by RJ Blain
“I’m not asking for permission. Don’t like it? Shoot me along with the rest of the pack, because at the end of all of this, if I hadn’t come around, none of this would have happened at all. Maybe I don’t get the whole pack thing. Maybe I’m scared of it. But to hell with you if you think I’m going to sit here and just watch you hurt them without doing something about it.”
Growling at the interface, I set Nicolina’s phone beside Desmond’s. With a soft laugh, Desmond reached over and pressed on the screen to bring up a dial pad. I took over, tapping in my father’s number.
My father answered on the third ring. “I was wondering when you were going to call me, Mrs. Murphy—Or should I say, Miss Desmond? Was it difficult for you to call, knowing I stole your precious mother from you? Do you miss her? I guess your father is no longer capable of handling his own matters, is he? It must be so difficult, knowing you’ve lost one parent and will soon lose the other.”
With wide eyes, I glanced at Wendy. She snatched a piece of paper and wrote me a note informing me that the rest of the pack hadn’t been told of our safe return. I smiled and pressed my finger to my lips.
Nicolina made strangling motions at her cell phone, and I jabbed her in the ribs with my elbow.
“Nothing to say? Must hurt, knowing your mother is probably adrift somewhere in the Pacific, starving to death as we speak. We could help each other. I’ve heard about you and the things you can do. I’ve heard about your mate. Kill that wolf who deludes himself into thinking he is worthy of my daughter. Do so, and I will see to your mother’s safe return. Perhaps your father might be spared. I’ve heard what happens to rabid wolves, so I suppose time is rather precious to you right now.”
“You’re so full of shit it’s leaking through the phone.” I hoped he heard my disgust loud and clear. “You’re like a bad villain from an even worse movie. Is that really the best you could come up with? You know full well you lost your prized bargaining chip. You knew the instant I stole your two mutts, made them mine, and turned them on your pack. You knew the instant I ripped out your wolf’s throat with my teeth. We fed them to the sharks, Wendy and I.”
Desmond clapped both of his hands over his mouth, his eyes wide and watering. Nicolina balled her hand into a fist and went to punch her father, only to have Richard intervene, catching hold of her hand. The two squabbled in silence, wrestling with each other with Desmond caught between them.
I heard a startled inhale on the other end of the line. “You.”
“Must stick in your craw knowing I ran away so many years ago, far out of your reach. It must burn knowing your perfect little daughter went to Vegas and turned herself into a stripper, all to defy you. It must be diving you mad, knowing I picked someone who is far more of a man and a father than you ever were.” My wolf delighted in my outburst, her savage pride bolstering me and spurring me on. “Did you like it when I thwarted you, stealing away my mate before you could catch us? You can’t have him. He’s mine, and you’re not wolf enough to take him from me—you’re not man enough to, either.”
I heard something creak followed by a long inhale and exhale. “You belong to me.”
“I’m going to make this perfectly clear; I do not belong to you, nor will I ever belong to you. This ends now. You can choose to walk away, or you can die. If you can’t hold your wolves against me, you have no chance of withstanding my mate. I told you; he’s a far better man than you, and he’ll be a far better father, too. I’d invite you to see for yourself, but there’s no way in hell you’re ever coming near my puppy so long as I live. In fact, I have exactly one goal in my life right now, and that’s to ruin you. When I’m done destroying everything you hold dear, as you tried to do to me, I’ll give you a far nicer funeral than you deserve. I don’t even owe you that much.”
A growl answered me.
Drawing a deep breath, I held it for a long moment before letting it out in a gentle exhale. “My only regret will be knowing I won’t be the one pulling the trigger.”
I hung up, picked up Nicolina’s cell, and offered it back to her, forgetting she had engaged her mate in a wrestling match across Desmond’s lap. My Alpha grinned at me, taking his daughter’s phone. “Puppies,” he stated, his pleasure rich in his voice and scent. “That Mr. Watson is a smug bastard, isn’t he?”
“That was a very educational phone call,” the Shadow Pope replied. “I’ve never heard someone dig their own grave so fast in my tenure as the Shadow Pope. I’m impressed. I will be careful in the future not to underestimate you, Mrs. Sanders. I will take your words into consideration regarding the fate of those who betrayed your pack. If you dislike killing them for their crimes—a fate they’ve more than earned—what do you suggest as punishment for them?”
For all of my bravado on the phone, I lacked the courage to even glance in my mate’s direction. “Their problem is with me. I’ll deal with them.”
“I think your wife is after your job, Mr. Sanders.”
“So I see,” my mate replied, and at the warmth in his voice, I risked a glance in his direction. He sat with his elbow braced against the arm of his chair, his chin propped up in his palm, watching me with his bright amber eyes. “I’m pretty sure someone told me the dumbest move a man can make is to argue with his pregnant wife.”
“You learned that quick,” Desmond complimented. “You might survive the next few months.”
“You might not,” Wendy growled.
“I have a job to do, and seeing as it doesn’t involve you any longer, I’m going to wish you a good day. Deal with your wolves, Mrs. Sanders. They will remain under surveillance. Should any of them run, I will try to have them brought into custody for your handling, but I make no promises.”
“I can live with that,” I replied, wondering how I was going to keep my word and save my mate’s pack from the Inquisition.
The Shadow Pope hung up, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Richard, Nicolina, your father is not a play mat,” Wendy scolded. “Behave yourselves.”
Mock growling, Nicolina caught Richard under the chin with the palm of her hand, holding him at bay. “He started it.”
“I was keeping you from getting your pretty ass handed to you by your father. I was doing you a favor,” Richard protested.
Rising from his chair, Sanders approached, crossing his arms over his chest. “What am I going to do with you, Sara?”
My stomach rumbled its complaints at being empty, and staring up at him with wide eyes, I replied, “Feed me. I’m hungry.”
Laughing, he leaned over and kissed me. “Whatever you wish, darling.”
My first order of business was to deal with Joseph. After Desmond, Wendy, Alex, and Lisa left, it didn’t take long for my mate to pass out in an exhausted stupor. While I was tempted to join him in bed, I resisted the urge, instead hunting Richard. “I want to deal with Joseph,” I whispered to him, watching the bedroom out of the corner of my eye.
“Now?”
“Now.”
“Sanders isn’t going to like that,” Nicolina warned me, frowning as she glanced in my sleeping mate’s direction.
“He doesn’t need to like it. I just need to make sure it gets done.”
“Are you worried about him?”
“About Joseph?” I blurted. “No. I am, however, worried about Sanders.”
Maybe I had no use for the Fenerec of Seattle’s pack, but my mate did. For that reason alone, I would fight for them. I remembered the scent of my mate’s worry, fear, and dismay.
I didn’t want to add grief to the mix.
Richard sighed. “I’ll make a few calls and have him brought to the hotel. You can deal with him personally once he arrives, but you’ll have to wait. He’ll need to be transferred from Seattle.”
“Why can’t we just all go back to Seattle?”
Snorting, Nicolina shook her head. “Until Mr. Watson is dealt with permanently, we’re not going to make it easy for him to find you. We’ll be moving aroun
d a lot so to avoid him being able to track us. Hey, Richard. Let’s go to the Bahamas.”
“You would have to fly if you wanted to go there,” he pointed out, arching a brow.
“I’ll suffer for the Bahamas. We could just take them home with us. I’d like to see Mr. Watson make a run at that fortress you call a house.”
“It’s your house, too, I’d like to remind you.”
“It’s still a fortress, Richard.”
“You’re so cruel,” Yellowknife’s Alpha complained.
Nicolina sighed and shook her head. “Go get some rest, Sara. I’ll make sure Richard gets your Joseph here for you to scold—and I’ll make sure your mate takes a nap at an opportune time. As an added bonus, I’ll make sure my father is kept distracted while you and Richard talk to him.”
Figuring a one-Alpha audience was the best I could manage, I nodded. “Thanks, both of you.”
“Any time, Sara,” Richard replied, grinning at me. “Go keep your mate warm.”
I wanted to do a lot more than keep him warm. “I don’t suppose you two could go to your own room, could you?”
“Keep wishing,” Richard said, stretching out on the couch. “I like yanking Desmond’s chain whenever possible, but I do, despite appearances, value my life. If I try to leave this room, Amber really will come hunt me down and shoot me. Sorry, Sara. You’ll just have to live for a while longer. If it’s any consolation, Desmond has to deal with Alex and his other daughter. Originally, he wanted all of us in the same room. You can thank Amber for putting an end to that nonsense.”
I shivered and made my retreat to the bedroom, closing the door behind me. My mate didn’t stir when I crawled into bed with him.
Richard waved a cup of coffee under my nose. I had no idea how he did it, but he had managed to steal me away from my mate’s bed without waking either one of us. Sneezing, I blinked blearily at him and lurched upright on the couch.
“Rise and shine, Sara. Joseph’s here. Nicolina’s going to stand guard over your mate and make sure he stays asleep until we’re back. Go get dressed.”
I took the coffee out of his hands and sipped at it. I wrinkled my nose at its bitterness and set the mug aside. “If my pajamas are good enough for me, they’re good enough for him.”
He laughed, a low, deep rumbling in his chest. “Can’t say I blame you. It’s three in the morning, and everyone else is sound asleep, with the exception of the guards posted in the rooms across the hall. They already know we’re going to have a chat with Joseph. They’ll be standing outside of his room in case of any trouble. I don’t think there’ll be any.”
“Let’s get this over with. Where is he?”
“Three doors down the hall, so keep the snarling and growling at a minimum, or you’ll risk waking Desmond.”
“Wonderful,” I muttered.
“Too bad you’re not like Wendy,” Richard muttered, poking my stomach. “She’s starting to show, believe it or not.”
“Why is my not showing a bad thing?” I asked.
Chuckling, Nicolina kissed her mate on the cheek. “Richard’s as bloodthirsty as my father and your mate, no matter how good he is at pretending he’s a nice guy. In short, he wants Joseph to get a good look at you, realize you’re carrying Sanders’s puppy, and agonize over what he might have caused. Joseph is an idiot, but he does care about your mate quite a bit.”
“Hell of a way to show it,” I grumbled.
“Just don’t clean Joseph’s clock this time, Sara. He needs his jaw in one piece to be able to talk to you,” Richard counseled, heading for the door. “Ready?”
I wasn’t, but I followed after Yellowknife’s Alpha and hoped I’d be able to somehow make things right for my mate’s Second and the rest of the pack.
Richard unlocked the door to Joseph’s room, let himself in, and a moment later, waved at me to follow. When I had last seen Joseph, he had shared my mate’s lean build.
The months had worn him gaunt and thin, and my wolf’s protective instincts roused. He sprawled across his room’s armchair, his eyes closed and his body slumped in sleep. I sighed, closing the door behind me.
“Hey, Richard?” I asked, holding my arm out to him. Puzzled, he stared at my hand before shifting his gaze to my eyes. “On a scale of one to ten, how pregnant do I smell, anyway?”
He snorted. “I could be ten feet away from you and know it, Sara. Why?”
Joseph didn’t stir, and nodding my satisfaction, I sat on the arm of his chair. “So when he wakes up, he’s going to know by my scent, correct?”
“Unless he’s really stupid, tired, or confused, yes.” Richard sank down on the couch. “He might be all of those with what’s happened to him. That’s why I was a little disappointed you don’t have a noticeable bump yet—not that you will have much of one, even at the nine month mark. From my understanding, True-born puppies are substantially smaller than human ones. Wendy’s going to hate you for that, by the way. Still, I’m not surprised Joseph fell asleep. He was staggering when I saw his escort bring him in. I doubt they treated him very kindly while they had him.”
Using my throat, my wolf growled. “Explain.”
“Sanders is a popular Alpha, especially with the witches. He’s easy to get along with, his control is superb, and he’s just the type of guy you want at your back. That’s how he’s always been. He’s as fair as they get. You made the perfect choice when you decided to stand against the Shadow Pope so you could deal with them yourself. Maybe you don’t know a whole lot about the Inquisition, but it was the only way the Shadow Pope could consent to a stay of execution. The rest depends on them—and on you.”
I grimaced. “Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.”
“That’s how pack justice often is,” Richard conceded.
“Should I start sleeping with one eye open?”
“That’s why your mate is so tired, Sara. He was doing just that. Honestly, I’m glad he finally crashed. I was getting to the point I was going to ask Nicolina to zap him so he’d get some sleep. He’ll settle down eventually.”
Drawing a deep breath, I considered Joseph. It was tempting to punish him, something my wolf fully encouraged, but I didn’t see how it would help. My mate had suffered enough, and so had I.
Making someone else suffer more wasn’t going to change anything, not for the better.
I flicked my finger against the tip of Joseph’s nose. “Wake up, Joseph. Chairs are not for sleeping,” I scolded.
Jerking awake, he flinched away from me, choking back a startled cry. My wolf watched him with interest while I forced myself to stay still and quiet despite my desire to jump across the room and hide behind Richard.
Joseph’s eyes widened, his pupils dilating to hide the gold of his iris. “Sara.”
“You have some explaining to do, Mister,” I informed him, and with a deliberate flick of my nail, I hit his nose again. “I would also like to point out one important fact: I own you.”
Swallowing, Joseph glanced at Yellowknife’s Alpha.
Richard propped his feet up on the coffee table and leaned back, his body relaxed. “She does, it’s true. She also owns each and every one of the other idiots who thought they could sell her to a rogue pack. The Shadow Pope was voting for execution, but Mrs. Sanders decided she wanted to handle things on her own. So, here I am, playing guardian to make sure you don’t get any ideas. I’ll destroy you if you so much as raise your voice to her.”
“Yes, sir,” Joseph replied, his tone subdued.
“I only have one question for you, Joseph. Did you know my father doesn’t just want me, but he wants my mate dead?”
Turning so pale I thought he was going to faint, Joseph shook his head in a short, violent motion. “All he said was that he wanted his daughter back, I swear. At the time, I thought it would solve a lot of problems.”
“Because you thought Sanders and I weren’t a serious pairing.”
He sighed, lowered his eyes, and nodded. “I was wrong.”
<
br /> “If it weren’t for Sara, Wendy would have lost her puppy, Joseph. Your cohorts didn’t just sell Sara out; they sold Desmond, Wendy, and Sanders out, too. When they were attacked at the greenhouse, the attack was designed specifically to drive both of Desmond and Sanders wild so the Inquisition would be forced to kill them. Someone in your pack wants to be Alpha. Who is it?” Richard demanded.
“Mrs. Desmond’s really pregnant?” Joseph blurted.
Arching a brow, Richard met Joseph’s gaze until my mate’s Second lowered his eyes. “Let me rephrase this for you, Joseph. I know you’re tired; you’ve probably been enjoying a silver cell for the past couple of days and likely aren’t thinking clearly. Take a deep breath.”
With a furrowed brow, Joseph obeyed. His eyes widened further, and moving far faster than I thought possible in his weary state, he grabbed hold of my hand, pulling my wrist to his nose. I squeaked. Only my wolf’s intervention stopped me from ripping free of his grasp.
“She could have lost the puppy, Joseph. Think about that really carefully. You know Sanders even better than I do. He knew she was pregnant when she was taken with Wendy. What would that have done to him if she hadn’t been exceptionally fortunate? She had to change to protect Wendy and her puppy. Look at how thin she is. Really see her.”
Joseph’s gaze dropped to my stomach, and without a word, he pressed the palm of his other hand against me without letting go of my wrist. “How long?”
“She was pregnant in New York.”
“I thought I was supposed to talk to him,” I grumbled, glaring at Richard.
“The puppy?” Joseph demanded.
“Pulled through fine despite how far along she is. A matter of luck and the help of a disgustingly clever water witch. Sara’s a bit worse for wear, but she’ll recover. Now, here’s how this will work, Joseph. Sara doesn’t want Sanders hurt any more. She doesn’t want the pack divided, split, and members killed. The Shadow Pope wanted to spare you since you were not involved with the greenhouse attack as far as we can tell.”