by Delta James
Geoff took Darby’s hand and rubbed his forehead and cheek against it in an age-old show of respect and loyalty.
She turned toward Jean-Michel. “I’m sorry, my love. I should have told you. If you don’t want to be mated to me…”
He folded her in his arms. “Shhh,” he said soothingly as her kissed her gently. “I suspected the entire story was worse than you let on, but figured you’d tell me when you were ready. You are home now. You have me and the rest of our pack. No one will ever hurt you again.”
A comforting and supportive cry went up from the group and they gathered around her.
“Never doubt that nothing you ever did before or was done to you could make me waver in my devotion or the depth of my love for you. You are my fated mate… and I am yours now and forever.”
Summer made a sound of disgust. “That’s all fine and well for you, but it won’t happen to me. I can fight for myself.”
“Can you?” piped up Megan. “As I recall when the Serbs came, you were being dragged back to their boat by the roots of your hair until Darby killed the two trying to take her and attacked the two that had you. The way I remember it, if it weren’t for Darby, you’d most likely have ended up with that bunch of losers with the whole lot of them breeding you repeatedly.”
The pack all looked at their beta’s mate questioningly. She smiled and nodded. “Trust me, our alpha doesn’t ever really want to piss his mate off… especially if there’s a sharp knife anywhere around. We buried six of them at sea… Darby killed three of them, Skylar two, and Roz, our beta, took out the last of them. The rest we sent home licking their wounds and, I’m sure, plotting their revenge.”
“That was different,” stammered Summer. “We weren’t prepared for an attack…”
“Enough,” said Jean-Michel calmly. “Like it or not, Summer, you are a member of this pack and subject to my authority. Within that authority I have made the decision to honor Geoff’s request to claim you. You have a choice to make. Do you want to accept that perhaps others know what is best for you and accept his claim or do you prefer to run?”
“He could take her into the library and give her the welting she needs to force her acceptance,” JD offered. “That seems to have worked for Nick and Bianca of Calon Gwyllt.”
“Yes, he could. But I worry that it would be distressing for the other women of our pack. Offering a woman a chance to run is a time-honored tradition in wolf society.”
“What are the parameters that allow me to win?” asked Summer, knowing that Skylar’s original mate had chased her down for two days.
“Tradition says that for as long as he wants to chase, you must run. I do not feel that offers a woman anything more than the illusion of being able to break free of her pack. So, I will set the parameters at twenty-four hours or the boundaries of our home here at the plantation, whichever is first achieved. Do you have the clothing and footwear that you feel you need to be successful?”
She nodded.
“Then we will gather and you can start your run when the rest of our ladies return from a trip into the city. Until then you will be returned to your room. Geoff, I give you leave to try to persuade your mate that this is not the course she wants to pursue, but you may not discipline her for her naughtiness until after you have caught her or she has accepted your claim, whichever comes first.”
JD moved forward and took her by the upper arm to take her back upstairs. “I don’t suppose, Jean-Michel, you’d be inclined to let me punish her in the way she needs?”
“No. She is Geoff’s and he can see to providing her the structure and correction that she seems to need.” Jean-Michel turned to Darby. “Beloved, while you are shopping, please ensure that all of our ladies get several things that please them and start rebuilding Summer’s wardrobe as she doesn’t have many things either.”
“Yes, Alpha, your wish is my command.”
He laughed. “Yes, but only because it was what you planned to do anyway.”
She giggled. “But, of course. Summer, I’d rest and plot my best way out of here. My money’s on Geoff.” She reached out and squeezed Geoff’s arm. “Now, ladies, there’s a car waiting for us and our alpha’s money to spend.” She kissed Jean-Michel and headed out to the car waiting to take them into the city.
Chapter Fourteen
Vachon had taken the liberty of securing appointments at one of the nail salons in the city to attend to the ladies of the pack. It was within the French Quarter itself and boasted mimosas, wine, soft drinks, and water for those having services done.
As Darby was sitting in the pedicure chair, one foot in the bubbling water and one being worked on, she turned to Gretchen. “Is Vachon always this good at setting things up on the fly?”
Gretchen nodded. “Yes. He’s incredible. I swear if you asked him to get you the keys to the city of Atlantis, with just a bit of notice, he’d pull it off. Someone from his family has been the general manager of the plantation since the time of Jean Lafitte. If you want or need anything, just ask Vachon. Also Mrs. Hastings is the most amazing housekeeper, she runs the staff. She’s the virtual iron fist in a velvet glove. And well, you’ve already tasted Claudine’s cooking. By the way, she was just tickled with the notes you sent back with the trays.”
Megan leaned over to them from her pedicure chair. “I’m not sure we’re ever going to get Lily to leave.”
“I heard that,” said Lily. “And I do think you can just leave me here and I will have this nice young lady massage my feet and calves for the rest of the day. Oh, my God, this feels amazing.”
Darby arranged for Lily to do just that. The nail technician was tickled to be allowed to just take care of one patron for the rest of the day. Lily seemed more comfortable than she had been for a while. The five remaining female members of the pack left to explore the city’s most fashionable shops.
It didn’t take long for both Darby and Megan to feel as though they had been friends with the women of their packs for their whole lives. They laughed and teased each other and made a serious dent in the credit card Jean-Michel had given Darby. Darby had been surprised when she took the card out to use it to discover that it was in her name. Jean-Michel must have ordered it the day after he claimed her. As her mate had requested, Darby watched as someone would find something, try it on, and then put it back as being unnecessary. She was having great fun then purchasing it for her anyway.
It had been a lovely afternoon and the five mated women of the pack were headed back to pick up Lily before having the driver take them home. The driver, Jackson, stopped the car in front of the nail salon and relocked the doors before any of the women could get out. He opened the divider between the front and back and said to Darby, “This doesn’t look right. There doesn’t seem to be any activity and yet the sign says open. Please wait in the car until I come and open the door.”
Jackson was right; the lights were on as was the ‘Open’ sign, but you couldn’t see anyone moving around in the salon and Lily was not still perched in the pedicure chair in which they’d left her.
He got out and headed toward the door of the salon. A small group of men who had kept out of sight until then jumped him and made a beeline for the car door. Finding it locked, they pounded on the roof of the car.
Inside the car, Megan looked at Darby. “Is it just me…”
“No, they’re some of the bastards from my former mate’s pack.”
Before Darby could say more, one of them had pulled out a knife and was now threatening to cut their driver’s throat.
Darby turned to the other women. “Stay here. Lock the door immediately after me and somebody get on the phone with Jean-Michel.”
Megan grabbed her. “Where are you going?”
“To see if I can’t buy us some time.” Darby dislodged Megan’s hand and got out of the car. One of the younger wolves from her former pack came at her and she growled low and menacingly. “Let my man go.”
“He isn’t your man,” said Je
d, who was the beta of her former pack.
“Oh, but he is. I am mate to the alpha of the New Orleans pack. If you’ve harmed the pregnant girl inside, you will die. If you withdraw now, I will try to ensure that my mate doesn’t hunt you down and kill you for invading his territory and threatening members of his pack.” She turned to the one still holding the knife and growled. “I told you to let him go.”
“Your true alpha wants you back.”
Darby laughed, surprised at the bitterness in the sound. “He is no alpha and his needs or desires no longer concern me.”
As the man had still not removed the knife from the driver’s throat, Darby whirled and delivered a stunning blow to his head, causing him to stagger and drop the knife. She caught it and grabbed the closest member of the group and now held the knife to his throat. She nodded to the driver. “Get Lily and get her into the car.”
“Mistress…”
“Now, Jackson.” She watched as he went in and gathered the frightened Lily. “Are you all right?”
Lily nodded. “I will be.”
“Go around to the other side of the car and get her inside. Then you get in and drive them out of here.”
“I won’t leave you, mistress,” said Jackson.
“You’ll do as I tell you. This group of idiots isn’t going to do anything to me. That asshole I was mated to before will want the pleasure of beating me for himself. Get the girls and get out of here.” She held his eyes with her own until he nodded in agreement.
He put Lily into the car, got in, and drove off.
“Put the knife down, Darby. We have you outnumbered and we still hold the hostages in the salon. Bobby wants you back,” said Jed.
“As I said, what Bobby wants or doesn’t want is no longer my concern. But you’re right in that you have me outnumbered and have hostages. I’ll tell you again, if you leave right now and provided no one’s been hurt, I’ll persuade Jean-Michel not to hunt you down and kill you. But you’d better start looking for a new alpha. Jean-Michel already wanted Bobby’s head on a platter. I doubt now that I’ll be able to dissuade him.”
“We’ll see about that. Bobby plans to challenge his claim to you and your new mate isn’t overly popular with the Council.” Jed continued to smile at her with his assumed air of authority.
“My mate couldn’t give less of a damn about the Council. He holds and protects what’s his. As I said, you can leave now and I can assure him that you’ll never bother me or ours again. Anything other than that and you won’t be breathing by this time next week.”
“Put the knife down. You’re coming with us.”
“Let the people in the salon close up and go home and I will surrender the knife.”
Jed indicated that the gang should do as she wanted. She assured the salon manager that everything would be fine and that he should look to his own people’s safety. As soon as they had left, Darby let her hostage go, flipped the knife so she had it by the blade, and offered it to Jed.
“Bobby’s got plans to knot you the minute he gets hold of you. I’m going to ask him if some of us can watch. And who knows, maybe we’ll get a turn.”
“Why would you want to watch? He doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing with the damn thing and it isn’t all that impressive.”
Jed slapped her across the face and then grabbed her by the arm and started her back toward their waiting van.
* * *
Megan watched as they pulled away, leaving Darby to face her former pack alone. “I don’t like this. How long will it take our people to mobilize and get into the city? They’re at least ninety minutes away, right?”
Gretchen nodded, but Lily said, “No, they’re already headed in. The minute those boys stepped into the salon, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I hit the panic button on my cell phone. They should be close.”
“Good thinking, Lily,” Gretchen said, turning to Megan. “New Orleans can be a dangerous city. Jean-Michel had panic buttons installed on everyone’s cell phones. He’s always said he’d much rather respond to a false alarm than not be able to get to someone in time. Do you think they’ll hurt her?”
Megan shook her head. “From what little I know, and I never knew it was that bad, Darby’s former mate will want to save hurting her for himself.” She looked directly at Gretchen. “He’ll kill them, won’t he?”
“If they put one hair out of place on her head, yes, he will. Either way her former mate is a walking dead man.”
“After what I heard today, I can be okay with that. JD said Jean-Michel had been struggling with wanting to honor Darby’s wishes in the matter and wanting the man dead by his hand.”
Megan was startled when her cell phone buzzed at her. She looked down to see it was JD. “Hey, babe. I’ve put you on speaker. Everyone is fine, except Darby. They have her. She traded herself for our and the people in the salon’s safety.”
“But the rest of you are safe? How’s Lily?” asked JD.
“I’m fine, JD. Tell Peter to quit worrying. Baby and I are both fine. Worried about Darby, but other than that, fine,” said Lily.
JD chuckled. “I’ll tell him—won’t do any good, but I’ll tell him. Jean-Michel wants all of you taken straight home. Geoff and some of the men are there. Once you’re inside, the whole place is being put on lockdown until we return. It’s her former mate, isn’t it?”
“Not him personally, but his people. JD, I’m afraid of what he’ll do to her. She’s not the same mate who ran from him in terror. You should have seen her take the knife away from one guy and then use it to hold another one hostage until we could get away. She was incredible.”
“No wonder the old bastards at the Council were afraid of Bae Diogel,” said Gretchen.
“As long as the rest of you are safe, we’ll deal with these bastards. Jean-Michel has already put the Council on notice that they invaded our territory, threatened our women, and took his mate as hostage. He intends to show them no mercy. Be safe. We’ll be home with Darby just as soon as we can be.”
* * *
JD hung up at the phone and looked at his lifelong friend. “You heard?”
“Yes. I want to be angry that she exchanged her safety for others. But I can’t. She did what needed doing. I am humbled to be mated to such a woman.”
“As well you should be.”
“Let’s go teach these bastards a lesson about invading our city and daring to threaten our mates.”
It was all JD could do to refrain from recoiling from the malicious look in the eyes of his friend. That Darby’s former mate would die was no longer a question. Whether Jean-Michel would wipe out the entire male side of that pack would depend on whether or not they had harmed Darby.
They sped into the city ready to retake what had been stolen from them. Jean-Michel had been able to locate the private airport and plane that the pack planned to use to spirit Darby away. If they failed to stop them within the city, stopping that plane would become paramount. He knew the men he had dispatched would not fail him.
* * *
Darby sat quietly wedged between two of her former pack members, one she remembered as being fairly sympathetic. He leaned over to her. “You shouldn’t have run from him. Bobby was all kinds of upset. Then when you and those bitches at Bae Diogel messed him up, he was really pissed. But mating with this guy… you’d better hope he didn’t get you knocked up. Bobby won’t stand for you to whelp another wolf’s cub.”
“You know, Jimmy, I always thought for one of his apes you were a fairly decent guy. But what Bobby wants, thinks, or does isn’t going to be a problem for much longer. My mate will kill him. I’m now debating the wisdom of not taking Jean-Michel up on his offer the night he ran me to ground to have Bobby’s head delivered to me on a platter. You and this group of idiots would only help yourself by dropping me off at a nice restaurant where I can get a cocktail and call my mate to come pick me up. I may be able to persuade him to let the lot of you live… but that isn’t a given.�
�
“Shut your hole, woman,” said Jed from the front seat. “Bobby’s gonna teach you good.”
Darby eyed him with quiet self-confidence. “Bobby won’t live to see the end of the week. And your chances aren’t looking too good either, Jed. If my mate learns you’re one of the men who raped me, he’ll rip your throat out with his bare hands.”
“It isn’t rape when your alpha tells you that you can use his woman’s pussy for your enjoyment. And you were always such a hot piece of tail. I looked forward to it when Bobby had too much to drink. I always made sure I was sober so that I could have a turn with you. Only wish he’d let me put my seed in you instead of all over your back. I’ll bet I could have put a baby in your belly.”
She smiled. “Doubtful. You know I’m going to enjoy watching you die. Maybe Jean-Michel will let me do it myself.”
“You wait until we get on that plane. I’m gonna call Bobby and see if he won’t let me take my belt to you as beta of our pack. That’ll give you something to think about on the way home.”
“My home is in the opposite direction. But he’s coming for you, Jed. You might want to use what little time you have left to say your goodbyes to anyone who gives a damn.”
“Geesh, Darby, don’t egg him on. You want him to use you rough again?” said Jimmy.
The phone rang; Jed smiled. “Now we’ll see what’s what, missy.” He hit the speaker function. “We got her, Bobby. And she’s a lot sassier than I remembered. You want me to give her a good whipping before we get home? She could sure use it.”
“Nah. I’m going to tan her hide when she gets here and then I’ll give her a good knotting. I got one really starting to bulge. It’s gonna feel good shoving it up her cunt four or five times before shooting my load in her.”
Darby shook her head but showed no fear. “You do know, you illiterate goon, that you haven’t a clue as to how to properly knot and tie a woman.”