“By the way, why are you walking funny?” he added.
“You know why I’m walking funny. Makeup sex, you bastard,” I groaned. “Good Lord. You’re an animal!”
“Imagine that,” he snickered. Hmph. He looked way too smug and pleased with himself. Everyone at the table turned to wave at us, and I felt a wave of emotion welling up inside me. I’d only been here a few days and I felt more welcome than I ever had with my pack back home. Was this really real? Could this last? There was no way that all of these people were faking it.
I paused.
“Tell me something?” I said to Max.
“What’s that?”
“When you left the other day to go take care of some business…were you going to meet up with an old girlfriend? Or a new girlfriend? Or any kind of girlfriend?”
Maxwell shook his head in amusement. “Really, Josephine?”
Panic seized me. “I notice you’re not answering.”
“I thought it was obvious. I am not with any other women. I am married. To you. I am with you. I am dedicated to making you have multiple orgasms every day. The rest of my time and energy is spent on the pack. Satisfied? You better be, or I’ll carry you back inside and satisfy you some more.”
A giggle bubbled up inside me. “Okay, okay. Come on, you said you get jealous. I can’t get jealous?”
He bent down and brushed his lips over mine. “You can get jealous. I like it. But also, trust me. I do not lie, and I do not cheat. Have fun in town.”
There were a few approving howls from the shifters milling around the picnic table, and he turned and yelled “Hey, grow up!” at them, but he sounded cheerful.
We filled up our plates with food, and settle down at the table.
“I’ve been trying to get ahold of Camille,” I said carefully, glancing at him to see his reaction. “I haven’t gotten an answer. Hopefully it’s just because she’s laying low. Have you heard anything?”
“Have I heard anything from Camille? Of course not. I’d never even spoken to her before I arranged the marriage. I don’t have her contact information,” Maxwell said, digging into his food.
Well, I had other things to worry about. Max had gotten me a new cell phone, delivered to our house the day before. I’d called up Bess and arranged a meeting with her and Corwin in town, so we could talk about the fiasco with my date showing up at the compound. I needed to make sure that never happened again.
There was something else on my mind, though.
“The way Kray treated me when he thought I was Camille…” I said. “Do you think he’s treating other women in his pack like that? I mean, that’s a dumb question, of course he is. Can anything be done about it? You’re an Alpha, you’re about to start your own pack, people will listen to you.”
Cody was sitting across the table, and he and Max exchanged a glance before answering me. Why? Was I being totally paranoid?
Max hesitated, appearing to consider what to say. “It has occurred to me,” he said finally. “It’s not the easiest issue to resolve. You know how reluctant the Elders are to interfere in matters within one’s own pack. The way they see it, if you don’t like what’s going on in your pack, you can leave and join another pack.”
“But that’s bull,” I said heatedly. “That’s such a cop out. If you join another pack – the Alpha of your old pack is within his legal rights to issue a Death Challenge. Nobody wants to stand up to Kray. So then no pack would take you, which means as a lone wolf, you’re technically the leader of your own pack, which means that Kray can issue the death challenge to you. So leaving his pack is like a death penalty.”
“You don’t need to worry about Kray’s pack,” Max said. “Leave it to me. Really. I’m the Alpha, it’s my job to worry and your job to-”
“Don’t say it! There are children present!” I cut him off quickly.
“My goodness, Josephine, I was going to say that it’s your job to enjoy life, and help out with pack issues. What did you think I was going to say?” Max asked, giving me an innocent, wounded expression.
“Ha,” I muttered, around a mouthful of eggs.
He was right about the Elders, which drove me crazy. They were all incredibly old – obviously, hence the name – but I felt that they were completely out of touch with life in the 21st century. Shifters live to be about a hundred and fifty, and many of the Elders were still mired in the ways of the 19th century.
The Elders, and all of us, followed the rules of an ancient book called The Covenant, which was a list of rules governing the behavior of shifters and punishments for various infractions, and spelling out when the Elders could interfere, and when they could not. Many parts of that book had been written in the Middle Ages, but it was treated as reverently as The Bible.
Unfortunately, the Elders held their position for life, and it was near impossible to get rid of them.
I just couldn’t let the whole issue with Kray go, though. “Have you talked to Kray at all? Is he still pursuing the alliance?” I asked.
“My people have talked to his people. I haven’t talked to him personally. As of yesterday, he still wants to meet up and draw formal paperwork,” Max said.
“So if you and he are allied…could you help the members of his pack?”
“If anything, he’d expect me to side with him every time there’s some kind of dispute,” Max said. “Let me worry about it, though. Really.” I could swear that he and Cody exchanged glances again.
A short time later, I was driving in to town in a car that Max had lent me.
I met up with Corwin and Bess in the parking lot outside of Flapjack Fannies’s. They were standing by Bess’s car holding hands, doing the lovebird thing. For once, I didn’t feel the sting of envy that I usually felt when I saw them together.
However, at the moment I was feeling something else. Pissed off, is what I was feeling.
“What were you thinking?” I demanded, stomping up to them. “You nearly got Peter killed!”
Shock crossed Bess’ face. “What are you talking about?”
“Peter came to the Timber Valley compound and told them that he was there to pick me up for our date!”
Bess turned to stare at Corwin in astonishment. “You did what?”
“Bess, I asked you to take care of it,” I said to her, struggling to stay calm. “What happened?”
“Corwin volunteered to help out. He was supposed to contact Peter.” She leveled a glare at him. “What. The hell. Were you thinking?”
He flushed, and looked angry and defensive. “I was thinking that this fake marriage thing is dangerous for our best friend, and we need to get her out of it. I wanted to demonstrate to that uber-Alpha asshole that the marriage is obviously fake, and it needs to end now. I wanted to rub his nose in the lie.”
“Corwin, you moron!” I yelled. “It was none of your business, and even if it was, which it wasn’t, you could have gotten Peter killed! That was a total dick move on your part!”
“Really, what were you thinking?” Bess’s eyes were wide with shock. “That was a terrible idea, Corwin. You were risking Peter’s life to make a point.”
Corwin’s face flushed, and his expression turned ugly. “You know what I grew up with, Josephine. I can not stand by and watch that happen. Not again.”
I took a deep breath, counted to ten, and let it out slowly. I balled up my fists and then released them.
Corwin’s father was a violent, psychotic shifter who had beaten Corwin’s mother regularly, finally injuring her so much that she’d ended up being hospitalized for several months. She came out permanently deaf in one ear, limping on a broken right leg that hadn’t healed properly, because Corwin’s father had locked her in her room and refused to let her seek help for weeks. Corwin had begged and cried; Corwin’s father had beaten him too, and chained him to a heavy table. Finally, when Corwin’s father had passed out drunk, Corwin had managed to escape and seek help.
“I know what you grew up with, and I
am sorry about that,” I said. “I really am. However, you can’t let that influence you into making really, really bad decisions. And that was a bad decision. It was not fair to Peter, who could have gotten killed. He did nothing to deserve that. It was not fair to me, because it made me look absolutely terrible in front of Maxwell’s entire pack. It was very disrespectful to Maxwell, who has been nice enough to agree to go through with this whole fake marriage thing to help out Camille, a shifter that he’s never even met before.” At least, I hoped he’d never met her before.
Corwin shoved his hands in his pockets, scowled at the ground and didn’t say anything.
“Did you think about what could happen to Camille if this whole charade were exposed, by the way?” I demanded. “If Kray’s pack hears about this, he’s going to start looking for her, and she’s going to be in deep trouble.”
“So you have to sacrifice your happiness for Camille?” Corwin demanded. “Why don’t you ever put yourself first?”
I swallowed hard. “First of all, I am not sacrificing my happiness. I’m actually having a good time with Maxwell. Yes, he’s a big, macho Alpha jerk, but it’s kind of sexy. I like him way more than I thought I would. His family has been very welcoming.”
“We’re your family.” Bess said it in kind of a pouty voice, her lip quavering. It occurred to me for the first time ever that it wasn’t just that I needed her and Corwin; maybe she needed me to need her. She came from an uber-wealthy family with servants, and a mother who was a control freak who micro-managed everything. She’d been desperate to leave home so she could prove that she could live on her own. Her mother had even made her start college a year late because she was sure Bess wasn’t ready.
Maybe taking the big sister role for me was something that Bess really needed.
“You’re my best friends in the world,” I assured her, grabbing her hands. “You both mean the world to me. That doesn’t mean I don’t want a relationship of my own, though.”
Corwin stood with his arms folded, glaring at the ground like a chastened child. He was still sulking.
“You’re not…you’re not actually going to stay here when the three weeks are up, are you?” Bess asked suddenly, looking worried.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” I said.
Her jaw dropped. “Seriously?” she demanded.
“Well, Bess, you and Corwin are going to get married, travel for a while, then settle down…”
“I thought you could come with us when we travelled!” Bess protested.
“Oh, come on,” I said, laughing. “That sounds like the worst honeymoon ever! For both you and for me – I’d be a third wheel the whole time.”
“No, you wouldn’t. We’d have a great time,” Bess protested, but I shook my head. She sighed. “I guess you’re right, I hadn’t thought about it from your perspective.”
“I don’t know what Maxwell will want in a few weeks. I don’t know what I will want. I suspect that he will do the smart thing and end the marriage, and find himself a bride who actually brings some political advantages. I mean, he doesn’t love me, I know that, and I don’t love him. Although I am turned on by his incredibly hot body. Sorry, big brother Corwin, but it’s true,” I said at his pained wince.
Was that the truth, that I didn’t love him? I missed him when I wasn’t with him, I loved having sex with him, I enjoyed his company 99 percent of the time, I was coming to believe that he was genuinely a very good person…but I couldn’t possibly be in love. We’d just met.
Also, when I’d pointed out to Max that he wasn’t in love with me, he hadn’t argued. I couldn’t, I wouldn’t love someone who didn’t love me back.
“I understand if you don’t want to feel like the third wheel in this relationship. You aren’t, but I get that you would want to seek out your own partner,” Bess said. “I just want you to know that from what I’ve seen so far, Max Battle is living up to the bad reputation of the Timber Valley pack, and I think you are being abused, and I agree with Corwin. I think you are staying with Max because you are putting Camille’s happiness ahead of your own. I’m sorry, but that’s what I think.”
I tried very hard not to get pissed off. I loved my friends, but this was starting to border on insulting. They were treating me like some weak, fragile, desperate moron with no self esteem.
“Listen. You have made your feelings on this matter very clear,” I said. “I will tell you one last time that Max is not abusing me, and if he were, I would leave. Are you still staying in the area? You are, aren’t you?”
“We’ve been camping out in the woods, yeah,” Bess shrugged. “We took some time off from work.”
“You two need to go back to River Run. Go back to work. I will call you soon. Do not worry about me. Do not try to interfere. I’m an adult, I’m fine.”
“Fine,” Corwin muttered, and stalked back to his car. Bess shot me an unhappy look, threw her arms around me, and hugged me.
“I hope you’ll be all right,” she said. “Call us any time if you need extrication.”
I nodded, and waited until they pulled out of the parking lot. Jeez. Thank God they were getting out of here before they started a full-scale war.
I started to head in to the diner to grab some lunch, and my phone rang. It was my Aunt Prudence.
“So, what’s new, dear?” she asked when I answered the phone.
“Nothing. I haven’t heard from you in a while. How have you been?”
“I should call you more often,” she said. “I’m sorry about that. Are you all right? Is everything all right with you?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Well, I got a call from your friends today, and…”
I glared at Bess and Corwin’s retreating car. Great. Just great.
“You always have a place here with us, you know,” she said.
Thinking about it, I realized that it didn’t actually feel like that. What place would that even be? I’d stayed in a whole bunch of houses while my mother was off on her benders. If I went back to Fool’s Gold Gulch, I could crash at anyone’s house, but I’d feel like a guest, not family.
That was why, after I graduated from college, I didn’t even think about returning to California. I found a job in Colorado, and an apartment near Bess and Corwin’s house, and slowly started letting my old ties die out.
“Thank you,” I said, to be polite.
“I’m worried about you, Josephine. Bess is telling me that you just up and ran off with an Alpha who’s an abuser. Is that true?”
OK, now I was officially really, really pissed off. I realized I didn’t like anyone bad-mouthing Max. He didn’t deserve it. If anything, out of the two of us, I was the one who had behaved badly.
I appreciated that Bess hadn’t told her the part about how I was protecting Camille, but this was still unacceptable.
“No, that is inaccurate,” I said. “My friends tend to be overprotective of me. A little too much, in this case. I am married to Maxwell Battle of the Timber Valley Pack. He is not at all abusive.”
“She told me that he left bruises on you,” Prudence said. “Our Alpha could challenge him, you know, if you wanted to leave the marriage and come back here.”
I sucked my breath in sharply. Yes, there were bruises – because Maxwell and I had been engaging in very, very consensual kinky sex play.
“Aunt Prudence, I grew up with you, so I don’t know if you want the details, but this has been my honeymoon weekend, and I have been having sex. Lots and lots of sex.”
“Goodness.”
“It is possible that I got a little banged up during sex,” I said. “That is more than I ever wanted you to know, but I am telling you so you understand, I am married to a good man and I am very happy. Maybe someday we’ll come out there and visit you. In the meantime, do not worry about me. If I needed help from my pack, I promise you, I would call you.”
I rang off, and called up Bess, red hot with fury.
“What the hell
were you thinking?” I screamed at her. “You called up and told my pack that I was being abused? You are risking starting a war between my family’s pack and Maxwell’s! Do not ever do that again, and stay out of my business!” Before she could answer, I hung up.
I forced myself to calm down as I walked in to the diner. Everything would be fine. They were leaving town, they wouldn’t be around to interfere any more, problem solved.
“Morning, Josephine. How are you enjoying Timber Valley?” Sheriff Battle was sitting at the counter.
“I’m loving it,” I said, and I meant it.
“Have a seat,” he said, and I sat down next to him. As I did, I realized that a voluptuous redhead was headed our way, but when she saw me sitting there, she pouted and walked off.
“You did that on purpose so she couldn’t sit next to you, didn’t you?” I said, as the waitress set a cup of coffee down in front of me.
“I plead the Fifth,” he grinned.
“I’m sure it’s tough being you,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Girls do love a man in a uniform, don’t they?”
A wry smile tugged at his lips. “You can’t always get what you want,” he shrugged, and turned back to his lunch.
Now what did he mean by that? I wondered. He could have any single woman in Timber Valley, I was sure of that. If I weren’t with Maxwell, I’d be melting all over him myself. Being with Maxwell acted like an anti-aphrodisiac for all other men, though. I could admire the sheriff aesthetically, but he didn’t turn me on any more than a beautiful statue carved my Michaelangelo would.
I was halfway through lunch when my phone rang, and when I saw who it was, my heart skipped a beat. Camille!
I glanced around me. She was in hiding, and I didn’t want anyone to overhear me talking to her, just to be on the safe side, so I quickly tossed a ten dollar bill on the counter and headed outside, leaving my plate unfinished.
“Camille, what’s happening? I thought I saw you in Timber Valley the other day,” I said.
“Good God, of course I’m not there. I’m not suicidal,” she said. “Listen, where are you right now?”
Bride of the Alpha Page 8