by Dannika Dark
I peered through my wolf eyes, feeling her rising panic. Her toenails clicked against the wood floor as she stepped off my pile of clothes. Denver’s wolf stood up and lifted his head, boring his eyes into mine. It was like being a passenger in a car I couldn’t control. The pack murmured around me, but their words were foreign unless I concentrated hard enough to make sense of them. Everything I experienced was through my wolf—smells, sounds, even the raw instinct coursing through her veins.
Right now, she was gearing up for a fight, and that’s when I knew she wasn’t a runner. She would be a good addition to the pack with her strong will and courageous heart.
More murmurs, and the pack moved into sight. Austin looked a little blurry from the left corner. I caught a few words he was saying, but I understood him better through his body language, scent, and tone. He wanted me to stay calm.
The light dimmed, and I was slowly fading to allow my wolf complete control. My heart thumped wildly and the metallic taste of adrenaline coated my tongue. Denver locked his jaws around my muzzle. Gently. Then my wolf did the same and wagged her tail. He licked her mouth and made high-pitched whines combined with barks, and in return, she nuzzled beneath his jaw as if they were old friends.
A wave of alpha power rippled through me when Austin drew near and got down on his hands and knees. Denver stepped between us, but Austin ignored his aggressive stance. He spoke a single word, and with that word, I shifted back to human form.
His eyes were immediately closed, even though my long hair more than concealed everything. The pack had already turned their backs, so I lifted the coat and put it on, all while trying to push Denver’s excited wolf away. He wouldn’t stop licking my face.
“Okay. Enough,” I said with a laugh. “You need a breath mint!”
“Abso-fucking-amazing,” Jericho said, hiking up his ripped black jeans, which were in dire need of a belt. “Told ya she wouldn’t pee on him.”
Trevor punched him in the arm and they all turned around.
“What are you guys talking about?” I asked.
Austin opened his eyes. “Ignore them. Looks like you’re going to fit right in.” He gripped Denver by the scruff of the neck, patting him and showing his approval. “You have a good wolf, Maizy. She understands the hierarchy without any guidance, but she also doesn’t show fear. Skittish wolves are unpredictable in battle.”
“Do I have to keep shifting for everyone?” I asked. Shifting was an exhausting process if done repeatedly.
“Nah.” Austin stood up and stuffed his hands in his pockets, jingling some coins around. “Wheeler, take Denver outside. If you guys shift in front of him, he’s gonna rip your heads off. I want Trevor, Jericho, and William going at once. This’ll be nothing more than a quick meet-and-greet,” Austin said, turning to face me again. “I just have to make sure everyone knows their rank and we don’t have any conflict. After that, Wheeler and Reno shift together. Then we’ll call the girls down. Once you shift back, I’ll have Jericho run into town and pick up some barbecue.”
Jericho plucked a cigarette from behind his ear and bit the tip. “I’ll go on the condition you order ribs instead of chicken this time.”
Austin shot him a frosty glare. “Lexi likes the chicken.”
“And Lexi got the chicken last time. Can’t you order her a separate plate?”
“It’s cheaper to have it catered and order by the pound,” he bit out.
I got up off the floor and tucked the coat tightly against me. “Can we argue about dinner later and get this show on the road?”
Austin strolled to the door with Wheeler and called Denver’s wolf.
“Oh, and Austin?” I said.
He glanced over his shoulder while pushing Denver out. “Yeah?”
“Can you order coleslaw?”
“That all?” he asked with a twinkle in his eye.
I dodged his glance and looked around. “And uh, maybe swing by the store for some cheese puffs.”
***
After Austin introduced my wolf to the pack, we spent the entire day celebrating Denver’s return. Everyone took off work, and Lexi had her part-time staff fill in at both store locations. Jericho canceled a jam session with his band, and Naya even turned off her phone so her clients couldn’t reach her.
Once introductions were out of the way, I took a shower and put on a pair of jeans and a strapless shirt with an elastic top. It was the color of a faded rose and one of my favorites. I wanted to look nice for Denver and ran some gel through my long hair, giving it a tousled look that didn’t make me look like a hippie. Lexi let me borrow some lip gloss, blush, and nude eye shadow that shimmered.
Now that I was fixed up, the only problem was that Denver hadn’t shifted back. He trotted behind me all the way to the kitchen where we gathered to eat lunch.
“Can’t you make him shift?” I asked Austin for the second time. “I thought he wasn’t allowed in the house.”
“I think it’s adorable,” Melody said, licking barbecue sauce from her finger.
Austin scraped his teeth on another rib and cleaned it to the bone. “His wolf seems okay as long as you’re around,” he said around a mouthful of meat. “I don’t have a problem with it. It’s his party, so I’ll let him do whatever the hell he wants.”
“Well, if he chews up another one of my books, I’ll put him out myself,” April said.
The kitchen table looked like something out of the Middle Ages with the abundance of meat on display. We had a bounty of homemade rolls and bread from Lexi having baked the day before.
Denver’s wolf groaned and licked his lips again.
I tapped his nose where he sat behind my bench. “No. You don’t get anything unless you shift back.” I looked across the table at William. “Our first day back and he won’t even spend it with me.”
William’s brown eyes warmed. “Maybe his wolf missed you. It’s been years. Denver chose to be away from you, but his wolf didn’t.”
Izzy laughed and dropped her fork. “Wave a bag of Cheetos in front of him. I bet that’ll snap him out of it.”
“Mom, who are you texting?” Lexi reached across the table and snatched the phone. “This is family time,” she said in a teasing voice. “How many times do you get on me about—”
“Give me that! Alexia Talulah—”
“Okay! All right! Just don’t call me that,” she said, handing the phone back. Lexi never had liked her middle name. She said kids used to tease her, but Austin seemed to adore it.
Reno licked the prongs of his fork. “I bet that’s Maddox. I think we need to have a sit-down with him and find out what’s what.”
Lynn leaned around and gave him her nasty “mom” glare. “I’m a grown woman. I don’t need anyone’s approval.”
“I don’t know, Lynn. Human or not, you’re still in our pack. Maddox Cane—”
“Is a nice man who likes to keep me company.”
“He’s also hundreds of years old,” Jericho pointed out.
“So?” Lynn protested. “That probably makes us close to the same age then.”
Everyone laughed, and the twins got up from their table.
Izzy had a smear of sauce on her arm she was trying to wipe off. “Hold up, kiddos. Did you finish your plates?”
“Yep!” they both chirped. Lennon inched nearer to the open doorway. “Can we go out to the fort now?”
“Fort?” I asked William.
Jericho grabbed Izzy’s arm and licked the sauce off. She jerked it away and almost knocked over a glass of tea.
“Go on,” she said.
The boys turned around like two cyclones and stampeded into the hallway.
“No running in the house!” Izzy shouted. “Hell’s bells. Those two are a handful. We built a fort out back for them last year just up the hill. They like to get up there and play pack war.”
I set down my roll, deciding I couldn’t eat another bite. “What’s that?”
Wheeler smeared his own roll acr
oss the plate, sopping up the leftover barbecue sauce. “It’s a game young pups play. They hear all the stories about a coming war from the adults and act it out. The Shifter’s version of cowboys and Indians.”
Denver nuzzled against my right side and I put my arm around his neck, stroking his ears. “Do you really think there’ll be a war?”
The men looked between one another and Austin licked his thumb. “There’s always a possibility. There’s not as much land up north, and a lot of those packs haven’t done well. The Councils regulate the packs to make sure it’s kept under control. Not everyone up there has the money to buy land. We got lucky because our parents lived here a while and built up a solid reputation, even though they weren’t in a pack. I still had to jump through some hoops to get this place.”
Reno sat back and put his hand on April’s thigh. “Most of the rumors don’t have anything to do with the established packs up north. It’s the rogues we have to worry about. Some formed their own packs without an alpha, and then you always have panthers who feel entitled.”
Naya waved her fork. “It’s not just panthers, Reno. I heard a story about a den of lions who started something in East Texas. They tried to quietly wipe out surrounding packs and take over the entire territory.”
“What about the Council?” I asked.
Austin flicked his eyes around the room. “The Council keeps order, but they’re only a handful of men. A den of lions they could probably handle, but if something bigger came down… Christ. Let’s not bring up this merry topic over dinner. My stomach’s already churning.”
“So is mine, but I think it’s because of the beans,” Melody said with a dramatic groan. “I’m going upstairs.”
“Mel, take the boys’ dishes to the sink for me,” Izzy said. “Next time I’m putting them on dishwashing duty for leaving their plates behind.”
Melody smirked triumphantly. “Good.”
“Hope everyone saved room for pie,” Lexi said in a singsong voice.
The room was thunderstruck.
“Hold up. You didn’t say anything about pie,” Reno said. “Goddammit. I wouldn’t have eaten that last rib if I’d known there was pie.”
William pushed his plate forward with a smile. “Pie indeed. Blackberry?”
Lexi stood up with a look of mischief. “This is a celebration for Denver. Do you think I’d just bake a blackberry?”
“Fuck me. Did you bake cherry?” Wheeler asked, dropping his rib on his plate. “You haven’t made that in three years.”
“You’ll see,” she sang.
They watched her carefully, knowing how quickly one pie disappeared in a house full of Shifters. As full as they were, if she so much as whipped a pie out, those men would have turned into hungry jackals. Lexi didn’t bake pies often, but when she did, they were gone within minutes. And cherry pie was not only Denver’s favorite, but also one she baked so infrequently that whenever she did, fights ensued.
“I’ll give you some pie,” Naya whispered in Wheeler’s ear.
Melody scuttled out of the room, turning the corner just as the doorbell rang.
Denver’s wolf growled, letting the sound settle in his throat like a continual thought.
“This was supposed to be a family day,” Austin complained.
The twins raced through the room after having changed into some dirty jeans and sneakers. When I saw Denver’s straw hat on Hendrix’s head, I snatched it off as he ran by and flew out the back door. It was too sentimental to let it get destroyed in an imaginary pack war.
Jericho rubbed his face. “Don’t look at me. I rescheduled Saturday with the band. They know better than to show up here uninvited.”
“Mom, this lady wants to talk to Denver,” Melody called out from the hall.
Nadia entered the room with a graceful step. Her white slacks accentuated her long legs all the way down to her heels. Not many women had the courage to wear all-white pants. Her white blazer was tailored to fit and set off the red shirt beneath. Nadia’s blond hair draped down her shoulders like silk—the kind of hair that men dreamed about running their fingers through. She looked as if she’d just stepped out of a shampoo commercial; all she needed was her own portable fan to blow it around. As she looked about the room, she moistened her ruby-red lips with a sweep of her tongue.
“He’s been avoiding my calls,” she said in lightly accented words. “I’m not a woman who likes to be ignored.”
Naya shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Nadia, we weren’t expecting you. Um…”
Denver’s wolf sniffed in her direction and continued nuzzling against me. After Nadia’s gaze traveled around the room, through the process of elimination she figured out which one was Denver.
“There you are.” After admiring his wolf, she looked up at the Packmaster. “Can we speak privately?” It was a silent request for him to force Denver to shift.
Austin leaned back in his chair with a wide grin. “If you can get him to change, he’s all yours.”
A few of the men hopped up from the table and milled around the kitchen near the counter, searching for the hidden location of the pies.
“I’m sorry, but Denver won’t be interested in speaking with you,” I said.
Her brow arched. “Is that so? I think a man should speak for himself. Don’t you?”
“Indeed,” William muttered.
I kicked him under the table.
Nadia approached Denver with her palm up so he could smell her. I saw recognition in his eyes as he leaned forward and made a peculiar sound.
“Let’s go outside,” she said soothingly to him.
Suddenly I didn’t like the way she was talking to him. A fierce sense of possession swept over me, and I felt like doing something irrational. It was a good thing there wasn’t a chocolate pie on the table.
When her hand stroked his muzzle, I snatched her wrist and steered it away. “Don’t you put your paws on him.”
“Mee-yow,” one of the men razzed from across the room. Probably Jericho, because Izzy tossed a peppermint across the room at him.
“I don’t think you know who you’re talking to,” she said.
I stood up and almost tripped when I stepped over the bench. “And I don’t think you know who you’re talking to. Denver is mine. Claimed.”
“Mated?”
I glanced down at him and rubbed his ear. “Maybe soon, but it’s exclusive. This is one fight you won’t win, and you need to ask yourself how much you’re willing to fight, because I’m willing to go all the way.”
She sighed dramatically. “Why must it be so difficult to find a man who will worship me?”
Trevor breathed out a laugh, and when April flicked his ear, he put his head on the table. His body rocked with quiet laughter until he released a loud snort.
William’s eyes danced with humor as he rose from the table with his empty plate. “I think it’s time to look for some pie.”
I turned back to Nadia. I didn’t care if she had on designer clothes, expensive jewels, imported perfume, manicured nails, diamond earrings, salon hair… Okay. Maybe it bothered me a little bit. “I don’t mean to be a bitch, but this wolf is telling you to back off because Denver is off-limits. That means no more calling his phone, my phone, the house phone, or any phone within a twenty-mile radius of our territory.”
Someone whistled, surprised, and the room fell silent.
There was a pregnant pause before she spoke again. “Wouldn’t you rather see him with someone who can give him a better life than this?”
I blinked in surprise. “You would want him to leave his pack?”
“Of course!” she said with a laugh. “I’m independently wealthy because I don’t have to give a portion of my money to a pack. The only way I’d consider joining one is if I mated the Packmaster, but most of the alphas I’ve met around here are aggressive pigs.”
Austin cleared his throat and stood up, giving her a pointed stare.
She lifted a shoulder innoce
ntly. “Just an observation. Not all women want to be treated like a conquest. Some want to be treated like a queen.”
“Well, you picked the wrong wolf if you think Denver is submissive enough to worship you,” I said.
She smiled knowingly. “I sensed he had a good heart, and that’s a most attractive quality. For that I can overlook his appalling sense of style and inappropriate humor.”
“Really?” I asked. “Because that’s what I love best about him.”
Nadia patted her small clutch against her hip. “I need someone to offer me a ride.”
“How the hell did you get here?” Austin asked.
“Taxi. My plan was to have Denver drive me home, but apparently he’s been leashed.”
Austin snapped his fingers. “Reno.”
Everyone chuckled because that meant Nadia would have to ride on the back of his Triumph motorcycle.
April wasn’t smiling. “I have plans with Reno,” she said possessively, clearly not wanting this woman to be sitting against her mate’s back and holding on tight.
Austin glanced at Wheeler and Jericho.
“Don’t look at me,” Jericho said. “I’m not going anywhere or I’ll miss out on pie.”
The doorbell rang and pulled everyone’s attention away.
“Jesus Christ,” Austin murmured, stepping away from the table and leaving the room.
An awkward moment passed as Denver licked my hand while Nadia watched with mild curiosity.
Denver suddenly spun around and bared his fangs, his feral growl penetrating through the room.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, trying to reach for him. He stepped closer to Nadia and that’s when my heart picked up speed.
“Back away slowly,” I said to her.
She smiled and stood close to the counters. “It’s not me he’s growling at, darling.”
Prince entered the room with Austin. Denver’s wolf lunged, but not before I grabbed ahold of his neck. The force yanked me forward and I lost my balance before rolling onto my back. So there I was, staring up at Prince’s crotch with Denver straddling me.
“I heard about the fortunate turn of events,” he said, looking down at me. At this angle, I couldn’t help but admire the high sheen on his dark slacks.