by Lori Drake
Maria had the room to herself and had settled in a recliner with a book. Joey couldn’t see the cover from where she stood, but the way Maria snapped it closed and tucked it between her leg and the arm of the chair when she noticed Joey’s arrival aroused her curiosity.
“Hey, what’s up?” Maria said.
Joey wandered closer. “Oh, not much. Whatcha reading?”
“Just something I found around the house. Did you want to watch a movie or something?”
“Or something,” Joey said, trying to swipe the book with a quick hand.
Maria was quicker, blocking the movement and shifting her leg to pin the book where it was. Snickering, Joey shoved Maria’s knee out of her way and fished out the book. A man’s bare chest dominated the cover, with a wolf lurking on the edge of a forest in the background.
Joey grinned. “You’re reading wolf porn.”
“I am not!” Maria’s cheeks reddened. “It’s research.”
“Research. Uh-huh.” Joey thumbed through the dog-eared pages and picked a random one to read from. “‘His eyes captivated me, stirring something deep and primal, a need I was only beginning to understand after two consecutive nights in his bed. My mating urge was at its peak, and it was all I could do to keep from begging him to take me back to that bed.’” Joey lifted her eyes from the page and nearly burst out laughing at the look of mortification on Maria’s face. “I’m gonna have to talk to Lucy about what she’s leaving around the house. I’m not sure Jenny’s old enough to read this kind of thing.”
Maria leaned over and snatched the book back, tucking it out of sight again. “Did you want something?”
“Well, yeah. But now that I know what kind of research you’ve been doing, I’m kind of curious why. Do we, uh, need to have the talk? About when one wolf loves another wolf very much…?” Joey knew it was awful but couldn’t resist teasing her a little bit.
Maria covered her face with her hands. A muffled “no” escaped from beneath them.
Swallowing laughter, Joey perched on the arm of her chair and patted Maria’s shoulder, schooling her face into a more neutral expression. “Okay, but seriously. If you have any questions about wolf, uh, mating habits… it’s okay to ask. You should know we’re not any different from humans. We come in all shapes and sizes, with and without kinks.”
“Okay.” Maria’s voice sounded tiny. She probably wished she could disappear into the recliner’s cushions right about then.
“Great.” Joey squeezed Maria’s shoulder. “So, topic change?”
“Please.”
“Adam tracked down your birth pack. Or, at least, the last known Alpha of the Cincinnati pack.”
Maria slowly lowered her hands and looked up, expression guarded. “Oh?”
“Yeah. He lives in Wenatchee, a few hours’ drive from here. Chris and I were thinking you might like to go meet him. Maybe he’ll have some answers about where you came from.”
“Oh,” she said again, looking away.
Sensing some hesitation, Joey cocked her head. “You don’t have to. Heck, you don’t even have to decide today. At some point, Chris and I will want to make contact with him regardless. It’s always good for Alphas with territory near one another to communicate. But you don’t need to be involved if you don’t want to be.”
“I don’t know.” Maria picked at the frayed edge of the hole in her jeans. “I mean, I want to know more about my mom and dad, and Lord knows I’d like to get out of the house for a while. I just…”
Joey gave her a chance to finish, but when Maria didn’t, she nudged her gently. “Just what?”
“Just, I dunno. I’ve gotten mostly used to you guys, and you’re okay, I guess. I dunno if I’m ready to meet other wolves. This has all been… a lot.”
“Thanks. You’re okay too, I guess.” Joey gave her another gentle nudge. “Well, think about it. There’s no big rush.”
Maria nodded, was quiet for a few seconds, and then said, “Okay.”
“Alright, I’ll get out of your hair. Enjoy your wolf porn.” Joey stood but paused when Maria’s hand whipped out to catch her wrist.
“No, I mean… okay, I’ll go. How soon can we leave?”
Joey forced a smile and swallowed a sudden wave of disappointment. She hadn’t realized until then how much she’d been hoping Maria wouldn’t want to make the trip anytime soon. “Maybe as early as tomorrow. I’ll let you know. I need to talk to Chris and make some arrangements.”
Maria hopped to her feet, book in hand. “Will we be gone overnight?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe? It depends on the reception we get, I suppose. Some Alphas are more welcoming of visitors than others. I’d say bring enough for two or three days.”
Maria nodded and turned to go, stopped, and turned back again to wrap Joey in a hug. “Thank you.”
Joey gave her a squeeze in return and patted her back. “You’re welcome.”
After Maria left, Joey slid into the chair she’d vacated and fished out her phone. She sent a quick text to Chris to let him know the trip was on, mostly because she was too lazy to go find him just to tell him that. Then she pulled up her chat history with Ben and sat there staring at the cursor for a while. After typing and deleting a few messages, she settled on:
Up for a road trip? Need someone to ride shotgun. Family business.
He replied after a minute or so. How long?
2-3 days, tops.
Any cute he-wolves?
Maybe.
When?
Tomorrow.
By the time he replied again, Joey was doing the modern equivalent of channel surfing, paging through one of the household streaming services in search of something to watch.
I’m in.
Joey turned off the television and climbed out of the recliner. Ben wouldn’t actually kill her for roping him into a three-hour car ride with Maria, but she probably wouldn’t be able to get away with being as sparse on details the next time she wanted a favor.
As she strode from the room to go do some packing of her own, she took some small comfort in a decision being made, even if it wasn’t quite the one she’d wanted.
It was Lucas’s turn to host the pack meeting, so Chris made the second trip of the day to Lucas’s mountain lodge after dinner. The front gate was wide open, and Sam’s truck was already parked in the drive, so he didn’t bother waiting for his brother before climbing the steps and ringing the bell.
One of Lucas’s new packmates answered the door. It was the she-wolf. Nicole, he remembered after a moment.
“Hey, come on in. Chris, right?” she said with a hundred-watt smile, opening the door wide. Her blonde hair was swept up in a high ponytail, and she wore a cherry-printed white halter dress that emphasized her ample bosom and narrow waist.
Chris nodded and crossed the threshold, getting a whiff of baby oil and honeysuckle as he did. It was an odd combination, to be sure. His sensitive nostrils tingled, but he managed not to sneeze.
“This way.” Nicole motioned for him to follow her. Her patent leather red heels clicked on the tile as she sauntered ahead of him, leading him across the foyer and up the stairs.
Chris knew the house like the back of his hand, but there was no telling where Lucas wanted to have the meeting this week. It’d been somewhere different each time he hosted—designed, Chris suspected, to show off whatever changes Lucas had made to a room to suit him. Chris did his best not to look around as they walked, not wanting to get worked up about where some precious piece of art or another had disappeared to before the meeting even started.
Nicole rapped lightly on the door to the room that’d been Joey’s—and their mother’s—study.
Lucas himself opened the door, smiling broadly. “There you are. Fashionably late as always, eh? Come on in.”
Chris was not, in fact, late. He knew this but didn’t rise to the bait. Instead, he merely went inside. What he found stopped him in his tracks.
The mahogany desk was the same, as
were the wing-backed chairs opposite it—one of which Sam sat in. The floor was still covered with the same brown rug edged with Celtic knot work. But the floor-to-ceiling bookcases, as well as the display cases around the room were empty. His mother’s book collection as well as her most cherished antiquities were nowhere to be seen.
Chris spun and grabbed the front of Lucas’s shirt, shoving him against the freshly closed door. Their eyes locked, and Chris’s wolf clawed at his insides, demanding to be let out. A low growl escaped him, but he kept the rest in check. For now.
“Where is it? What did you do with it?”
“With what?” Lucas held his gaze, not cowed in the slightest. If anything, he seemed bored—which only riled Chris’s wolf up more.
Chris’s tightened his grip on Lucas’s shirt. “All of it. The books, the artifacts, everything.”
“Some of it’s in storage. Some of it’s being appraised. If there’s something in particular you’re interested in, you should talk to your brother.”
“Chris.” Sam laid a hand on his shoulder. “Let him go.”
Chris gritted his teeth against the alpha dominance laced into his brother’s words. The fact that Sam was trying to use it on him at all irked him. He held Lucas’s eyes a moment more, then released his shirt and took a step back to get some air. He took a deep breath before turning to face Sam. “What’s going on?”
It was Lucas who answered, as he smoothed the front of his shirt. “Sammie’s buying some of your mom’s old shit.”
“We can talk about it later,” Sam said, with his customary unruffled calm.
Chris eyed Sam, confused but willing to table the discussion for now. “Fine. Let’s get this meeting underway, then.” He marched over to the desk and settled in one of the wing-backed chairs.
Sam joined him in the other chair, while Lucas walked around the desk to sit behind it. He opened a drawer and pulled out a bottle of bourbon.
“Can I offer you boys a drink?” Lucas asked. They declined and waited while Lucas poured himself one and took a sip from the cut crystal glass before leaning back in his chair. “Mmm. Your mom did have good taste in booze, I’ll give her that. So, what do we have to discuss tonight?” His eyes settled on Chris.
Chris tapped his fingers against his leg. As senior Alpha, he had the right to bring the first order of business before the assembly. Lucas liked to skate the line, pushing the limits one moment and sticking to the letter of the law the next. It made him an unpredictable adversary.
“Let’s talk about Vince,” Chris said.
Lucas swirled the amber liquid around in his glass. “What about him?”
“He’s dangerously unstable,” Chris said.
“If this is about the challenge—” Lucas began.
“It’s not only about the challenge,” Sam said. “His wolf is practically feral.”
Lucas snorted. “Feral. That’s overstating it a little, don’t you think?”
“I don’t think so.” Chris leaned forward in his chair. “You can’t say you haven’t noticed the way he’s”—he struggled to find the right word—“leaking.”
“I won’t deny that he has a problem. That’s one of the reasons I recruited him. To try to help him.”
“Speaking of recruiting him,” Chris said, “a heads-up might’ve been nice.”
“A heads-up like the one you gave me when you went to run him out of town the other night? You know, that whole situation could’ve been avoided if you’d read me in. I would’ve told you he was one of mine.”
“Don’t confuse the issue,” Sam said. “What we’re talking about here is a dangerous wolf that’s barely under control, even during the new moon, when his wolf is weakest. How much worse will it get?”
Lucas lifted a brow. “With respect, that’s a matter for me and mine.”
“With respect,” Chris said, more than a little caustic, “unless you plan to supervise him twenty-four-seven or keep him confined to the house… it affects all of us. What if he loses control and shifts in front of witnesses? What if he hurts someone?”
“I have everything under control,” Lucas said, fingers tightening on his glass almost imperceptibly. “I have him under control.”
Chris sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers. “Oh, really? Is that why he challenged you, then? Because you have him under control?”
Lucas set his glass down on the desk with a noisy thud. “Is that what this is really about? Your girlfriend is riding your ass about not being able to challenge me?”
“Fiancée,” Chris said through gritted teeth.
Sam cleared his throat. “No, that’s not what this is about. But now that you’ve brought it up…”
“I know what you think.” Lucas gestured vaguely with one hand. “You think I made it up so I could get out of fighting Joey. But there really was a challenge. Nicole and Blake witnessed it.”
“We’d feel a lot better if someone we knew had witnessed it,” Sam said, and Chris nodded his agreement.
“Get used to disappointment,” Lucas said. “Challenges are pack business, and unless you’ve changed your mind, you’re not part of mine.”
“We’re not accusing you of anything,” Sam said. “But you have to admit, the timing was awfully convenient.”
“I had no way of knowing when Joey would finally get around to challenging me. It’s been months. And I don’t appreciate the implication that I’m in any way afraid of your kid sister, by the way.”
“We’re getting off topic. We’re supposed to be talking about Vince, and I think in his condition he shouldn’t be challenging anyone.”
“I told you, I can handle him.”
Chris frowned, a thought occurring to him while he listened to them go back and forth. What if Lucas really did want to help Vince? What if the reason he hadn’t exiled him after the challenge was because of how dangerous Vince was? It was what Chris would’ve done in his shoes. As hard as it was to believe that Lucas had someone’s interests besides his own at heart, it was possible.
“You don’t have to do it alone,” Chris said. “Let us help.”
Lucas blinked. “What?”
“Yeah, what?” Sam said, brows inching upward.
Chris shifted in his chair, crossing his ankle over a knee. “Well, have you ever dealt with a wolf in his condition before?”
Lucas narrowed his eyes. “I’m perfectly capable of—”
“I’m not questioning your fitness.” This time. “I’m asking if you’ve ever dealt with a wolf in his condition.”
Lucas’s wary eyes shifted between the two Alphas across from him. “Why, have you?”
“No.” Chris glanced at Sam, who shook his head. “But we all have a vested interest in his rehabilitation. I know you think this is a pack matter, but if you really want to help him… let us help you.”
Lucas took a thoughtful sip of his drink, eyes wandering toward the window. He sat in silence for several long seconds before responding. “How do you think you can help?”
Chris felt the weight of Sam’s gaze and knew he was just as curious. “Well, just because none of us knows what to do for Vince doesn’t mean no one does. We can start by reaching out to other wolves. Older ones. Dad and Itsuo, for example, are both near two centuries old. Maybe they know something—or someone—that would help. I also have contacts in the witch community. Lycanthropes are magical creatures, right? Maybe magic will help.”
“For the record,” Lucas said, “I’ve already got a few irons in the fire. But you do make a compelling argument. Okay, you can help.”
Chris let himself relax into the chair, an easy smile forming on his lips. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Lucas snorted. “Don’t push your luck.”
“Gentlemen,” Sam said, before the fragile truce broke. “Now, about future challenges…?”
Chris kept his mouth shut, waiting to see what Lucas would have to say.
“I agree,” Lucas said. “Vince won’t be maki
ng any more challenges—at least none we’ll recognize—until his wolf is under control. But he wasn’t the first, and he’s unlikely to be the last. Really, if I’d known how many people wanted a shot at the Grant fortune, I—”
Chris sat straighter in his chair. “Wait. Are you saying there’ve been others?”
Lucas nodded.
“For fuck’s sake. Why are we just now hearing about it?” Chris looked at Sam, taking in his brother’s utter lack of surprise. “You knew?”
“I was one of them,” Sam said, without a hint of regret, much less shame.
“Twice,” Lucas added with a smirk.
Chris groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Does Joey know?”
“Not that I know of,” Sam replied. “But we can discuss that later.”
“Oh, we will. Trust me on that.” Chris gave his brother a look, but Sam remained unruffled. “Well, I hate to interrupt your busy challenge schedule,” Chris said to Lucas, “but Joey deserves a shot at reclaiming what was hers. And I’m not just saying that because she’s my mate.”
Lucas gazed back at him placidly. “I’m an Alpha with a pack to run, not a debutante with a dance card. She has the same rights as any challenger.”
Chris stood and leaned over the desk, pressing the tips of his fingers against its cool wooden surface. “Bullshit. She took you into her confidence, and you took advantage of her. For a guy who gets awfully offended at the implication that he’s intimidated by her, you sure are doing your damnedest to avoid fighting her.”
“I told you. I don’t like to fight girls if I don’t have to.” Lucas shrugged and drained the last of the amber liquid from his glass. “But fine, we’ll do this your way. Tell her I accept her challenge, and set the time for next Thursday at eleven p.m. Be there, or be square.”
“We’ll be there,” Chris said, then straightened. “Now, do we have any other business to discuss?”