Wolf Landing (Alpha Underground Book 3)

by Aimee Easterling

  Her eyes drifted toward the music and laughter emanating from the community house, and I let her off the hook with a certainty I didn’t really feel. “Go on in and talk to them if you want. Your father and I can get to know each other without you present.”

  Sinsa raised an eyebrow, seeing through my hearty demeanor with astute lupine eyes. Because, yes, her father was doing a better job at pretending to be human than I was at pretending to be a lackadaisical alpha. But Sinsa and I could both sense his wolf hovering in the background, hungry to test my defenses and throw around his weight.

  Still, I nodded again and Sinsa took me at my word this time. Grabbing her brother’s hand, she pulled him along behind in a lupine gesture that contrasted with her current two-legged form. Then I was alone with the new Tribunal member who had donned Stormwinder’s supercilious demeanor at the same time he took over the latter’s place on the regional council.

  The male also appeared to have inherited Stormwinder’s need to dominate. Because as soon as the door slammed shut, the air around me chilled by about twenty degrees while Brooks did his level best to send me to my knees. Frost crackled into existence at our feet and my breath once again turned white in front of my nose.

  But I wasn’t cowed. How could I be when my wolf wasn’t present to be slapped down?

  The thought of my lost partner made me speak without thinking. “Is that what you came for?” I asked grumpily. “To test me?”

  The words were ill advised since a Tribunal member had every right to do as he liked, even on another shifter’s land. And as I tasted the foul flavor permeating the air, I half expected Brooks to transition to a more physical form of threat, to dominate me the easy way now that his initial stare-down had failed.

  But maybe the Tribunal member was more like Sinsa than I’d given him credit for. Or maybe the shifters drifting out of the shadows to form up behind my back made Brooks change his mind about threatening an alpha in the heart of her clan home. Either way, the frost retreated from the gravel between us and the older male cleared his throat and spoke at last.

  “Sinsa says I have you to thank for rescuing her from a one-body hellhole and giving her a home,” Brooks growled. He was no longer visibly threatening me, but his pleasant words stood in stark contrast to the cold and guarded nature that continued to plague his tone. No, the Tribunal member wasn’t willing to relinquish his pride just yet.

  In fact, I got the distinct impression that my companion was asking what price he owed me for having saved his daughter’s life. But I wasn’t one to sell a bloodling pup to the highest bidder. “It was our pleasure,” I offered, speaking the unvarnished truth rather than acting like a traditional shifter and playing games when I had the upper hand.

  For a moment, we stood in silence, even the partygoers’ exuberant chatter seeming to fade into the background as Brooks tasted and tested my words. Then one corner of his mouth quirked up ever so slightly by way of reply. “I think you actually mean that,” he said finally.

  And, despite the seriousness of the occasion, I found myself rolling my eyes. At least I didn’t say “Well, duh” the way I wanted to.

  Then, as abruptly as Brooks’ cold eyes had speared me, I was dismissed. “Hunter,” he said, turning to the shifter who guarded my left shoulder, “I have a proposition for you. You need a job and the Tribunal needs an enforcer.”

  And so it begins again, I thought, reaching out to slide my fingers through those of my mate. I could sense his ambivalence in the tension along his neck and shoulders, and I couldn’t say I blamed him. Because on the one hand, he didn’t need another pesky father figure in his life who would let him down at the worst possible moment. On the other hand...well, Hunter had seemed a bit bored lately with only our bloodlings to keep in line. The adrenaline junkie side of him clearly craved a fix.

  “I left that job once,” my mate growled at last, his eyes flaring with anger but his gaze turning to the darkened trees rather than meeting our guest’s eyes. Hunter was making an effort not to slap Brooks down out of hand, I realized—I just hoped the older male appreciated the restraint.

  “The working conditions weren’t suitable,” Brooks started, only to have Hunter cut him off with a wave of his free hand.

  “I don’t give a shit about the working conditions,” my mate interjected. “I didn’t like the orders I was given.”

  Hackles raised all around me and this time I did mutter under my breath. Males. If I left them alone to decide the issue amongst themselves, we’d probably end up in the middle of a bloodbath. Just what we didn’t want the inhabitants of Arborville to see when they popped outside for a gander at the stars.

  “What he’s trying to say,” I offered, figuring Brooks needed a little translation from feral wolf to sophisticated two-legger, “is that there are shifters all over our region who need help. Shifters like your daughter. Shifters like Grey.”

  I hadn’t even realized the uber-alpha in question had shadowed my mate and settled behind my other shoulder, but now I heard his feet step closer as the air chilled along my exposed nape. Glancing back, though, I saw that the uber-alpha in question was bowing his head as he scuffed one foot into the dirt. Grey had accepted our clan more thoroughly than I’d thought if he had no verbal complaint to offer when I spoke on his behalf.

  Well, in for a penny in for a pound. Since neither of the uber-alphas flanking me seemed to object, I kept rolling along the path I’d chosen. “Hunter isn’t going to prop up the status quo. But if you let him fix the things that are broken, he’s your man. And Grey is as well.”

  Warm fingers squeezed against mine on one side while Grey’s eyes met mine from the other. Then the latter turned those piercing orbs on the Tribunal member, proving that I was on the right track after all.

  “Well?” I demanded, ignoring as best I could the tingle that ran down my spine at my mate’s touch as well as the satisfaction that came from seeing Grey act like a real member of our clan. This wasn’t the time to go all gooey-eyed. We had a deal to make.

  Before Brooks could respond, though, headlights appeared at the end of the driveway as a latecomer made his way to the party. We had a minute or less before this tête-à-tête would be interrupted by a one-body who we hoped to keep in the dark.

  But despite the deadline, Brooks merely stared at us through narrowed eyes for a long moment. Then, when my toes had begun to freeze in my boots, the Tribunal member nodded at last. “Done,” he agreed.

  And, finally, I figured it was safe to leave the hot-headed males behind to hash out details on their own. Time to deal with a devil of my own.

  ***

  I found Wolfie in the darkened backyard sitting cross-legged atop a frozen picnic table. And even though my former alpha was in human form, I was pretty sure his ear twitched, wolf-like, as I approached.

  Despite the gesture, he continued to stare out at the pinpricks of light peppering the sky while a screech owl called a tremulous whinny into the darkness. The bloodling’s stillness was contagious, and for a moment I paused and let the night cup me in quiet despite the party still going full steam no more than fifty feet away.

  Then I took a deep breath and stepped up to the metaphorical plate. An hour earlier, my pack and the assembled community had cheered my approach. But I knew the true test of my alpha status was yet to come. Could I release the crutch I’d been clinging to and stand on my own two feet?

  Without conscious volition, fingers slid to my hip to grasp the crutch in question. The hard hilt of Wolfie’s grandfather’s sword was a comforting weight in my hand, a reminder of the weapon’s companionship over the last few months. Still, the time had come to let it go. So I ignored my aching chest and slid the shining blade free to set it on the frost-rimmed wood beside my former alpha’s knee.

  For a split second, my fingers refused to release their grip. But then, finally, I pulled away and hopped up onto the tabletop shoulder to shoulder with my companion, legs swinging jauntily above the frozen grass.<
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  The momentary hesitation had fled as quickly as it came. Instead, I now felt lighter, more powerful, as if I could take on a crowd of outpack shifters with my bare hands. Astonishing how relinquishing an outgrown crutch reminded me I already knew how to run.

  “So you figured it out,” Wolfie said after I’d savored the sensation of my own strength for a long moment.

  “I figured it out,” I agreed. Because despite all of the events of the last week, I’d found time to chew on my current companion’s words from time to time. And once I overcame my fear, my former alpha’s meaning had become painfully obvious.

  “You’re nearly there,” Wolfie had told me back in the parking lot of the diner. And, “You don’t need my help.”

  Like my mate, Wolfie was a man of few words but much love. He’d tried to show me that everything I needed to become an alpha was already present inside my heart and brain. It had just taken a while to fully get the picture.

  And as my breathing calmed and the air around me warmed, a wolf that I’d assumed injured or worse abruptly leapt into life deep within my chest. Rising up along the passageway of my throat, she grabbed at my vocal cords and pulled me into a howl that twined around the celebratory song now emanating from Wolfie’s lips.

  Let’s run! my wolf asked. No demanded. I could feel the hairs on my arms lengthening, my spine itching to stretch and to change.

  Two weeks earlier, I would have fought against her insistent request, requiring instant obedience to human mores. But now I realized that my inner animal and I were one and the same. Like the wolf, I itched to tear through the woods on lupine paws. Like the wolf, I itched to hunt and run and howl at the moon.

  So, embracing both of our wishes, I wriggled out of clothes and shifted there beneath the stars. Looking over one shoulder, I wasn’t at all surprised to see wolves streaming out of the community building, wolves rushing to meet me, wolves running with wind in their fur.

  And why should I be surprised? After all, our pack bond was glowing in the air between us, linking my thoughts and actions to every shifter within my clan. Our connections were stronger and brighter than ever before. Of course they’d come when I called.

  I hoped my pack mates’ hasty excuses to the one-bodies left behind had been at least moderately believable. But as Hunter raced up beside me, nudging my shoulder and licking my muzzle, I couldn’t find it in myself to care about future human problems. Instead, he, I, my pack, and my wolf, flowed down the hillside united.

  Together, we ran.

  ***

  I hope you enjoyed the Alpha Underground trilogy! In case you missed the prequel novella, you can learn more about Hunter’s tumultuous introduction to Stormwinder in Dark Wolf Adrift.

  Then why not check out Wolfie and Terra’s adventure in my Wolf Rampant trilogy? Book one in the series is FREE, and you can download a no-cost copy of the spinoff serial if you sign up for my email list.

  Finally, before diving into further werewolf adventures, I hope you’ll consider typing up a review on the retailer of your choice. Your kind words keep me writing and help others decide whether to take a chance on a new author.

  Thank you so much for reading. You are why I write.