by Zoe Chant
Finally Alec said, "You come up here to claim your place as alpha?"
Gannon looked up quickly and found Alec's blue eyes on him, sharp and intent as always, though much more tired than usual.
"I don't want to be alpha," Gannon said.
"You fought Zeus and won."
"C'mon, you're not stupid. Don't act like it."
Alec looked startled. People didn't normally talk to him like that.
"I didn't challenge you. I challenged him. And I didn't take the alpha place in his clan either. I don't want it." Gannon smiled, feeling the way the shape of it was slowly becoming familiar. "Anyway, it wasn't just me that beat Zeus. It was both of us, and I think we both know it. That was a team fight. I didn't win by myself. We won."
"Still," Alec said after a moment, "after all of that, you could challenge me as alpha. You'd have every right. And you've got a really good shot at winning. Especially right now." He raised a bandaged hand and let it fall. "Heck, I think Remy and Saffron's cub could challenge me and win right now."
"Yeah, and if I did, then I'd have to kick Axl's ass, and maybe even Remy and Cody's too."
Alec growled softly. "They should know better. They respect you—"
"Yeah, they do, but they respect you too, and you're their alpha. They don't want me to take over. And neither do I." Gannon shrugged, a ripple of his broad shoulders. "Look, I grew up in a clan where the only qualification for leader was who could be strongest and meanest. From what I've heard, your clan used to be a lot like that, back when your dad was in charge. But that's not how I want to live anymore, and I don't think you do either."
"Hmmph," was Alec's only response.
"You're a good alpha, Alec. I've watched you, you know, as the women came to live on the ranch. I've watched you learning how to be a better alpha, and a better person. Your clan doesn't follow you because you can beat them in a fight—not anymore. They follow you because they like you. I might be able to defeat you, but I'd never have their respect if I did. The best I could ever do is beat obedience into them. And I think both of us know what it's like to live in that kind of clan." He shook his head. "No. You're my alpha. My bear grumbles about it sometimes, but I think he's pretty much okay with it too."
"You hardly used to talk at all," Alec grumbled. "Now it's not possible to shut you up. I think I liked you better the other way."
But he was smiling, just a little.
Chapter Thirteen
Daisy's memories kept trickling back over the next few days. She was able to locate her car, a bright red Ford Explorer with a flower-shaped air freshener dangling from the rearview mirror, parked down a side road at the edge of the bears' forest. She found her camp near the logging site, where the tent had been pulled down and covered with brush and mud; at a guess, she'd say that the bears hadn't packed it up because they couldn't figure out how to take it apart. And she got back in touch with her dad, and with Felice, the editor of the magazine she'd been working with. She now understood why she had vaguely remembered feeling ambivalent about her dad. He ran a successful publishing empire, and Daisy had grown up with plenty of money. As an adult, though, becoming aware of the rapacious practices of many large corporations, she felt guilty about benefiting from her dad's status as a well-off CEO. She still got along well with her dad, but she wanted to make a difference some other way.
And she wanted to keep doing that work. But it still felt to Daisy as if she'd been reborn on the Circle B Ranch. She no longer felt a strong connection to her previous life. She was looking forward, not back. Everything she wanted was here, with Gannon and his clan.
Gannon was gone for hours at a time every day, visiting the other clans as a bear. Daisy knew it bothered him to be away from her so much, but she reassured him that she didn't mind. Later, maybe she would come with him—she wanted to meet more shifters, and she really liked Sofia and would like to get to know her better. She thought Sofia would probably appreciate having visitors from outside the clan, too.
But right now, she understood that the situation was delicate, and having a human show up along with the new Guardian wasn't going to help.
And there was one thing he'd quietly asked her to help him with. Now that relations with his old clan were warming up a little, Gannon tentatively asked Daisy if she had any ideas on how to find his sister.
Daisy wasn't even sure where to start with that, so she asked Alec about it. He promised to put out feelers with the local shifters, especially the urban shifter population, who might know where she'd gone.
Daisy couldn't imagine why people though Alec was cold and unfriendly. He seemed very nice to her. Even in the beginning, she hadn't felt that he was hostile, merely wary that she might bring danger to the ranch. She mentioned as much to Charmian, who laughed.
"So, the thing about Alec is, when he lets you into his inner circle, he'll literally do anything for you. He might not admit it, but he's a total pushover for people he likes. And he does like you, Daisy. I think he has from the moment he met you."
Gannon was the same, she thought. He seemed tough and grouchy on the outside, and he could be scary to people who didn't know him, but when he let people in, he was all heart.
Which made her hope very much that they were able to find his sister for him. Losing his clan and his family must have nearly killed him, and she knew he missed his sister terribly. Daisy wanted to do anything she could to help heal that old wound.
Meanwhile, she needed to go back to Colorado and pack up her apartment. She'd been dragging her feet about it, because she no longer felt any ties to her old home. The ranch was where she needed to be; she'd never felt such a sense of belonging in a place.
But she couldn't just abandon her apartment, so she reluctantly said a temporary goodbye to Gannon—he was busy with his duties as Guardian anyway—and drove south.
Her stay in Colorado, brief as it was, confirmed in her mind that she was right: this wasn't home anymore. She donated most of her belongings to local charities. All she kept was the portion of her books, clothes, and dishes that would fit in her SUV.
There wasn't a whole lot of room at the cabin for stuff, anyway.
She was already redecorating in her head, planning out where she would put everything. It surprised her how little she minded living under the primitive conditions at Gannon's home. But she truly didn't mind. She could go down to the main complex of ranch buildings anytime that she needed a shower or wanted to watch TV. The cabin was the most peaceful, relaxing place she'd ever been.
Alec had told her that it was possible to talk to the utility company and have electric lines run up the hill if she wanted to have electricity up there, so that she could at least keep her phone and laptop charged. She told him she'd think about it. Maybe someday ... but for now, during the entire time she was surrounded by the concrete and bustle of the city, all she could think about was getting back to the peace and serenity of Gannon's cabin.
Home.
Mate.
Just thinking about it filled her with delight to the tips of her toes.
She drove back to the Circle B on a glorious sunny day, when the first colors of autumn were just beginning to touch the highest peaks of the mountains. There was nothing behind her but an empty apartment, probably already rented to someone else. Her whole life and future were ahead of her.
The road up to the Circle B was a winding, rutted series of switchbacks. Everyone at the ranch had warned her that driving it in the winter was hazardous, but in late summer it wasn't too bad, though it was slick and muddy from recent rains; she just had to be careful on the turns. Coming around one particularly sharp, steep turn, she had to slam on her brakes at the discovery that there was another vehicle in front of her.
Daisy pulled up behind them and stopped. The car, a new-looking sedan, had gotten mired at the bottom of a steep hill, its clean paint job now caked with mud. The nicely dressed couple who were trying to get it unstuck were somewhat mud-splattered themselves.
"Do you need help?" Daisy asked, climbing down from her SUV.
"That would be wonderful if you can." The woman of the couple was tall, stylishly dressed, and very striking, with dark hair pulled back to the nape of her neck. Something about her seemed very familiar to Daisy, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
"Do you think you might be able to tow us out?" the man asked. He was a couple of inches shorter than his wife, with thinning blond hair; he looked to Daisy like a banker or a salesman—someone who was used to an office job. Both of them looked very out of place in this rural setting.
"Sure, I can try. I've never done it before, but I do have a tow hitch on the back."
As Daisy rummaged underneath the stacked boxes in the back of the Explorer to see if she had any rope, the woman laughed ruefully and said, "I should have known better than to try to drive up here in a vehicle like this. I grew up out here. But I've been living in the city for awhile now, and I guess it's easy to forget all the things we used to know."
Suddenly the sense of familiarity clicked in Daisy's head, and she turned around with a gasp, taking in the woman's unusual height and her strong features. "Are you related to Gannon, by any chance?"
An odd mix of emotions crossed the woman's face, a blend of surprised pleasure and wariness. "I have a brother by that name," she said cautiously. "I haven't seen him in years. I'm driving up to visit him. Do you know him?"
"I don't just know him!" Daisy cried, delighted. "He's my mate."
"You're—what? I had no idea!" Now the woman's face filled with pure pleasure. "I'm DeeDee. It's so wonderful to meet you!"
Daisy spontaneously hugged her, feeling DeeDee tense briefly (like brother, like sister) and then relax and hug her back with startling strength. When DeeDee released her, Daisy turned to shake the hand of DeeDee's husband. As she did so, she caught a glimpse of something on his neck, a small scar in the same place she had hers.
He saw her looking, and his gaze went quickly to Daisy's neck as well. Daisy tilted her head so he could see her claiming mark.
"Are you, uh ... human?" he asked.
"I am. Are you?"
He nodded, and Daisy remembered Gannon's story about his sister running off with a human mate. "Tell you the truth," he admitted, "I'm a little nervous about meeting a bunch of shifters. DeeDee is the only one I know who isn't—er—well, let's just say it didn't go well the last time."
"These are very different," Daisy promised him. "I think you'll like them. And Gannon is going to be thrilled to see both of you; I know he will be. Does he know you're coming?"
DeeDee shook her head. "I wasn't sure how to get in touch. I only know where he is from word of mouth. I thought my brother was dead for a long time, but just recently I found out from a friend of a friend that he was staying with a shifter clan in Pinerock County, near our old clan territory. We've been asking around in town, and finally found out where the place was."
Alec's contacts had come through. Daisy couldn't help grinning.
"Too bad the kids couldn't come," her husband chimed in. "School's back in session, though. They stayed with my sister while we drove out here."
"But if this goes well," DeeDee said, "then we'll bring them next time, for sure."
Gannon had nephews or nieces. Daisy couldn't wait to meet them. She clapped her hands together. "Let's get you unstuck, then!"
With Daisy's Explorer pulling, and DeeDee pushing (with her shifter strength, she was by far the strongest person present), the car slid out of the mud with relative ease. Daisy drove just ahead of them the rest of the way, hanging back and staying close to the other car in case they got stuck again, but there were no more problems, and before long the two vehicles drove into the Circle B ranch spread.
Relief washed over Daisy at the sight of the familiar ranch buildings and the sweeping mountains rising above them. She was home, and she never planned to leave again.
This time, she didn't stop in the ranch yard. She saw Cody waving to her from the roof of a shed with a hammer in his hand, and waved back out of the Explorer's window. But she drove straight through, heading for the winding track up to Gannon's cabin. Glancing in her rearview mirror, she saw that DeeDee was still following.
Gannon, do I ever have a surprise for you.
Every jolt of her tires in the rutted road was a drumbeat in the rhythm pounding in her chest: home home home home. When she finally drove into the yard of the cabin and killed the engine, a feeling of utter peace swept through her.
Since the last time she was here, she noticed that the wild sprawl of the yard had been fixed up a little. There was a shiny new fence of clean, split pine around the garden, and the grass along the path to the door had been trimmed back. It was nice to see that Gannon had been making things pretty for her, but she really didn't care. The only thing she wanted to see was—
"Gannon!"
He was coming around the end of the cabin with a pail of chicken feed. He stopped, and a grin broke over his face at the sight of her. Sheer delight gave wings to her feet; she ran and threw herself into his arms. Gannon picked her up and spun her around, leaving her breathless and laughing.
"Oh, I'm home, I'm home." She kissed him with desperate enthusiasm, until he groaned into her mouth. She could feel herself starting to get damp. She'd forgotten what a powerful effect his masculine appeal had on her.
No ... no, we have guests. Visit now. Fun later.
"Gannon, put me down," she said, wiggling. This made him chuckle and hold her tighter. "No, put me down, I'm serious. I promise you, I'll definitely show you how glad I am to see you ... later. Right now, I brought someone to see you."
"Your family?" he asked as he set her on her feet. DeeDee and her husband were still at their car, looking around curiously.
"No," Daisy said with a gentle smile. "Yours."
He looked puzzled for a minute ... and then his expression of slowly dawning amazement made her heart melt with happiness and love. "DeeDee?"
"Gannon," DeeDee breathed.
She approached hesitantly; Daisy thought of a wild creature coming to feed out of someone's hand. Then Gannon flung his arms around her, and DeeDee buried her face in his shoulder.
"I was so afraid you were dead," she whispered.
"No, not dead. Not dead at all. Right now I'm more alive than I've ever been."
DeeDee pulled back, wiping her eyes. She reached out to brush the scar on his face with her fingertips. "Oh, Gannon, what did they do to you?"
"Nothing," he said gently, catching her hand in his. "I've made my peace with the clan. They might even be willing to see you one day. For now, I think you'll like my new clan. They're very different from the shifters we grew up around."
DeeDee introduced him to her husband. "We have two kids. Boy and girl. Both shifters. I've hidden them all this time; I was afraid if the clan found out I had half-human children, they would be in terrible danger."
"Not here," Gannon said firmly. "I told you, these people are different. There's even going to be another half-shifter baby, the niece or nephew of the alpha, born this winter."
"That's amazing. I can't believe it. We're going to have to bring the kids out here as soon as possible, and let them get connected to their heritage."
Daisy cleared her throat. "I don't want to interrupt the reunion, but it's been a really long drive and I'm starved. I stopped in town to pick up some picnic stuff, wieners to roast and marshmallows and that kind of thing. I didn't think anyone would mind not having to cook tonight."
"You're right," Gannon said, with another of those slow grins that came more readily to him these days. "C'mon, DeeDee. Let's head down to the big house and you can meet everybody. They'll want to know there are some new members of the family."
DeeDee looked shocked, and Daisy glimpsed fresh tears welling in her eyes. By now she knew enough of shifters to understand why DeeDee was so moved. For the last decade, DeeDee had been on her own, with no clan or alpha. Shifters weren't mean
t to live without their clans, and even though it was obvious that DeeDee loved her husband and children, she must have been terribly lonely.
But she didn't have to be lonely anymore.
None of them had to be lonely now.
***
The Circle B clan built a bonfire behind the big house to welcome Daisy home. Long into the night, they hung out around the fire, eating and chatting and sipping beers from a big cooler.
Daisy was struck all over again at how comfortable she felt with these people. From the very beginning, she'd been accepted as casually as if she'd always lived here. And now she found herself joking and laughing with Tara, Saffron, and Charmian as if she'd known them all her life. Even DeeDee began to relax as she got used to being around other shifters again.
As the night wore on, couples began to drift off to their houses. Charmian and Alec put up DeeDee and her husband in the big house. Finally, even Cody yawned and said he had to turn in, leaving Gannon and Daisy to kick dirt over the coals of the dying bonfire.
"I was thinking maybe we could walk back to the cabin," Daisy said, looking up at the star-filled sky. Although it had been a long day, she wasn't at all sleepy; right now she felt like she could walk to town and back. "Do you mind?"
Gannon squeezed her hand. "Can't think of anything I want better."
Hand in hand, they walked quietly up the twisting ruts of the cabin road. Daisy might have been nervous walking in the woods by herself at night, but with an apex predator next to her, she had no fear at all. Overhead, the stars were the brightest she'd ever seen.
"Have a good time in Colorado?" Gannon asked.
"It was all right. Mostly I just wanted to come home." She walked very close to him, so close her hip kept bumping into his leg, while her skirt swished around her ankles. "How are things going with the loggers?"
"We're working on that. Tara knows a lot about the law and she got her family lawyer to give us advice. Turns out the land my old clan lives on was bought for ranch pasture a really long time ago, but the owners never did anything with it and the state took it for back taxes. Tara thinks we might be able to buy it."