by RJ Blain
“What do you mean?”
Sighing, Richard shook his head. “Right, you’re new. I forgot. You got lucky. Maybe it’s because you’re an Omega, but normally, wild wolves turn on everyone—their mates included. They’re dangerous, volatile, and lethal. I assumed he was wild because Sanders tore into me like the fiend he is before we managed to subdue him.”
“Twice,” I whispered.
“Twice?”
“He got violent with me twice,” I admitted. “He stole my deer and batted me away with his paw. The second time, I got too close to him after a kill, and he bit me a few times.”
“That’s just normal Alpha behavior when running as a wolf, Sara. Nicolina’s taken a few whacks from me on bad days. Unfortunately for me, she hits a lot harder than I do,” Richard muttered. “If he had turned on you, you’d be dead.”
“Oh.”
We spent the rest of the drive in silence, and I was nodding off when Richard parked in front of a large house high up in the mountains. I blinked blearily.
Desmond’s car was parked beside a silver SUV, which was also a Mercedes. Richard got out, closed his door, and circled the Porsche. I yawned.
“I’ll carry you,” Richard said, reaching over me to unbuckle my seatbelt. “Maybe if I’m holding you, Sanders won’t flatten me. You can also stay nice and warm this way.”
We were halfway up to the house when the front door opened and Desmond appeared. “Sara.” He breathed my name, hopping down the steps to stand in the snow, ignoring his lack of shoes. “Amber’s ready to release him from the cage. You’ve already brawled with him once today, Richard. I’ll take her. He’s not stupid enough to test me.”
For a moment, Richard hesitated, and then he sighed and handed me over to Desmond. “She didn’t eat a lot.”
“She shares your love of salmon,” Desmond grumbled, holding me close to him. Dropping a kiss on my brow, he relaxed and sighed. “Your devil mate blocked you out of my pack bonds. I’m torn between wanting to kill him and being ridiculously proud of him for pulling it off.”
“Hi,” I mumbled.
“Hello. Had yourself a bit of an adventure, did you? You just can’t stay out of trouble, no matter what I do. What happened?” Desmond demanded, carrying me into the house.
“Driver shot Sanders with a dart,” I growled.
“The driver? We found his body along with one other, but I didn’t think he was involved.” Desmond’s scent turned bitter from his anger. “How did you get away?”
“Choked him. Shot the other one with the dart thing,” I replied, resting my cheek against Desmond’s chest, fighting back a yawn. “Swam.”
“You swam.”
“You should probably get her to Sanders before your daughter really does zap him,” Richard said, shifting his weight from foot to foot.
“Relax, Richard. He’s as calm as can be expected under the circumstances. I know what I’m doing.”
The door in the hallway looked like it should have led to a closet instead of a stairwell. I heard my mate’s growls long before we reached the basement. Richard went down first, taking the steps two at a time.
“Richard!” I heard pleasure in the voice I recognized as Nicolina’s. “Where’s the wolf?”
“I have her,” Desmond replied, far more careful with his footing than Richard. “She decided to change in the car while Richard was shopping.”
“Shopping?” Nicolina demanded.
“Clothes. Sanders will probably want them once we convince him to get out of his fur coat. If Sara had been nice enough to let me know she was going to change before I went in, I would have gotten her some, too.”
Desmond halted near the bottom of the staircase. “I’d get out of his way, because once I come into sight, he’s going to lose it.”
“Ready when you are,” another woman announced.
When Desmond reached the bottom of the staircase, metal clattered against metal, and my mate crashed into us. Desmond hit the wall hard before sliding to the floor. The air rushed out of my lungs from the force of my mate’s head ramming into my chest. He ran his nose up to my throat and gave a brisk rub. He pawed at me, whining.
“Dad!” Nicolina squeaked.
“Okay, that hurt a bit more than I was expecting,” Desmond groaned beneath me. “Damn it, Sanders, you’re heavy.”
“Notice how he wisely excluded Sara from his comment,” Wendy said, coming into the doorway to crouch beside Sanders, resting one hand on his shoulder. My mate licked my throat, placing his paw on my shoulder to keep me in place. “You have no idea how relieved I am to see you, Sara.”
“Sanders, stop that,” I complained, freeing my arm to shove his muzzle away. I managed to budge him a few inches before he decided to disregard my attempts to hold him at bay.
His cold nose against my neck drew a squeal out of me, as did the scrape of his teeth.
“Well, excited is far better than snarling,” Nicolina stated, approaching cautiously. The young woman reminded me a lot of Wendy, with the exception of her eyes and the way she carried herself, which reminded me of Desmond. “So, you’re Sara?”
I nodded and fended my mate off with my elbow. My mate whined, prancing in place. Before I could defend myself, he dragged his tongue from my chin to my scalp. “Sanders, stop that,” I begged.
“He’s a totally different wolf,” Nicolina commented, crouching down. She balled her hand into a fist, sighed, and like her mother had, she reached out and gave my mate a companionable pat on his shoulder. “Are you okay, Father?”
“I’ll manage. Sara, I’m going to force him to change, so try to keep calm. If he fights me, it might be a lengthy and bloody process.”
I tensed. “Now?”
“Do you think you can move him?”
I eyed my mate, who once again placed his paw on my shoulder. While he didn’t rest much of his weight on me, I had the feeling he wouldn’t let me up. “Good point.”
“He’s not going to be with the program for a while, so don’t be surprised if he growls and yips at you.”
“It only took her thirty minutes to start using English,” Richard reported. “I was impressed.”
“Tried to poison me with bad burgers,” I grumbled.
“You only ate three,” Richard replied, wrinkling his nose. “You need to eat.”
Shaking his head, Desmond squirmed beneath me until he could sit straighter. “If you can squeeze by me, Nicolina, do you think you can cook something so Sanders doesn’t try to eat us once he’s finished transforming?”
“Do I look like a chef to you? Am I wearing a little white apron and a funny-looking hat? How about a hair net? Am I wearing one of those?” Nicolina placed her hands on her hips.
A smile was all it took to transform Richard from a good-looking man into a gorgeous one. He knelt at Nicolina’s side, kissing her cheek. “You cook. I’ll make cookies.”
“Cookies,” she murmured, her eyes widening.
“And you wonder how he charmed our daughter,” Wendy said, grinning. “It was obviously his wise use of his baking skills.”
“Can we not talk about this?” Nicolina demanded.
“Cookies,” Richard cooed in her ear.
“Fine! Fine! I’ll make dinner. If you’re lucky, I won’t poison you,” the woman snarled, and muttering curses, she crawled over my mate’s back. Sanders turned an ear back, and when she was almost over him, he whipped his head around and nipped her ass.
She squeaked, lost her balance, and fell. Desmond caught her with an arm, choking on his laughter. “You okay, baby?”
“I’m going to skin him,” Nicolina hissed through clenched teeth.
“That’s what you get for crawling over him,” Richard chided, pulling the same stunt his mate had moments before, scrambling over Sanders to reach the staircase.
I pinched him as hard as I could. Like Nicolina, he fell, adding to the pile of the bodies littering the foot of the staircase. I turned my attention to my mate, bury
ing my face against his warm fur and breathing in his scent.
Wendy choked, and after her second snort, she dissolved into a fit of helpless laughter. “What are you doing, Richard?”
“Your daughter looked like she was having so much fun I had to join her.”
“You’re hopeless, Richard,” Desmond grumbled. “I love you both, but get off. I am not a bed for you to romp on.”
“That’s disgusting, Father.” Worming her way out from beneath her mate, Nicolina scrambled up the staircase. She halted partway up as though she wanted to say something, shuddered, and fled.
Snickering, Richard sat up, leaning against my mate’s side. “Sure you don’t want help with him?”
“Go bake my daughter cookies so she doesn’t kill us all. I’d like to avoid leaving any bullet holes in Sanders’s lodge because we annoyed her too much.”
“If you’re sure,” he said, rising to follow his mate up the stairs. “Howl if you need me.”
“Will you need me?” The other woman asked, and I realized she was likely Amber, Nicolina’s witch.
“We should be fine. Go pretend you’re helping them in the kitchen if you want. Steal a cookie for me so I get at least one.”
After Amber squeezed her way by my mate instead of crawling over him, Desmond sighed. “Okay, Sara. This is probably going to be a really unpleasant change for him. You panicking while he’s fighting his way through it would not be good. He’ll be fine, but it’s going to hurt like hell, he’ll probably bleed all over the place, and when he’s done, don’t be alarmed if he passes out. All I need you to do is keep still. He’ll probably fixate on you through the whole thing.”
“Okay.”
“Ready?”
I wasn’t, but I nodded anyway.
It took my mate far too long to transition from wolf to man, and as Desmond had warned, the process involved a lot of blood, most of which ended up on me. When it was over, Sanders slumped on top of me, his breathing ragged and uneven.
“Two hours and twenty minutes,” Wendy reported. “You’re almost as bad as Richard, Sanders.”
“Ouch,” my mate groaned.
“Immediate use of English. I’m impressed,” Desmond said, shifting his weight beneath me, and with a grunt, he pushed me upright. I scrambled to secure a hold on Sanders, holding him close to me. “I’ll have Richard bring clothes for you. I have no idea what you’re going to wear, Sara.”
“Upstairs,” Sanders croaked. “Spares.”
“I’ll go look,” Desmond said, extricating himself from beneath me, easing me against the wall. H headed up the stairs and paused at the top. “Will you be okay with them, Wendy?”
“You ask me after you leave? Yes, I’ll be fine with the puppies.”
I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall, relieved when my mate shifted his weight off me, sitting beside me instead of on me. “Hi.”
“Hello, yourself,” Sanders replied, his breath leaving him in a heavy sigh. He rested his head on my shoulder. “Ouch.”
“You’ll live,” Wendy said, sitting at our feet. “How much do you remember, Sanders?”
“Bits and pieces. More bits than pieces,” he admitted in a grumble.
“You, Sara?”
“I remember.” I paused, wondering how much to tell Wendy, decided it didn’t matter either way, and started from the beginning. “Sanders and I were talking in the limousine. There was a bang, loud enough I couldn’t hear anything for a while. The driver turned around and shot him with a dart. It pissed me off, so I choked him. When I tried to get out of the limo, someone was waiting for us. I shot him with the driver’s dart gun,” I reported, flexing my hand as the memories roused my anger. “There was another car, but I dragged Sanders into the water and left.”
“That explains why your phone died, Sanders. It wasn’t meant to go swimming. We found yours with the limousine, Sara,” Wendy said. “What happened next?”
“I changed into my wolf to keep him warm because he wasn’t waking up. I dozed off, and when I woke up, Sanders was a wolf. He wanted to go west, so we went west.”
“We managed to catch your trail near the Mississippi, and we would have had you both if that idiot witch hadn’t put you on a leash like he did, Sara. Why did you run?”
“Stranger danger,” I muttered, remembering my mate’s flight or fight response. “Sorry.”
“I can’t say I blame you. Sanders, you managed to break several of Charles’s ribs when you crashed over him. You hit him at full throttle. He was furious for days over losing your trail, too.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault, especially considering you were drugged when you went wild. I’m just glad you’re both safe.”
“Where are we, anyway?” Sanders mumbled. It was then I realized my mate’s eyes were unfocused and glazed.
“Your lodge in Snoqualmie. You were headed in this direction when Richard and Nicolina took you down. You broke my daughter’s wrist, so you better apologize to her after you’ve been fed.” Wendy smiled, which softened her rebuke.
“I don’t remember any of that,” he confessed. “How the hell did we get here?”
“You walked, Sanders. It’s been a full month since you left New York.”
“A month,” my mate echoed.
“You made damned good time, too. I still don’t have any idea how Richard and Nicolina found you.”
“Dumb luck,” Richard said, coming down the stairs with a bag in one hand and a pile of folded clothes in the other. “By the way, you have a wolf-shaped dent in the front of your SUV. I clipped him when he ran out in front of me. That’s actually how Nicolina broke her wrist. It was during the accident, not the actual scuffle.”
“You hit Sanders with my Mercedes?” Wendy growled.
“It’s not my fault. He jumped out in front of me, and I had nowhere to swerve. Be glad I only clipped him. Hitting him head-on would be like hitting a moose. Anyway, I managed to change while he was stunned from the impact. While he was tussling with me, Nicolina gave us both a jolt. She claims hitting me was an accident. By the time I came to, she had wrestled both of us into the SUV and had Sanders wrapped up like a Christmas turkey. At least I got to ride in the front seat without her tying me up.” Setting the bag and pile of clothes down, he crouched beside me. “Better, Sanders?”
“You hit me with Desmond’s SUV? Do you have a death wish?” my mate demanded, reaching for the bag. “Clothes?”
“Shower first,” Richard replied. “Since my cookie-making duties are over, I’m the poor bastard who gets to make sure you don’t drown. Wendy, Desmond asked me to beg you to take care of Sara. Once you’re both cleaned up and dressed, Nicolina should have dinner ready. I think she’s cooking everything you have in the freezer and pantry, Sanders.”
“Full bath is upstairs, Wendy,” my mate said. “There’s a shower down here I’ll use.”
“Come on, Sara.” Taking hold of my arm, Wendy hauled me to my feet, secured the blanket around me, grabbed the pile of folded clothes, and herded me up the stairs.
While I had no memory of eating dinner or going to bed, when I woke up, light streamed in through the window, and my mate was sprawled beside me, his nose pressed to the side of my neck. His slow, steady breaths tickled. The low murmur of conversation kept me from drifting back to sleep. Grumbling, I rolled to get up. Sanders hooked his arm around me and pulled me to him.
“Go back to sleep,” he murmured.
“We should get up.” My stomach agreed, growling its complaints at being empty. “Breakfast.”
“Lunch,” Desmond called from somewhere nearby.
“Stalker,” my mate grumbled.
“Think he’d taste good if we grilled him?” I pondered out loud, prying my way out of Sanders’s embrace.
“It’s winter. We don’t grill in winter. Grilling in winter is cold work.”
An oversized t-shirt and a pair of boxers served as pajamas, and after a moment of consideration, I decided
I was going to have to make drastic changes to my sleepwear. While I ached, stretching worked out most of the kinks. Sanders sighed. The bright amber of his eyes reassured me, and smiling at him, I leaned over the bed to kiss him. “So we can’t grill him?”
“You may not,” Desmond answered.
Sanders rolled out of bed, and not caring he was only wearing a pair of boxers, he wandered into the other room, pausing in the doorway to say, “Too much work. He’d put up a fight. I bet he’s stringy, too.”
“Good afternoon, Sanders. How are you feeling?”
“You keep interrupting these nice dreams where I’m cuddling with my mate and I don’t have to get out of bed. Stop it.”
“They’re not dreams if you’re awake when they happen,” Desmond replied. “Be serious. How are you feeling?”
“I’m not twitching anymore. I think your daughter hates me.”
“I do not. Maybe if you weren’t so stubborn, I wouldn’t have had to shock you,” Nicolina replied. “There are leftovers in the fridge if you’re hungry.”
I followed after my mate to find Desmond, Wendy, Richard, and Nicolina sitting on the stairs to the ground floor. Yawning, I leaned against Sanders’s back. My mate chuckled, reached behind him to take my hands, and wrapped my arms his waist.
“It’s nice to see you, Nicolina. It’s been a while.”
Desmond’s daughter flashed my mate a bright smile, and she bounced to her feet, standing on her toes and hopping to kiss him on the cheek. “We were worried. Thanks for coming home.”
“See, Charles, she’s a perfectly affectionate girl when she wants to be. Maybe if you’d stop taunting her and her mate, she wouldn’t try to shoot you every visit,” Wendy said.
I recognized an old argument when I saw it and watched with interest. Nicolina scowled in her mother’s direction.