She shook her head. “You can’t guarantee that. No one can.” She glanced away for a moment before turning back to him. “What’s our plan?”
“Speed is of the essence. We’re running out of time.” He wouldn’t tell her, but he could already smell the difference in her. She was getting closer to going into full heat and there was no time to lose. As her scent strengthened, it would make it easier for the rogue males from the other packs to find them. Plus, he wanted her safely mated to him when the time came for her to embrace her werewolf heritage.
She nodded, but said nothing.
“As much as I hate to risk it, we’ll get a cab from here. We’ll stop a few blocks from our destination and walk the rest of the way just in case.”
Alex frowned thoughtfully. “In case of what?”
Her brows were furrowed and he longed to smooth away the lines of worry from her face. “Alex, we not only have other werewolves searching for us, but bounty hunters as well. There’s no telling who is on their payroll, or who might have heard they were searching for us. I’m sure by now that our picture has been circulated in certain areas. They’ll be offering money. A reward to anyone who helps them find us.”
She swallowed hard. “I understand.”
Joshua stood slowly. They’d already wasted enough time. It was still early, but he wanted to be on the road within the next half hour or so if possible. “Come on.” He held out his hand to her. She reached out to him and he wrapped his fingers around hers, pulling her up off the chair. He gave her hand a final squeeze before releasing it.
He palmed his cell phone and quickly dialed the number he needed. Less than thirty seconds later, they were closing the door to their room behind them. Joshua headed toward the motel office to turn in their keycard. “Keep your eyes open,” he warned.
Alex nodded, fading into the shadows at the side of the building as he hurried inside. He was back outside just as the cab pulled up in front of the motel.
Chapter Fourteen
Alex came awake slowly. Her head was tilted at an awkward angle against the headrest and she had a crick in her neck. Blinking, she let the world come back into focus and memory came rushing back.
After everything that had happened yesterday, their escape from Chicago this morning had been anti-climactic. They’d taken the taxicab to a restaurant where they’d ordered coffee and bagels to go. Then they’d left and walked several streets over until they’d come to a hardware store. And, as promised, there had been a slightly disreputable-looking black pickup truck waiting for them.
Joshua hadn’t immediately hurried to the vehicle, but had pulled her into an alleyway close by where he could watch it without being seen. They’d hurriedly eaten their bagels and drank their coffee in the alley. Not great ambience, but necessary. Alex wrinkled her nose in memory.
She supposed he’d been looking for anyone suspicious, but after about fifteen minutes, he’d relaxed slightly. They’d dumped their garbage into a bin at the back of the alley before strolling across the road.
Joshua had brought her around to the driver’s side of the vehicle and allowed her to get in only after he’d checked out the exterior and interior of the cab. Once they were both settled in their seats, he’d tugged down the visor and the key had dropped into his hand. A few seconds later, they’d pulled out onto the street, heading for the outskirts of the city. Alex assumed he knew where he was going. She certainly didn’t. She’d never been out of the city in her life.
She’d had an uncomfortable ride for a while when he’d suddenly decreed that she needed to get down on the floor and hide. But she had seen the sense in it. If anyone was looking for them, they’d be searching for a male and female together. They probably wouldn’t look too closely at a man by himself. Or at least she hoped they wouldn’t. She hadn’t liked the idea of hiding while Joshua was so exposed. She’d pulled out her gun and laid it on the seat beside him, admonishing him to use it if he had to. He’d given her an enigmatic look, pulled the weapon closer to him and kept driving.
As soon as they’d joined the steady stream of traffic on the highway, he’d let her get back up. She’d settled into her seat, strapped on her seat belt and tried to relax. Strangely enough, she’d fallen asleep.
Awake now, she sat up straight, rolling her head slowly from side to side to try to work out the kinks. She was hungry, thirsty and in dire need of a bathroom. She was also worried about her father, worried about herself and what faced her, worried about how much Joshua had come to mean to her in such a short period of time and, above all, she desperately needed another cup of coffee. She sighed. She wasn’t likely to get that coffee anytime soon.
“Why the huge sigh?” Reaching out, he wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and massaged the taut muscles. She groaned as his strong fingers worked out some of the stiffness.
She shrugged. There was only so much she was willing to tell him. “I’m worried about my father. I need to go to the bathroom. And…” she opened her eyes and turned her head so that she could see him, “…I need another cup of coffee.”
His grin came and went so fast she almost missed it. It made him appear younger, not quite so hard. His face had settled back into its normal serious lines, but she could see the twinkle in his eyes. “There’s a truck stop about ten miles from here.”
“Really?” She couldn’t keep the delight from her voice.
That earned her another quick grin. “Really.” He gave her nape one final squeeze before returning both hands to the wheel. “We’ll stop and pick up some coffee and snacks. Or rather, I’ll pick them up. You’ll stay hidden in the truck.”
“Sure. No problem.” At this point she’d agree to just about anything to get that second cup of coffee. “What about the bathroom?”
“If I remember correctly, there’s a gas station next to the diner. Less chance of anyone seeing you if you sneak in there.”
Satisfied, Alex sat back and enjoyed the view. They drove in silence for another few minutes. It was a companionable silence and Alex was loath to break it, but she had questions. “I fell asleep last night before you could tell me about Wolf Creek and my father. I hadn’t planned on sleeping most of the morning away either.”
Joshua nodded. “I didn’t want to wake you. I figured after everything you went through yesterday you needed the rest.”
“I’m awake now,” she pointed out.
“So you are.” His eyes were constantly scanning in front of them and checking the rearview mirror. “What do you want to know?”
“Everything.”
He chuckled, but it was a rough sound, as if he weren’t quite used to doing such a thing. “Well, that narrows it down.”
She twisted in her seat, as much as the seatbelt would allow, so that she was all but facing Joshua. “Tell me about my father.”
“James LeVeau,” he began. “Or rather, James LeVeau Riley, was the alpha of the Wolf Creek pack. He was the meanest, toughest son of a bitch around.”
Since he’d said it in such admiring tones, Alex assumed that meant it was a good thing. She knew her father was tough, but it was hard to reconcile this ruthless image with the same man who’d tied her shoes when she was a child, taken her to see her first White Sox game when she was five, and had purchased her first box of tampons for her when she’d finally gotten her period.
“My father was Striker back then and none of the other packs messed with ours. Retribution was swift and brutal. They were good times. Peaceful times.” As he continued, she noticed he seemed to get lost in the memory. “I remember your father coming to our home to talk with my father. They were good friends. All of us were in awe of your dad. He was the best of the best. The best hunter, tracker and fighter. But beyond that, he had a vision for the future. He knew that in order to survive, we had to fit in with the human population on some levels. Your father grew the wealth of the pack with shrewd investments and by cultivating some human friends at various levels of government. Then everythin
g changed.” His voice went flat.
“What happened?” She kept her voice soft, not wanting him to stop.
“James LeVeau was mated to Leda.” He shook his head. “It’s always a mistake for a man to love a woman that much.”
Alex’s heart constricted at his stark words, but she said nothing. Joshua was still talking so she forced herself to listen.
“It makes a man weak.” He shot a quick glance her way. “Our women have had a hard time producing babies for the past hundred years or so. Whether it’s some naturally occurring phenomena, something we did to ourselves, or a reaction to environmental changes, no one knows for sure. Not that it really matters. The result is the same. That, coupled with the pack wars and the attacks by bounty hunters, has seriously declined our population.”
“You come from a fairly large family,” she pointed out.
He nodded. “My mother was an exception, but even she lost one of her children, the only female in the bunch, to hunters. I think that, coupled with the death of my father a few years ago, was what finally killed her. She just didn’t seem to have the will to go on after that.”
Alex kept her thoughts to herself. While she couldn’t pretend to understand the devastation that the loss of a child and a husband would bring, the woman still had other children. It was obvious that his mother’s death had been hard on Joshua.
“My father,” she prompted, hoping to lead him away from the grim thoughts of his family.
“Leda was pregnant and they were both so happy. She’d already had two miscarriages.” Joshua glanced over at her before turning back to the road. “Both had happened early in the pregnancies. This time, she was healthy the entire time. I’d never seen two people look so damn happy as Leda neared her due date. I was only a young man, but even I noticed their joy. It was almost a living thing and affected everyone around them.”
Alex twisted her fingers around her seatbelt. It was hard to imagine her father happily married, or mated, to someone else. Did werewolves even have marriage ceremonies? Another question she’d need the answer to eventually. “Things went wrong,” she prompted.
“Yes.” Joshua’s voice was dull and flat. “Leda died after about thirty-six hours of hard labor and James went berserk. It was a horrible thing to see such a great man brought so low by love.”
Alex bit her lip to keep from crying out her denial. No wonder Joshua didn’t think a strong man should fall in love. He’d seen so much tragedy and focused so much on the negative aspects that he’d completely blocked out all the positive things love brought to a person’s life.
“It took about six men to pull him away from her body so that she could be cremated. He injured some of them quite seriously. In the end, his wife was cremated, her ashes scattered and James disappeared. At first everyone thought he’d gone to grieve. Then his brother showed up telling everyone that James had sent him.”
“Why didn’t his brother already live there?”
“Families are scattered all across pack land in sort of a loose community. They all fall under the dominion of the larger Wolf Creek pack, but they have a certain amount of autonomy. Ian LeVeau moved back to the main compound, the heart of the pack, and assumed leadership. No one had the heart to fight him for it at the time because everyone was so disheartened at being abandoned by James. Plus, my father threw his support behind Ian, so that was that.”
“So Ian is still running the pack?” It was strange to try to understand the way werewolf society worked, but Alex knew she had to learn if she was going to become a part of it.
“Yes. But everyone knows he no longer wants it and it’s only a matter of time until he either steps down or is challenged.”
“So, what happens if he steps down? Who will assume leadership?”
Joshua scanned the road and began to ease up on the gas. Up ahead, Alex could see a small building. That should be the truck stop. Her stomach growled in anticipation.
“Any man who wants to be leader steps forward. They all fight and whoever emerges the victor is the new leader.”
The coffee was momentarily forgotten. “But that’s barbaric.”
“Get down on the floor, Alex.” He waited until she’d undone her seatbelt and was settled on the floor before continuing. “It’s the way things are among our kind. Only the strongest can lead. No one will follow a weak leader.”
He pulled into the parking lot and brought the truck to a stop. Putting the gear in park, he undid his seatbelt and sat back. “We are your people now, Alex. There are many things you’ll find not to your liking, but you will have to accept them if you are to survive.” He picked up the gun and handed it to her before scanning the parking lot. She assumed everything looked fine because he opened the door and slid out of the seat. “Do you want anything else besides coffee?”
“Food. I don’t care what it is.”
Joshua nodded and shut the door. She noticed he’d kept the vehicle running just in case they needed to make a quick getaway. She gripped the handle of the gun securely as she pondered his words. The metal was warm against her palm. “Who says I need to accept anything?” she muttered aloud. “Maybe it’s the pack that needs to do some changing. If things were so fine and dandy then they wouldn’t have so many problems, now would they?”
Alex freely admitted that werewolf society wasn’t much different from human when it came down to it. Fighting for the leadership of the pack was not that different from the many gangs that fought for territory in the city. Even supposedly civilized men fought for high positions in government, but their fights tended to be verbal, not physical. Still, that didn’t make it right.
Sighing, she leaned her head against the seat. She expected there were a lot of things she was going to have to either accept or at least learn to live with. Joshua was who he was and he wasn’t going to change any time soon. She would have enough of a fight on her hands getting him to claim her and admit that he loved her. Maybe she was making a huge mistake. What if all the feelings were one sided and all he was feeling was physical attraction? If that were the case then she was setting herself up for a world of hurt and disappointment.
The door to the truck opened and she jerked both her head and the gun toward it. Joshua nodded his approval as he climbed back onto the seat. He set a large sack on the seat and handed her a large cup of coffee. “Don’t get up until I tell you it’s safe.”
As she tucked her weapon safely away and took her first sip of coffee, she watched Joshua maneuver the truck out of the parking lot and back onto the road. The cup was warm in her hands. Joshua had to feel something for her. He showed it in all the little things he did for her almost without thought. Last night it had been the T-shirt and the lotion; this morning the coffee. There really had been no need for them to stop other than the fact that she’d wanted a cup of coffee.
She took a sip of the hot, steaming liquid, warmed by more than just the heat from the coffee. He had to care. She didn’t think she was imagining the depth of feeling that flowed between them. There was no way she could turn away from their relationship now. She was determined to do whatever it took to make him see he cared for her and it was okay for him to do so. She knew she might have a battle on her hands, but that was okay. She was tough. She was James Riley’s daughter.
Alex sighed with relief when Joshua eased the truck into another parking lot and pulled around to the back of the building. She peeked over the dashboard and gave a prayer of thanks when she saw the restroom doors.
“Give me a second to get the key.”
She nodded, but Joshua was already gone.
***
James pulled off the asphalt and onto the dirt parking lot that surrounded a small, run-down diner. He’d been on the road for hours and was starving. He parked his car off to the side, backing into the space. It always paid to be prepared to leave in a hurry. Taking his time, he surveyed all the vehicles parked around him and was satisfied by what he saw. His was the only car in the lot. There were a few
pickups and several eighteen-wheelers.
Right now, all he wanted was a cup of coffee and some food. He didn’t care what it was as long as it was filling and he could get it to go. He had no plans to linger any longer than necessary. Alex was out there somewhere and so were the werewolves who were hunting for her. He knew Joshua would protect her with his life, but it wasn’t the same as being able to see her with his own two eyes. He wouldn’t relax until she was safe within the confines of the Wolf Creek pack and properly mated.
He tried not to think about how Alex was feeling right now. He knew she was coping and doing what she had to do. After all, she was his daughter. He had faith in her ability to do what needed to be done.
But that didn’t ease his worries. It had been a huge shock for Alex to find out about her heritage, especially in the way she had. He’d waited too long to tell her the truth about himself and about her. That was his mistake, and one he wished he could rectify. If he could turn back the clock he would. But that was impossible. The only thing any of them could do at the moment was to move forward and deal with whatever came next.
Climbing out of his car, he kept his sunglasses on as he scanned the area, letting his heightened senses flare outward. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary as he strode across the gravel parking lot. The sun was high in the sky and the heat felt good against his face. He could see and smell the surrounding forest and for the first time in years felt as if he could truly breathe. He was going home.
He yanked open the door and his nostrils were assaulted by the smell of burnt toast, bacon, eggs, coffee and unwashed bodies. Barely resisting the urge to curl his lip in disgust, he went to the counter, ignoring the stares directed his way. An older woman with a stained uniform and a worn look on her face scowled at him from behind the counter. “What will it be?”
James scanned the printed menu posted behind her. “I’ll have the number two special and a large coffee to go.” He figured the breakfast special couldn’t be too bad.
Alexandra’s Legacy Page 16