by Black, Tasha
Ainsley shivered at the thought and scrubbed harder.
“You already dusted there,” Erik said quietly from his post on the window seat. “Twice.”
She looked up to meet his warm brown eyes.
As always, the mere sight of him awoke her wolf’s awareness and she slid her eyes over his body, appreciating the broad shoulders and muscled biceps.
He grinned back at her with the confidence she loved.
Ainsley’s mate was less than deferential these days, but after all he was an alpha in his own right. He led a separate pack that had relocated to Tarker’s Hollow after a mine collapse in Copper Creek left them homeless and without leadership.
“Do you remember what happened to the last Federation member to pay us a visit?” she demanded, turning back to her work before she decided to rip his clothes off.
Erik hadn’t been around, but he knew how the last visit ended all too well. He also knew that Ophelia’s untimely death at the hands of the escaped moroi was likely to make this next representative less than friendly toward the wolves of Tarker’s Hollow.
Although he didn’t seem nearly as worried about it as Ainsley felt.
“I’m pretty sure Ophelia didn’t die from a dust allergy,” Erik teased. “But who knows, maybe if the mantel had been a little cleaner, everything would have worked out for the best.”
She laughed and threw the rag at him.
Erik snatched it out of the air as he crossed the room, wrapping one big hand around her hip and sliding the other into her hair.
Ainsley felt the stress drain away at his touch.
“Relax,” he whispered. “Everything is perfect. You are perfect.”
He kissed her forehead, his warm lips making her skin tingle.
“What if perfect isn’t good enough?” she asked.
“Councilman Ennis isn’t like Ophelia,” Erik told her.
His words were soothing, but they also served to remind her that Erik knew this councilman already, because, unlike Ainsley, he had never fled and turned his back on his pack.
Until a few months ago, Ainsley hadn’t known the first thing about being a wolf.
And now she was expected to be an alpha.
Her pack was counting on her.
Erik would always be a better wolf than she was, and thanks to the events in Copper Creek, he was also a better alpha. They were doing their best to manage the packs, but having two alphas in the same town was unheard of. What would the Federation have to say?
“Don’t worry,” Erik continued, as if he were reading her thoughts. “It’s not good for you. Either of you.”
He placed a warm hand on her belly.
Ainsley wasn’t showing yet, but she could sense the changes taking place inside her. She was hosting a new life.
She looked up to meet his gaze and the worries of the world slipped away. In Erik’s eyes Ainsley sometimes felt she could slip the bonds of time itself.
Her wolf pricked up its ears and she got a flash of herself from his point of view. She was ten years old, a loyal friend, dragging him out of the creek for help after a bully hurt him. She was seventeen, curvy and exquisitely beautiful, stealing a glance at him from behind the cover of a dog-eared text book. She was twenty-seven and glowing around the edges as she made love to him at last and he drew her alpha, surprising them both as the power shimmered and danced on her naked breasts and she absorbed the submission of the pack, in a moment neither of them would ever forget.
She twined her arms around his neck, pulling him closer.
Without a word, Erik’s mouth was on hers and he was kissing her gently.
She sighed and pressed her full breasts against his muscled chest.
He growled and thumbed open her jaw, thrusting his tongue against hers demandingly.
Their lovemaking had become more interesting since Erik became an alpha. From the moment of her alpha’s drawing, Ainsley had been the aggressor in their relationship, and Erik submitted to her desires enthusiastically.
This new, more assertive side of him was exciting to Ainsley the woman, but it was unsettling to her wolf, who had no wish to be submissive to anyone or anything.
The result was that Ainsley was hyper aware of the dynamic between them, alert to the nuance of each touch, the hiss of every breath as the power scales between them tipped one way and then the other.
She wrapped a leg around his narrow waist and used it to haul his hips to her.
He gasped and then ground himself against her. He was already hard as steel.
Ainsley felt her whole body opening and softening to receive him. She slid his t-shirt up and he pulled it off.
God, he was so hot.
Had he always been this hot?
He caught her staring and arched an eyebrow.
His eyes were so dark, his hair hung down a little too long over his forehead.
She let her gaze slide down over his wide muscled chest, six pack abs, and the thin trail of dark hair leading down to the fly of his jeans.
Ainsley mouth watered and she reached up to devour his lips again.
If being a wolf amped up her libido, being pregnant had made her ravenous. Sometimes Ainsley worried that she was going to use poor Erik up. But he seemed to be soldiering on happily.
He was nipping her lower lip, and had just wrapped his hands around her ass, when he suddenly froze.
A split second later Ainsley heard the footsteps approaching outside.
Dammit. She should have noticed that first.
“Get your shirt on,” she said, heading for the front room of Erik’s bungalow.
She smoothed down her dress and tucked her hair behind her ears, then stood and waited politely for the doorbell.
Just as Erik arrived at her side, there was a gentle knock at the door.
Erik opened it and a man stepped in.
Ainsley’s wolf approved immediately of his scent, a blend of tomato red friendliness and something that reminded her of her mother’s baking spice drawer.
He was short compared to Erik, with black hair, and a neatly trimmed beard flecked with a touch of gray, that stood out against the light brown of his skin. He had wide shoulders and carried a bit of extra weight around his belly. The man smiled and his eyes crinkled.
Ainsley was reminded immediately of her father.
“Councilman Ennis,” Erik said, offering the man a hand.
Instead of taking it, the smaller man swept Erik up in an enthusiastic embrace.
“So good to see you, son,” he declared. “It’s been entirely too long. When did you get to be taller than me?”
His accent was hard to place, a sort of clipped British that somehow made Ainsley think of a friend who had learned English during her childhood in India, but that wasn’t quite right.
The man turned from Erik and spotted her for the first time. He froze in his tracks.
He regarded her in silence for a moment so extended Ainsley wanted to squirm.
Could he have found a reason to reject her so quickly?
“My god,” he breathed at last. “But you are the spitting image of her. With your father’s kind eyes.”
The glimmer of a tear appeared in the corner of his eye, and Ainsley felt her own control starting to slip.
Before she could respond, he stepped over to her and embraced her warmly, pulling back only to kiss each of her cheeks.
“The world lost some of its light when your parents left it,” he told her. “But you, child, are a beacon against that darkness.”
“Thank you, Councilman Ennis,” she managed.
“Please, Yusef,” he corrected her.
Erik arched an impressed eyebrow at her from behind the councilman’s back.
“Can I offer you something to drink, Yusef?” she asked.
“Only if you will join me,” he smiled.
“I…” Ainsley trailed off, not wanting to drink while pregnant, but not wanting to reveal her pregnancy until she was quite sure where th
ey stood.
Yusef looked from Ainsley to Erik and back again.
“Evinize gelen yeni bireyden ötürü sizi kutlarız! Congratulations,” he exclaimed, throwing an arm around Erik. “It looks like we have a real reason to celebrate, my boy!”
Erik smiled happily and Ainsley could sense his great pride.
They walked through the formal sitting room, past the mantel, and went straight back to the kitchen together as if the three had been old friends for years.
Ainsley pulled out a bottle of red wine and poured out two glasses, handing them to Erik and Yusef.
“Pour another one, darling, your baby is in no danger,” Ennis urged her. “You’re a wolf. Your metabolism will take care of it.”
Ainsley wasn’t so sure. It must have shown on her face, as Ennis touched her hand reassuringly.
“I understand,” he said. “My Esma was the same way - didn’t touch a drop during her entire pregnancy. Any of them. Those were the longest years of my life.”
“You have children?” Ainsley asked.
“Five beautiful daughters,” he smiled.
“Wow,” Erik said. “I had no idea it was five.”
“It starts with one,” Ennis winked and nodded at Ainsley’s belly.
She smiled, trying to envision five children. These days it was hard to imagine the one that was coming.
Erik and Yusef sat at the counter and began to talk about babies as Ainsley set about making herself a cup of peppermint tea.
Erik had been right. Yusef Ennis was certainly nothing like Ophelia Winter. Ainsley couldn’t help but like him.
The scent of the hot tea and the warm conversation turned Ainsley’s thoughts to her best friend.
Ainsley missed Grace desperately. Though she knew her own happiness might be hard for Grace to bear after having lost her own love to the moroi.
With both Grace and her right-hand wolf Cressida gone, Ainsley was feeling downright lonely.
“I was just telling Erik how much I loved working with your parents, Ainsley,” Yusef said, pulling her from her reverie. “Your father was the alpha through and through, but your mother’s magic brought something entirely new and unexpected to the table.”
Ainsley smiled, wondering yet again how she could have grown up not knowing about the wolves and the magic - how all the young wolves in town grew up not knowing until they were teenagers.
But Tarker’s Hollow was predominantly a human town so keeping secrets was a necessity for the pack and the small magical population.
“Everyone had such high hopes,” Yusef continued. “She changed so much by bringing magic into the pack. Of course there were naysayers. There will always be those who balk in the face of progress. There was probably one caveman who talked about how great things were before the wheel,” he smiled. “But your mother, she was a force for change. A force we desperately needed as the numbers in the packs continued to dwindle.”
Ainsley sat opposite the two of them at the counter, placing her tea down to listen as Yusef spoke more about the challenges facing the wolves of Tarker’s Hollow and the nation.
He was obviously passionate about his work, and he had a unique perspective, having traveled so much for the Federation. Where Ophelia had taken pleasure in withholding information, Yusef seemed to take his joy in sharing, and he was eager to hear Ainsley and Erik’s take on the obstacles of a modern pack.
He did not speak about the one thing Ainsley had worried about since she’d heard he was on his way - the fact that their two packs now guarded an empty portal in a small town full of college students and precariously close to a major city.
They talked and laughed until the wine was gone.
Then he stood, stretched and groaned.
“It’s time for me to take my leave,” he announced.
“Stay here,” Ainsley offered at once. “We have a guest room, it’s not fancy but it’s comfortable.”
“That’s very kind, my dear,” he smiled at her. “But my things are already at my lodgings. And I wouldn’t dream of robbing you of a peaceful night together. You will appreciate the true value of that soon enough.”
He gave her belly a significant look and she laughed.
“Tonight was a true pleasure. We will talk business tomorrow,” he promised.
They walked him to the door where he embraced them both.
“You’re very special people,” he told them. “A town the size of Tarker’s Hollow hardly needs two such capable alphas, and Ophelia’s passing has left a vacancy on the council. Something to consider.”
He was down the front steps and half way to his car before it sank in.
Son of a bitch, Ainsley thought to herself. He came here to recruit Erik to the Federation Council.
Maybe Yusef was more like Ophelia than she had thought.
“Ainsley,” Erik said softly.
She turned to him.
His dark eyes were tortured. He hadn’t missed the ominous meaning in those parting comments.
Without a word he fell to his knees, wrapping his strong arms around her and burying his face in her belly.
Ainsley stood over him, not aloof, but unable to allow herself to weaken in the face of this danger to her family. She ran her fingers through his hair as she studied the stars over the meadow outside and wondered what her next move was.
If there was going to be a fight, she wanted to be ready.
Chapter 3
Cressida was glad to be back in Tarker’s Hollow.
Grace had dropped her at her grandfather’s house, but she’d headed out almost immediately from there.
“Going to find Ainsley Connor, huh?” her grandfather had chuckled from his rocking chair.
She nodded.
“Fine, fine,” he replied. “Just save a little time for grandpa. We gotta decorate our tree.”
She glanced at the little Douglas fir he’d set up by the window. Probably picked it up at the firehouse tree sale. She hoped he had the good sense to let them to deliver it.
“Want to do it now?” she offered.
“Nah, go find your friend,” he’d told her.
She’d nodded gratefully, headed right out the door and started jogging through the snow.
Cressida always felt a pull to her alpha, but it was stronger here, as if their proximity to each other strengthened the connection.
She slowed down when she got onto Princeton Avenue. Half a block away, and she could tell by scent that Ainsley wasn’t home. Dammit.
She continued to the house since her nose also told her that MacGregor was there.
Sure enough, the pack beta was out front of Ainsley’s place, sprinkling rock salt on the freshly swept walk. The former high school teacher was handsome in a rumpled way.
“Hey, Mac,” she said.
“Cressida.” He smiled warmly. “I didn’t even know you guys were back in town.”
“We just got in,” she explained. “Where’s Ainsley?”
Mac ran a hand through his blond hair.
“She’s meeting with a Federation rep,” he said, sounding tired. “They’re at Erik’s house.”
Cressida knew J.D. MacGregor well enough to catch the note of stress in his voice. And she hardly blamed him. The last time the Federation had sent a rep she had been killed at the hands of the same moroi she and Grace were still chasing. And that was after Cressida and Javier had been tasked with entertaining her, of course.
A little ripple of excitement went through her at the thought of Javier. She really wanted to hook up with him now that she was home, but she didn’t want to be in a rush to do it or anything.
“Guess I’ll go for a run, then,” she told Mac over her shoulder as she trotted around to the back of Ainsley’s house.
The one good thing about roaming the little mountain town of Copper Creek had been the freedom to shift as much as she wanted. Now that she was back in the suburbs, she almost resented the constraint. She’d only been home an hour and already her skin f
elt too tight.
Cressida hopped the picket fence at the back of Ainsley’s yard and dashed into the woods, stopping only to strip off her clothes and bundle them in the crook of a tree for when she shifted back.
Shifters ran warm, but there was enough bite in the air for her to feel it.
When she stepped into her silver wolf though, the sensation of cold was gone, replaced with the delight of sucking sparkling cool air into her lungs.
The sight of the gorgeous green foliage under an inch of snow faded, but her sense of smell expanded a hundredfold and she could practically taste Ainsley’s presence in the air - the whole area around the house was covered in traces of the alpha.
Ainsley’s scent was more interesting now that she was pregnant. And Cressida had already intensely bonded to the baby. Though the child wouldn’t know she was part of the shifter world until puberty, Cressida would protect and guide her in human form until then.
Filled with glee at the thought of the little one, Cressida launched herself into the woods in the direction of Erik’s house to be nearer to them.
Though Ainsley and Erik were mated, they still kept both houses.
Ainsley’s Victorian in the village had been her family home and was an ideal place to conduct all but the most sensitive pack business.
Erik had rehabbed his house from the ground up and it was located in a meadow on high ground near the creek and woods - a shifter paradise.
Cressida tore through the woods, snow squeaking between her paws. It delighted her to launch herself into the air, sail over downed trees and brush and land again only to fly over the next obstacle.
There was the tickly scent in the air of more snow on the way, and a lot of it. It was too early for this much snow, usually the real storms weren’t until after Christmas.
She scented the bright blue of creek water and headed for it, sliding to a stop on the edge of a large boulder, then lowering her snout for a pull of the near frozen water.
Her position at the creek, and the huge, lumpy sycamore that bent over it reminded her of the last time she’d been here. The portal they were meant to guard had been right under the sycamore the whole time. None of them had known the danger of the moroi lurking below until they had almost died trying to keep it from escaping.