Her wolf form made her look like a black Anatolian Shepherd. She wasn’t so large she could not still pass for a large breed of dog. It allowed her some freedoms as she moved around the city. She did not venture into the streets often, but she had to see him.
He was graduating today. Jared had grown up to be a brooding young man. He didn’t talk that much, but somehow still had more friends than he needed. While his friends joked around that morning in their caps and gowns he just watched with a quiet smile. She loved that smile.
He was a muscular teenager, but not so much that he looked over built. She waited until his friends had all gone. He sat on the steps of the high school just looking out at the parking lot. She walked up and sat down in front of him and cocked her head like dogs do.
“You get bigger every time I see you. C’mon over here,” he said holding out his hand.
She was immediately beside him. Tamika licked him on the cheek and whined. She would have climbed into his lap and licked his face until he laughed, but he was dressed in his fine black graduation gown. He scratched behind her ears and sighed.
“Why is it every time I try to take you home, you run? I won’t be going to school here anymore, so I’m going to miss you, girl,” he said, hugging the big black dog close.
Jared chuckled as he picked up the soft scent of arousal from the dog. He scratched her on the head. If he didn’t know better he would have thought she was a wolf shifter, but if she had been he would have never been able to touch her.
Tamika whined as he started to get up from his seat. She didn’t want him to stop touching her.
Jared chuckled as he walked towards the school and said, “Sorry, girl, but I’ve got a date with a diploma.”
She waited until he was inside before she took off at a full run for the fence line. Tamika still had access to all of the cash her father had stashed around the property. She had bought a light blue mid-thigh baby doll dress. She didn’t try to make herself pretty, but her black hair curled naturally and her hazel eyes would always stand out against her porcelain skin.
Tamika slipped into the back of the gym and moved through the shadows like they were her second skin. No one noticed her, which was what she wanted. A single tear slipped from her eyes when the name “Jared Maurison” was called by the announcer.
He walked up onto the stage and took the diploma, just like every other teenager on the floor. Jared didn’t even smile at his graduation. He smiled so rarely, which is why she had taken to playing with him in her wolf form. He’d smile for her wolf. He’d also talk to her about anything and everything. She had quite simply fallen in love with him and even if he didn’t know her, he still loved the concept of her.
She would let the blood debt go and he would take care of her. Tamika could do that for him. She was sure of it. The graduation ceremony lasted another two hours. She wasn’t particularly interested in it and Jared obviously wasn’t either. He looked as if he was sitting on brass tacks as the minutes ticked by.
After it was over he did the mandatory family thing. Hugs and kisses, congratulations. They all were leaving when he said, “You go on, guys. Remember that dog I told you about? I’m going to see if I can catch it and bring it home; consider it my graduation present.”
Tamika’s heart skipped at his words. He didn’t know who she was, but he still wanted her. He walked out the back door and she followed him with enough space that he didn’t notice her. Jared didn’t call for the dog he liked so much, he knew she wouldn’t come when called. He just waited.
Tamika hid behind the corner of the building for a few moments. She had been alone so long she wasn’t sure how she should approach the young man who was her mate. Stepping out from behind the building her heart caught in her throat.
Approaching from the parking lot were two young men who had just graduated. She knew them to be hunters. Tamika had decided not to bother them because they were children when her family had died; children could not be held responsible for their parents’ sins.
They walked toward Jared with deadly intent. The taller of the two waved at Jared as if he were a friend and Jared responded in kind. He could smell the malice in the two of them though. Tamika’s heart almost beat out of her chest. Hunters had taken everything from her already; they were not taking Jared.
Events moved swiftly over the next few minutes. The two young men rushed Jared. He fought back, but he was losing. It was clear to Tamika that he had never been trained to fight on two legs and he certainly wasn’t trained to kill.
She took off running towards the three of them. By the time she got close Jared was on the ground the two were kicking him hard. Tamika jumped on the back of the taller boy. Her arms wrapped around his head. He danced around trying to get her off. Taking a deep breath she gave his head a hard twist. The crack was audible and he fell to his knees and then flat on the ground.
His eyes were still open, despite the fact that he would never see anything ever again. The second young man’s eyes widened and he ran. Tamika shrugged; she knew his scent. She would deal with him on another day.
She scrambled to Jared who was lying face-down on the ground. She desperately rolled him. Bracing a knee on either side of his waist she leaned down and put her ear to his chest. Relief overwhelmed her when she heard his heart beating.
Tamika gently smoothed Jared’s hair away from his face. Her fingers tenderly outlined the bruising on the side of his face. Silent tears left reflective trails down her face as she said, “They are never going to let us be.”
Jared’s eyes opened and he struggled to focus. Tamika leaned down and gently kissed his lips before saying, “Break the spell, Jared. Please do that for me. Congratulations on graduating.”
She got up and walked away. To Jared it was just another ghost of what might have been.
###
“You look good in blue,” he said as he glanced back at her walking down the stairs.
“I look good in real clothes. As much as I love your tee shirt, I would like my jeans back,” she complained.
“Sorry, it will be a few hours before they’re done drying. You really do look good in blue,” he said with a satisfied smile. “You also slept through the night.”
“Exhaustion does that to a girl,” he said with a small smile.
Tamika blushed as she reached around him a poached a carrot from the vegetables he had cut up to go into the omelets. Jared grabbed her hand as she reached for another piece. He lifted her hand so he could kiss her fingertips.
“Breakfast will be finished soon, so quit poaching,” he said with a chuckle.
“If you weren’t so slow I wouldn’t have to poach. Are going to cook those eggs or erect a shrine to them?” she teased.
“Go drink some coffee and behave yourself,” he countered.
“I don’t drink coffee, but if you’ve got some tea bags around here we could negotiate,” she said and started rummaging through his cabinets.
“I don’t drink anything as weak as tea. Sorry, baby girl,” he said in mock apology.
Tamika huffed and made her way into the living room. She curled up into a ball on his couch and flipped on the news. Somehow it didn’t surprise her when David just opened the front door and walked in.
His eyes glanced over her, but he walked straight into his son’s kitchen. Jared kept fixing breakfast as his father walked in. David filled up a cup of coffee and sat down on one of the chairs at the bar.
“The council is holding an emergency session this afternoon. We are going to discuss the Brokefang blood-debt so I highly recommend Tamika takes her father’s seat on the council. As her mate you will of course be welcome to stand beside her,” David said anxiously.
Jared looked at his father with wide eyes. The council just did not hold emergency sessions. The less the leaders of the packs got together, the safer it was for the packs. His eyes settled on Tamika who had gotten up and was leaning against the door of the kitchen.
“The disappear
ance of hunters does not constitute an emergency session and the fact that I’m breathing doesn’t, so what has happened?” Tamika asked bluntly.
David locked eyes with her and asked formally, “Do you, Tamika Lisa Brokefang, claim alpha rights to the Brokefang pack by rights and by blood?”
“I do,” Tamika said without missing a beat. She had long ago accepted the status of being alpha to a pack that no longer existed.
“The Riverbed twins were kidnapped two nights ago,” David said with a grimace.
“They’re only nine,” Jared said, shaking his head in disbelief.
“It’s not hunters. They don’t take our kind, just kill it,” Tamika said without an ounce of concern for the missing children.
“How do you know?” David said with more than a little bite in his tone.
“I’ve spent the better part of two decades killing hunters. I know my prey,” she said as casually and with as much certainty as if she had just said the sky was blue.
Both men visibly cringed as she brought up her own history. Jared cleared his throat and asked, “If you don’t think it is hunters, then what do you think it is?”
“My guess? Vampires. They like to raise wolves and hunters so they have protectors during the day. My guess is that the kids are just fine, well, maybe not fine. Probably still alive though,” she said with a shrug.
David met Jared’s eyes and pleaded with his son, “Please convince her to have some compassion for the Riverbed pack when you both come to council meeting this afternoon.”
Turning and walking out of the house he gave Tamika a look of pure disappointment. She could see the regret in his eyes. Regret that he had bound his son to a monster without any emotions for other people.
Jared suddenly took a deep interest in finishing breakfast. Hunters and blood mages. Those were the creatures that had a habit of interfering with the packs. Other creatures rarely bothered them. Vampires certainly hadn’t bothered the main packs for almost one hundred and fifty years. What was worse was that his mate didn’t sound like she even gave a damn about it.
“You realize that if they were really concerned for their children they would not call a council meeting. They would track the pups down and make whoever took them pay,” she said quietly from the other side of the bar.
Jared shook his head and said, “Most of us value the permission of the council.”
“The laws never required the permission of the council to protect our own packs, or to avenge them for that matter. What is the point of alpha protection if it takes a full day of deliberating to get anything done?” she asked.
“Ever since your family…your family was killed all of the packs defer to the council. We don’t want a repeat event,” he said slowly.
She sent him a look that could kill and asked, “Because you think we did something to attract the hunter’s attention. Am I right?”
“I didn’t say that, Tamika, but we both know your father preferred to handle his packs problems without consulting anyone. You can’t deny that could have led to what happened,” he said gently.
“No, Jared, while I can’t deny that could have caused it, but I believe we differ in the means,” she said with a glare. “Either way I am going to need my clothes before the council meeting this afternoon.”
“You really need to dress up a little for the meeting,” he pointed out.
“Like hell. They get me in jeans or not at all. Now are you going give me one of those omelets or not?” she asked.
Tamika had a habit of shutting down. She could say the words that any annoyed woman would, but her tone was flat and unreadable. If it wasn’t for her heart rate Jared would have accused her of pretending to be annoyed.
When Jared handed her the food he met her eyes and his stomach dropped. She had this cold detached look that made him even squirm. He could not help but wonder how many times he had seen it before and not recognized it. She was an expert at distancing people from her.
As they sat down at the table silence stretched throughout the house like a pain that ached. Tamika embraced it like a well-worn cloak, but Jared racked his mind for something to say that would break it without rubbing salt into wounds that Tamika had never allowed to heal. Unfortunately, he couldn’t come up with a single thing.
Chapter 9
It took months to legally change her name, but she had done it. What took even longer was transferring her family’s assets from her given name to her new one. All that said, what took the longest was proving to the family lawyer who she was. If not for the mating mark on her forearm he would have never have believed her.
Mr. Hughes was loyal to the Brokefang family and pack, even to this day despite having moved under Maurison protection. Tamika’s biggest fear was that he would choose loyalty to his new pack over loyalty to his old. Just last year she had watched Jared almost killed and he seemed incapable of defending himself. She knew then that they were far too different for the mating bond to be completed. She ran, as much to protect him as herself.
Tamika just could not leave her home, though. The land was in her blood. After enough brainstorming with Mr. Hughes, Lisa Brooks was born. A new name, birthdate, and social security number. They had created a credible backstory for her new identity, but she didn’t plan on using it. The less that people knew about Lisa the better.
The bar had been in her family for generations, but Mr. Hughes managed a forge a sales record. Ms. Lisa Brooks now owned her family’s bar and any pack member who wanted to could trace it. She smiled as she dusted the bar. She wasn’t planning on reopening it as just a bar though.
There was a fine oak stage on the far end of the room that had once been used to host up and coming musicians. They would never make their big break on the stage, but it brought live music to the bar and cost free entertainment was always good—or at least that is what her uncle had always said.
If she reopened it like it had always been it would only be a matter of time before the pack council started meeting there. No, she needed something a little more unacceptable to keep them away. Which was why she put up job postings over the last day for both male and female strippers in addition to the bartender.
She was interviewing a number of different men all at one in the afternoon—fifteen minutes from now to be exact. To be exact she wasn’t interviewing them; if they were the least bit hot they had a job offer.
Lisa cringed as the first of her interviewees walked into the bar. They embodied the expression ‘beat with an ugly stick.’ She actually cringed when they flirted with her. Not that flirting was a bad idea, it was just a bad idea for them.
“Leave the girl be, y’all aren’t even on the same continent as her,” the new man said and then held his hand out to her, “Name’s Lance, I hear you need a bartender.”
“I most certainly do,” she said with a relieved smile, “My name is—Lisa.”
She had paused because just about the time she was going to say her name two people she never expected walked into the bar—Jared and Jackson Maurison. Lisa sent up a silent prayer that Jared wouldn’t recognize her. Lance chuckled as he followed her gaze.
“Look all you want, baby girl, but the taller one is untouchable and the shorter one is lucky to figure out how to zip his jeans and that is not a reflection of his brains, just his libido,” Lance advised her like an old friend.
###
Tamika stood in confused awe at the head of David’s dinner table. Council meetings use to be held in the council chamber. Granted it was under the ruins of her family’s home, but she had always assumed the council had continued using them. She certainly had not expected them to turn into a glorified dinner party.
“Ms. Brokefang, please sit,” David said like an annoyed father while Jared bodily moved her into a chair.
“This is not exactly what I expected,” she whispered to Jared.
He simply shrugged as he slid into the seat next to hers. Jared made sure to hold her hand under the table. He had expe
cted her to be nervous, not annoyed. He squeezed her hand lightly, letting her know that he was there for her.
A tall, tanned blond that looked to be in his thirties walked in. She knew he was much older because Conrad Duran looked much the same he had when she was a child. His brother Brent was almost his twin and he had not changed all that much either.
Conrad walked to the head of the table and cleared his throat before he said, “My fellow alphas, welcome. Today we come together on behalf of the Riverbed family, please tell us of your troubles Soren.”
He sat down at the head of the table and listened as Soren stood and said, “My two children, the twins, Trent and Tara went missing earlier this week. I thank you for calling this meeting so quickly. We have contacted the human police, but I need the permission of the council for my pack to track them and bring whoever did this to justice.”
Jared and probably every other alpha in the room scented Tamika’s anger flare, but surprisingly enough Conrad’s did as well. Everyone waited to hear if there was more for Soren to say. A few silent seconds ticked by and Tamika pushed herself up out of her chair and stood.
“Permission to speak, Mr. Duran,” she said bowing her head.
“Of course, Ms. Brokefang,” he said slowly.
Tamika locked eyes with Soren and said with blatant condensation, “From the time I could walk the laws of this council were pounded into my head. How dare you forsake your duties as an alpha and defer to this council instead of tracking your children down and getting them back. How many days have your children suffered needlessly because you were too cowardly to act?”
“Ms. Brokefang, that is enough,” Conrad practically yelled at her. “That said, she is not wrong. We are supposed to be a council of alphas. Leaving your children to fend for themselves is unacceptable.”
“With all due respect we’ve all seen what happens when an alpha does not cede to the council’s wisdom,” Soren said.
“Enough, Soren, go send your men to find your children—now,” Conrad commanded him.
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