by Bonnie Vanak
“Two days from now. Since I doubt you packed winter clothing, I’ll have my assistant shop for you.” He caressed her body with his gaze, as if undressing her with his eyes. “You’re about a size fourteen, I believe.”
Darcy didn’t respond. Instead, she went to the large, framed photos Adrian had hung on the office wall. They were all from Silver Sleigh, his former home, the land owned by Lars Denton, his former alpha. After Adrian had returned to Silver Sleigh, powerful and leading his own pack, he’d destroyed Lars and taken over the remainder of the pack.
Silver Sleigh had been abandoned as Adrian moved his people east. It was a ghost town. Not even Skin tourists visited. The daring boldly ventured there, only to fall ill with violent retching soon as they crossed the invisible boundary, the line in the sand Adrian had drawn using his alpha magick.
“Is this where you buried Lars after you killed him?” Darcy pointed to a graveyard just outside of the cluster of wooden buildings.
The graves, scattered on a hillside, looked lonely and haunted. Eerie. A shiver snaked down her spine. At least she wouldn’t have to venture here.
“No.”
Darcy jumped. He’d spoked right in her ear. Quiet, so stealthy she had not heard him get up. Such was the power of a purebred alpha, she reminded herself.
Never drop your guard around him, Darce.
“That’s ground sacred to Lupines. I disposed of his bones in a place I never wanted to see again and boarded it up.”
Dread filled her. She knew the answer before he even told her. “The old mine.”
Peripheral vision enabled her to see his nod. “The mine was a source of pain and anguish for my people. A suitable burial ground for that bastard. I never imagined I’d have to return.”
“You should have burned his body and scattered his ashes to the four winds,” she muttered. Darcy had hated Lars, hated how the alpha had tormented the weak and frail.
Adrian lifted a strand of her hair, playfully tugged it. “My little warrior. So fierce.”
“I may be short, but I can bite and scratch just like you,” she warned.
A gleam ignited his gaze. “Good. I look forward to it…when I take you to my bed.”
Darcy sputtered. “In your dreams.”
“Oh, I have dreamed of that moment and many more. My lovers have always been strong women capable of meeting my needs.”
Arrogant ass. “I should have left you in the snow ten years ago,” she muttered.
“But you did not.” He released her hair. “In the meantime, Glenda will escort you to your room and take your measurements. Tell her what kind of items you need for winter weather. Your luggage has already been sent there. Dinner is at seven o’clock. We all dine together in the common room, two doors down.”
He opened his office door, called out, and a tall, elegant woman with rich curves, wearing all black walked inside. “Glenda, please see Miss Chambers to her room and get her anything she requires.”
As the woman went to leave, Darcy turned. “Adrian, one question before I go. Why did you bury him in the mine?”
For the first time, he refused to meet her gaze. Adrian studied the photo of the graveyard, his pulse racing so hard she could see the vein throb.
“The mine isn’t merely boarded up and warded with strong magick, Darcy. I left Lars alive there, barely alive, to die alone and in pain, as he left the elders he cast out.”
Glenda paled, and Darcy’s stomach pitched and roiled. “Oh no.”
“Oh yes. Death was too quick, too merciful for him.” Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“What if he’s still alive? Or worse, if he rises?” she whispered. “How could you destroy him?”
“He is dead.” His smile turned icy as a Colorado snowstorm. “I promise you this.”
But as she followed Glenda out of the room, a grim foreboding seized Darcy. Although Adrian was confident his former alpha was gone, Lars could still be alive.
Existing as a living, demonic spirit, ready to slay anyone in his path. She could only hope he had turned to bone and dust by now. If not and they opened the mine and Lars was alive…
Heaven help them all.
2
He had waited ten years for this moment.
Adrian was a patient man. He had no desire to rush things. Instead, he relished having Darcy in his grip at last.
She’d proven elusive after he’d recovered in the cave. The fifteen Lupines who had sought to warm him with their bodies had become his adopted pack. They were lost wolves, in need of leadership after their alpha passed away.
Soon as he’d been strong enough to lead them out of the cave, Darcy had vanished.
Oh, she’d reappeared now and again, even seeking shelter with him when he’d moved the pack to North Carolina when she was between her mysterious assignments. But always she’d danced away from his sexual advances, saying they were two different for each other.
He didn’t think so. No matter she was a Changeling Shifter and he was purebred alpha.
He wanted her.
He would have her, and that was all there was to it.
Adrian stood at the open sliding glass doors overlooking the rock garden. Instead of resting, or figuring a way to escape, or playing with her cell phone, the woman worked in the rock garden. Sorely neglected after the last hurricane, Adrian had left it as a test for a troublesome, egotistical Lupine to tend it. He told Walter if he weeded and cared for the garden, he’d hand him more responsibilities.
Walter failed the test, mainly because the Lupine thought gardening beneath him.
Foolish Lupine. He would soon find out gardening was a pleasant duty compared to what Adrian planned for him as punishment. But his interest now remained with the dark-haired beauty who yanked tall weeds and dug at the earth with zealous fervor.
Darcy knelt in the earth and then sat on her haunches. “This garden makes my head hurt. How did it get this bad?”
Walter, a younger male who had a sense of pure entitlement, sniffed. “Maybe it was waiting for the help like you.”
“I’m not a servant. I don’t belong to this pack.” Darcy leveled a cold stare at the offending male. “But you do, and leaving this garden in disgrace is a poor reflection of you, your pack and Adrian. And it annoys me to see this. So move your ass and pull those weeds.”
Face reddened, the male scurried to obey. Adrian chuckled. Such a female. Darcy had a natural leadership spirit. No need to raise her voice or whine. Lupines, both female and male, did as she pleased.
She would make an excellent mate for him. If only he could convince her of the role.
He owed Darcy a debt he could never hope to repay. Not saving his life, although that was what she ultimately did.
But saving the lives of more than a dozen ragged, starving Lupines who would have otherwise died without his leadership.
Not ego. Merely a fact. He was a purebred alpha, and ruling was in his blood and bones.
He never intended to become alpha of his own pack at such a young age. He’d been content to quietly wait in the background, learning because he knew he was too young, too inexperienced, to lead. Lars had been a good alpha, and the pack was happy.
All was well until Adrian reached sixteen. And then came the Skins with their greed, anger, hatred and weapons.
They made demands. Lars bit the bait—the money too tempting to resist. He worked his pack hard.
Power went to his head. Later, when quotas were not met, the pack paid.
Sometimes, in the case of the weak and the elderly, with their lives.
Adrian shook his head, clearing the memories as one would clear away wisps of a silky spider’s web.
To rule, one must be strong. Lars had been strong but later turned cruel. Darcy might see his next actions as equally cruel, but he would brook no disobedience.
No disrespect. Adrian strode outside to address Walter. “I told you to weed and tend the garden.”
With his blond hair and beard, Walter loo
ked more wild and Lupine than the other groomed males in the pack. Adrian waited.
Walter shook his head, folded his arms. “I deserve better than that. I went to college.”
Entitled. Arrogant. Adrian locked gazes with the male. “When I give an order, I expect obedience.”
“Or else?” Walter taunted.
Adrian gave him a long, thoughtful look. Then, without warning, his hand shot out, seized Walter by the throat. He lifted the younger Lupine, who kicked. Gasped.
“Must I make myself clear? Perhaps you have a hearing problem?” he suggested, never raising his voice.
More gasping. Pleading, now little gulps of desperation for air.
Adrian threw Walter against a tree. The male hit hard. Whimpered.
No stamina. No inner strength.
But Walter struggled to his feet, now his gaze lowered, his head as well. Blood streamed from his temple where his head had made contact with the tree.
“Yes, my alpha,” he murmured.
“Your punishment for disobedience is cleaning the bathrooms for the next six weeks. All the bathrooms.” Adrian did not smile. “And the diaper pails.”
Blood drained from the younger male’s face. “All the houses?”
“Every one. Go.”
Obviously needing no further encouragement, Walter scrambled away. Nearby, Darcy looked after him. Expression blank, she said nothing.
He waited for her to condemn him, accuse him of being harsh and overbearing.
Her next words stunned him.
“Twerp. Cleaning bathrooms and emptying diaper pails is too good for him. I’d make him use the poop as fertilizer in the garden.”
Throwing back his head, Adrian laughed. He enjoyed her spunk, her innovative streak. “Next time, my sweet.”
He joined her in the garden. The others working there stared at the ground with sudden fascination, not daring to lift their gazes in challenge.
“Leave us,” he ordered.
As Darcy went to stand, he dropped beside her, his hand on her wrist. “Not you, sweetheart. You stay.”
She glowered at him. “I’m not your sweetheart. Unlike your pack, I don’t take orders from you.”
“You do for the next two weeks,” he pointed out.
“Or?” She peeled off the flowered gardening gloves. “What are you going to do, turn me over to the cops because I took something from you? They’d never believe you.”
“I have no need of the authorities.” Adrian picked up an abandoned glove, inhaling the scent of earth, weeds and a delicate fragrance he knew was solely Darcy. “If you balk on your agreement, I will hunt you down and force you back to my pack.”
“Try. I’d like to see a wolf chase an eagle. A little challenging, even for you.”
“I’d never bother. I’d ask Tristan, the Silver Wizard, to intervene and strip you of your powers so we’d be on even terms. Four-legged ones.” He gave her a slow smile. “It would make the chase much more fun.”
Darcy’s jaw dropped. He tipped it up with his thumb.
“Tristan would never agree.”
Adrian knew otherwise, and so did she. The Silver Wizard, the judge and guardian of all Lupines, also ruled over Changeling Shifters like Darcy.
“I’m within my rights, and Tristan knows it. I know a thing or two about the Silver Wizard. He’s very much in favor of letting alphas have their way, as long as said alpha is not violating any rules or disrespecting females.” Adrian let his gaze roam over Darcy’s curves, from the swell of her bosom to the tiny waistline, to the flare of her hips, accented by the yoga pants she wore.
If he put his hands around her waist and pulled her close for a kiss, would she balk? Slap him? Or surrender as sweetly as she’d had the last time two years ago, when he’d stolen a kiss in the moonlight?
We shall see.
“I could argue that your arrogant attitude in ordering me around is disrespectful.”
“I’m not the one who stole anything,” Adrian pointed out. He had no desire to argue with her. “Did Glenda supply you with the clothing you need?”
Darcy nodded. “Seems as if there’s a warehouse of clothes in your pack. I don’t mind secondhand clothing as long as it’s in decent shape.”
He liked that about her, admired her honesty and her no-nonsense attitude. Adrian anticipated knowing much more about her by the time they returned from Colorado.
Most of it had to do with her preference of sexual positions. But he also yearned to know about her childhood, the background she’d always skirted around when they’d conversed in the past.
She knew almost everything about him, from how he’d ignored the advice of his parents and refused to move with them to Alaska to start a new pack when Lars threatened to kick them out for being purebloods, to how his challenging Lars resulted in a brutal fight that broke nearly every bone in Adrian’s young body, to his determination to offer refuge to Lupines who had no place else to go.
Darcy even knew that he could have his selection of eager, willing females in his pack for a mate, and he’d refused. She did not know why.
Adrian was determined to make Darcy into his lifelong mate.
“Come with me. I want you to meet someone,” he told her.
Darcy remained at his side as he detoured through the garden to a lavish playground bordering his mansion.
A cool breeze rustled through the slash pine boughs overhead, lifting the fresh scent of earth and flowers. Adrian inhaled, pleased at this choice he’d made for the pack. Florida was safer than North Carolina for his Lupines, and no threats followed them here. He’d made certain of this.
Anyone daring to even murmur a peep against his people and he’d tear their throat out.
Adrian would do the same to anyone threatening Darcy. She was under his protection, even though she wasn’t pack.
Yet.
Few children played on the swing sets and monkey bars this late in the day, but Hannah, a spry six-year-old, laughed and chased her older brothers as they batted a soccer ball about. In a chaise lounge set at the playground’s edge, beneath the cool shade of a sprawling live oak tree, an elderly woman rested. Adrian’s pulse kicked up, as it always did when he saw her.
“Peggy.” He bent down and kissed her pale, velvet-soft cheek.
He drew Darcy forward. “May I introduce Darcy? Darcy, this is Peggy, the matriarch of our people.”
“Oh posh. I’m no matriarch, just an old Lupine.” Lines like a road map carved Peggy’s careworn face as she smiled. Peggy held out both hands. “Pardon me for not rising, my dear, but my bones ache these days.”
Darcy bent down and gently squeezed her hands. “A pleasure, Madam Peggy.”
He could see Peggy liked the title. Peggy was old school, where manners and respect came first.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
Knowing eyes met his. “Today is a little worse than yesterday.”
Grief pinched him. It pained him to see the elders in his pack growing frail and nearing death. All he could do was make them comfortable and give them the best quality of life he could offer.
They sat on the grass next to Peggy to watch the children play. The contentment on the older Lupine’s face reassured Adrian. Having her descendants close made Peggy happy, and he was determined to make her feel as comfortable as possible.
Suddenly one of her brothers shoved Hannah. She tripped, fell and banged her knee on the hard wood edge of the teeter totter. An unearthly howl tore from the little girl’s throat.
Before anyone could react, Darcy was at Hannah’s side, crouching down, examining the girl.
“It’s not bad, honey. Only a scrape,” Darcy told her. “You banged it, that’s all.”
Hannah howled louder. “It hurts! It’s broken!”
The only way to quiet Hannah was a diversion. As Adrian started for her, Darcy patted the girl’s arm. “Do you like puppies?”
Hannah ceased crying, gave a jerky nod. Suddenly Darcy vanished, repl
aced by a fat, squirming Labrador puppy. Hannah cried out. “Puppy!”
Barking, Darcy the puppy lumbered off, followed by an eager Hannah, who had forgotten all about her injury. He laughed.
“She is some female,” Peggy said softly. “A keeper. She’d make a wonderful mother to those sons and daughters you keep assuring us you’ll produce some day.”
“Yes.”
“I only wish I could be there to meet your offspring, Adrian.”
Adrian’s throat tightened. We won’t talk about that. He gave her a typical impish grin that always coaxed a smile from this woman he revered. “Stick around a while, and you can watch me seduce her. First step to making those babies, Peggy.”
Peggy’s mouth twitched. “A female would have to be blind, deaf and stupid not to fall for your charm, my alpha.” She sighed. “She’s a good one, that Darcy. Thank you for bringing her here, Adrian. We need her.” She gave him a sage look. “You need her.”
I know.
He shrugged. “I must convince Darcy to listen to you, elder mother. Learn from your wisdom.”
A gruff laugh escaped Peggy. “You’re a scoundrel, Adrian. A good-hearted one. The key to winning her is not forcing her obedience but giving her what she needs most.”
“Orgasms?”
Peggy did not smile at his little joke. “Love. A home where she feels cherished and needed. That one is a wanderer, and until you accept her, faults and all, you will never hold her. She is far different from us than you believe, my alpha. Some might consider her an abomination.”
What a disquieting thought. He knew Darcy was compatible with him sexually, and they enjoyed each other’s company. But different? Yes, she was a Changeling Shifter, with the ability to turn into a wolf, as he did.
As he always did with news out of his control, Adrian tabled it for later. The priority of traveling to the old mine came first. He would work it out with Darcy.
No matter what secrets she hid, he felt confident of stripping away each one the same as he would wear down her resistance to becoming his bride.
He knew this.
A few minutes later, Darcy shifted back into her human form, conjuring fresh clothing. She joined them.