would truly give up and walk away so easily. He’d know soon enough. Neither Mason nor Aaron had the true finesse of a predator. They’d stomp through like elephants rather than blend like big cats. And when they did...he’d stop this permanently.
Chapter 14
“I hear howling. Why do I hear howling?”
Fallon could hear it too and was desperately trying to ignore it being that she had three hundred pounds of warm, gorgeous grizzly wrapped around her and all she wanted was to go back to sleep and wake up impaled on said grizzly’s funstick.
“Make the howling stop or I will.” Ransom grumbled in her ear, rolling over and away from her.
Fully annoyed now that she’d lost her personal heating blanket, Fallon clambered over him and towards her back window to find Cree, Cade and a handful of wolves in her yard. A quick glance upwards showed her the full moon.
With a sigh, Fallon turned back to her lightly dozing bear. “I’m supposed to hunt with them tonight.” During the full moon her pack usually brought down prey together, keeping in time with long standing traditions. Really they just like chasing down deer or moose before ripping it apart and saying it was a tradition.
Ransom’s eyes never opened. “Which involves you not making sex noises in my ear. Can’t say that I support this change of plans, baby.”
She laughed. “I didn’t think you would, but I usually find myself pretty...energetic after a hunt with my pack.”
His lids popped open, staring in interest. “Energetic eh?”
Fallon’s smile was all teeth. “A nice way of saying extremely horny.”
He waved a hand towards the door. “Suddenly I am all for your canine shenanigans.”
Walking over, she placed a lingering kiss on his mouth. “I figured you would be.”
When he rolled over once again and buried his face in her pillows, letting out a small growl as he inhaled, Fallon resisted the urge to tell her pack mates to fuck off so she could fuck him.
Ransom gave a soft grunt before saying, “I feel your dirty wolf lust and even though it disturbs me I like it, but if you don’t leave now I’m not letting you out of this cabin until tomorrow.”
The sharp barks from outside told her to get a move on already. The ones she didn’t hunt with tonight would keep an eye on the lodge and the pups, trading places with the others tomorrow night.
With a long regretful sigh, she headed to her backdoor, slipped out and shifted before running down towards her pack. They cleared the way as she came trotting through and the moment she took off for the surrounding woods, they followed.
***
Ransom gave up on the prospect of sleep as soon as Fallon’s back door closed and he couldn’t sense her presence anymore. He could’ve convinced her to stay, could’ve made her come until all she really wanted was more sleep but that would’ve interfered with her pack time and the last thing he would do was come between her and her pack.
They meant a lot to her. After the last day of listening to and laughing at her stories of growing up from an awkward pup and becoming the gorgeous, incredible she-wolf that he knew now, he could clearly see that she was happy here. Amusingly enough Fallon had given him a rundown on all the things he didn’t know about her before.
Ransom was now well aware that her favorite color was pastel yellow. She liked moose more than she liked deer and she preferred hunting at night because she knew that her brighter coat was hidden better in the dark. She’d actually been on several trips with her pack outside of the states and so far her favorite was their vacation in Athens Greece. Fallon had also let him in on the fact that she had drawers full of lace and silk underthings because it was sometimes hard to remember that she wasn’t just an alpha but a woman. He would have no problem reminding her of that fact constantly.
Then she’d explained to him that she didn’t have any siblings because her parents had several failed attempts at having pups before she’d come along and apparently she’d been enough for them both. They’d gone through photo albums and Ransom had teased her about being a late bloomer before he showed her how much he appreciated the wonderfully formed body she had now. Fallon had opened up to him about the hardest parts of being a leader and the rewards she saw in watching her pack mates thrive. She’d even admitted she wasn’t opposed to having a mate, she’d just never considered it before.
Ransom decided then and there that in the coming days he’d make her his forever. They’d bump heads, they’d snap and snarl and he was positive that on some days she would want to rip out his jugular but he knew as sure as his last name was McKenna that Fallon Wilder was meant to be his until they were old and grey and their ancestors called them home.
So comfortable in Fallon’s bed and his own thoughts, Ransom let out a startled snarl when a grizzly’s roar came echoing from the front of the cabin.
Irritated that Maddox was messing up his quiet bliss, he stomped towards the front door and jerked it open, barking out, “What?”
His younger brother stood there with Anoki and Makya—the second man he’d only met once since arriving days ago—arms folded across his chest. “These two wanna know if you can grab a drink and discuss what sexual positions you put Fallon in.”
He jerked forward as though he were going to hit the bastard and Maddox put up his hands. “Kidding! Kidding!”
“Actually—” Anoki started, only to have Makya slap a hand over his mouth.
“Beer. Wings. Sports.” The large wolf stated. “You in?”
Ransom shrugged. “Depends on how much I’m getting of all three.” Finger foods were not his friend and he had no intention of trying to nibble on something light after the day of calorie burning he’d had with his she-wolf.
“Unlimited amounts.” Makya answered. “We have bears come through here often which also means moose tacos and honey-berry ice cream.”
“No fucking way.” Moose tacos?! Who was the genius who came up with such nirvana? And how could he lure them away from this place so they could constantly follow him around, making him dishes?
“Way.” The wolf said. “We figure if you’re gonna be the one keeping Fallon from ripping off heads and kicking them around for shits and giggles, we should be nice to you.”
&n
bsp; Ransom put a hand on the other man’s shoulder. “Sir, you have my undying loyalty if you can get me a tray of those tacos.” He usually didn’t trust mexican food outside of California but this shit sounded amazing! How could he say no?
Makya smirked. “That’s fine. Just stop touching me while you’re naked. Makes things weird.”
Slowly withdrawing his hand, Ransom nodded. “I’ll find some pants. And then you can lead me to this magical place with the ambrosia.”
“Pants are all I ask for, my friend. Pants are all I ask for...”
***
Fallon was annoyed. Really, really annoyed. Why? Because getting kicked in the head by your dinner would make anyone annoyed. She stayed on the buck’s right flank, herding it towards Cade and Cree who were waiting to take it down as they gave chase.
The damn thing fainted left and she almost fell over her own paws trying to follow. When it suddenly stopped and pulled back she went skidding past it as she came to a halt, stalking the animal while Cree and Cade cut it off. The rest of the pack had found a moose to take down while she and the others kept at the buck. So far it had been a fun chase, expect for almost getting kicked unconscious.
Cree’s sharp bark had Fallon glancing over one shoulder as she panted. Her breathing abruptly slowed as her eyes narrowed on the wolves just a few feet across the territorial lines that pulled between her land and that of the Jerichos, finally understanding what made that buck freeze in its tracks—more predators. Generally she avoided getting even this close but her senses had always kept her alert enough to know when to stop before she crossed over. She could sense it when Cree and Cade moved forward, as well as when the rest of her pack mates slowly forgot about their prey and stepped towards where she sat, watching the red wolves just beyond the line. That buck saw its opportunity and hauled ass past them all.
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