Wolf's Lady (After the Crash Book 6.5)

by Maddy Barone

  “She’s my fiancée!” he yelled.

  Noise broke out again. Sand fell into a half crouch. Next to her Sky stiffened and said quietly, “Easy, cousin. Don’t make the change here.”

  Incredibly, Sand seemed to have heard him even over the noise. He relaxed, still glaring at Terry, and raised his voice. “You asked her to marry you. She refused.”

  Terry began to yell again, but the bailiff grabbed hold of his arm as Johnny banged his gavel on his desk. “Silence!” he roared. “You will have another chance to speak, as long as you stay quiet now! Mr. W—Sand Wolfe, what happened this morning?”

  “My cousin Sky and I went to the mayor’s house to meet Askup because he was making trouble. An inquiry. Or an investigation?”

  The judge lifted a page, scanned it. “Yes, it’s here. What happened? Did you assault Mr. Askup?”

  “I wanted to pound his face in,” Sand said. “I might have, if Sky hadn’t stopped me, but I didn’t.”

  More laughter from the gallery. Terry was not well liked in Omaha.

  “The complaint states you attacked the plaintiff for no reason. Is that true?”

  “I had plenty good reason!” Anger threaded liberally through Sand’s voice. “He said filthy things about Amanda.”

  Joe spoke with authority. “A man has a right to defend his fiancée’s honor.”

  Amanda saw that Sand and Terry both stiffened, but probably for different reasons. Sand swung around to stare at her, confusion and hope on his face. She smiled at him and nodded.

  Terry screamed, “She’s my fiancée!”

  “The hell she is!” Sand roared back.

  “Dear God,” Johnny growled. “Bailiff! Separate the plaintiff and the defendant.”

  Actually, Sand hadn’t moved. He stood straight, fists jerking the chain between the handcuffs taut, while Terry tried to get to him. Terry was wrestled back to his table by the bailiff. He stared, wild-eyed, at Amanda.

  “I asked you to marry me!” he shouted.

  “And I told you no!” she shouted back.

  The gallery tittered like schoolgirls, staring at the front of the courtroom like it was the most fascinating play they’d ever seen. Amanda felt her cheeks flush. She sat back in her chair, with her hands folded primly on her knee, trying to calm herself.

  “Aha,” said the judge, like a man who had finally smashed the mosquito that had been buzzing around his face all night. “Both of you seem to think you’re engaged to marry the same woman. And here is the lady herself. Miss Amanda, if you would satisfy the court’s curiosity on one point, the court would be grateful. Yes, stand up, please, and tell us which, if either, of these two men you would like to be your husband.”

  She stood up, feeling slightly wobbly, but having Sky beside her and Sand in front of her steadied her. “Your Honor, I am going to marry Sand Wolfe.”

  The blaze of joy in Sand’s face made tears smart her eyes. “I love you, Sand,” she said in a low voice she hoped he could hear over the roar of the gallery.

  “No!” It was a demented scream from Terry. He clawed at the bailiff to free himself. “You can’t marry that stinking Indian. He’s not good enough for you.”

  The gavel thudded repeatedly while the judge shouted for silence. The roar had almost died to nothing when Amanda put one hand on her hip and glowered at Terry. “You think you’re good enough for me? Listen, sugar, I am too damn much woman for a pencil dick like you to handle. From now on the only man to handle me will be Sand.”

  *

  Delight and elation soared in Sand. My mate, he thought. My mate is magnificent. He said, “I love you too,” but the people in the room were shouting and laughing, and she was glaring challengingly at Askup, so maybe she didn’t hear him. That was okay. He’d tell her again later. He would tell her every day for the rest of their lives.

  The judge stood at his desk, face red while he banged his hammer and shouted for silence. Since his desk was at the top of a few steps, he was taller than anyone else. Sand forced himself to look away from his mate and focus on the judge.

  “Order! Silence! Order! If you clowns in the gallery don’t shut up and sit down, I’ll empty the courtroom!”

  The judge’s threat was effective. The room quieted. The judge cleared his throat and pointed his wooden hammer at Amanda. “You may sit down, ma’am.”

  Sand heard her settle herself back into her chair. The judge remained standing at his desk.

  “It is clear to this court that the discord between Mr. Askup and Mr. Wolfe stems from their ardent desire to win the affections of the same woman. She has stated before this court that her affections belong to Mr. Wolfe. Based on the evidence and testimony heard today, I find that both the plaintiff and the defendant are at fault. They will each be fined two gold strips or one hundred hours of community service.”

  Two gold? Sand’s heart sank. He didn’t have any money at all. One hundred hours of labor he could do, but he wanted to take Amanda home as soon as possible. He couldn’t wait to introduce her to the Pack by Kearney, and then take her out to the Clan on the plains to meet his father and brothers.

  “That’s ridiculous!” protested Askup. He shook off his lawyer’s hand. “I am not at fault here!”

  “I say you are, and since I am the appointed judge of the court, I think my word carries a little more weight than yours.”

  Askup turned his head to look behind Sand, obviously at Amanda. “Amanda, I know you’re being coerced. You can’t want to marry that filthy, longhaired—”

  “Oh, but I do,” Amanda spat.

  “That’s enough,” the judge said with authority.

  Askup gave the man a hostile stare. “This part has nothing to do with your court, so stay out of it. Amanda, if you actually marry this Indian, I will kill him and bring you home with me.”

  Sand bared his teeth at the threat. He heard Sky’s voice urging him to calm down. There was only so much he could take. Counting each breath that hissed through his clenched teeth helped. So did the expression on the judge’s face. He didn’t know the judge, but any fool could see Askup had said the wrong thing.

  “This is my courtroom,” Judge Case said coolly, “and I’m raising your fine another two strips of gold, for contempt of court! And one more, for threatening the life of a man within the hearing of the court.”

  Could a man’s face get so dark without harming his heart? Sand was amazed and even a little worried. If Askup dropped dead it might upset Amanda. But his worry was swallowed by anger when Askup spoke next.

  “I forbid you to marry him. Do you understand me, Amanda? I forbid it! A whore should be good at taking orders; why can’t you just listen to me?”

  “That’s enough!”

  The judge’s roar cut through Sand’s growl. He could almost taste Sky’s suppressed rage behind him. Sand subsided, holding onto a sliver of his temper with great effort. The judge waved a hand at Amanda behind him.

  “Stand up, my dear, stand up and approach the bench. Bring your fiancé with you, please.”

  Amanda’s soft hand slipped into his. Just the scent of her calmed him. They walked the few yards to stand in front of the judge’s raised desk. The judge leaned forward to look at both of them and spoke quietly.

  “Do you have enough to pay the marriage fee?”

  “Yes,” Amanda answered quickly. “And enough to pay his fine.”

  “Good.” The judge straightened and raised his voice to a boom. “It is the pleasure of this court to unite Miss Amanda and Mr. Wolfe in the bonds of Holy Matrimony immediately. Mr. Wolfe, please take your bride by the ha— Good God. Bailiff! Unlock the shackles on this man.”

  Amanda waved a shaky hand at the judge. “Johnny, I mean, Your Honor, right now?”

  Sand’s heart plummeted to his stomach. “Have you changed your mind?” He hadn’t given her anything. She had stipulated that there was something he had to give her in order for her to agree to be his mate. He stared at her with his heart in his thro
at.

  “No!” Her hand, which had released him so the handcuffs could be removed, clutched his hand again. Her eyes looked into his with a smile, and he was ready to do anything so she would keep smiling at him like that. “I will marry you this second. But I want my dad to give me away.” She looked back up at the judge. “Please, I want my father here.”

  “Very well.” The judge beckoned at one of the uniformed guardsmen. “Go fetch Mr. Nelson. Waste no time. We’re starting in a half hour whether he’s here or not.”

  “And my cousin, if you see her!” Amanda called at the departing man.

  Askup’s face was livid right down to his jowls. “Do I have the court’s permission to withdraw?” he asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

  “No, you do not.” The judge’s smile was anything but friendly. “You will stay and witness this marriage. That way, I and all of Omaha, will know that you cannot be ignorant of the union. And you do recall, don’t you, that the punishment for interfering with a marriage can be anything up to and including death?”

  Terry Askup subsided, his color now sickeningly pale. But Sand couldn’t care less about that. Amanda stood at his side, holding his arm with that brilliant smile on her face. In only a few minutes she would be his wife, and nothing else mattered to him.

  Chapter 8

  Outside the courthouse the sky was brilliant blue, the sun a gleaming disk slanting light over the gold ring on Amanda’s left hand. She couldn’t help but lift her hand to smile at the familiar wedding band. She had seen it on her mother’s hand until she died, then her father had worn it on a chain around his neck.

  Sand took her hand to kiss her fingers. “I’m sorry I didn’t have a ring for you,” he whispered into her ear. “I’ll get one as soon as I can.”

  “Okay, if you want to. But I’m glad to have this one. Dad says we can keep it.”

  She glanced back over her shoulder at her father, thin and stooped and rather dirty in his city sanitation uniform. Her cousin stood beside him in her plain gray cotton novice’s uniform she wore to work in St Joseph’s Hospital. She couldn’t imagine anyone less like a nun in training than her cousin.

  “Your mother would have been happy for you to have it.” Tears brightened her dad’s blue eyes. “She would have been happy to see you safely married. And to a man who will take good care of you.”

  Sand looked like he might blush, but he shook her father’s hand heartily. “I will,” he said fervently.

  “Well, that’s all settled,” Sky said. “Let’s all go back home. We’ll have a nice dinner to celebrate the wedding.” He must have caught the shadow that passed over her dad’s face. “Unless—” Sky’s voice sounded careful “—you think a house like mine isn’t the right place for your niece?”

  “No, that’s not it. My niece is only training with the Sisters of Mercy. She hasn’t taken her vows yet. It’s that I’m not fit for company. I would need to go home and clean up first, and that will take quite a while. I very much doubt the newlyweds will want to wait that long.” He smiled, and for a moment Amanda saw her father as he had been when she was young, a bright and fun loving man with an impish sense of humor. “No. Instead why don’t you come to dinner on Tuesday night? Sara and I will splurge and fix a nice dinner for you. Will you come?”

  Completely ignoring the fact that his uniform was filthy, she gave her father a big hug. “Yes, Daddy. I love you.”

  He hugged her back. “We’ll see you on Tuesday night at 6:00,” he said.

  Sand shook his hand gravely. “We’ll be there.”

  The only thing that disrupted the joy of the moment was the sneer on Terry Askup’s face as he pushed by them. Amanda wondered if her hand on her new husband’s arm was the only thing that kept Sand from attacking. Joe Sullivan nodded at them all with his quiet smile as he walked behind Terry.

  She walked home with her hand held tightly in Sand’s. With Sky walking at a fast pace a few feet in front of them, they arrived home in record time. Not that she or Sand had wanted to dawdle. In fact, she was ready to skip supper and drag Sand right up to her bedroom, but Sky smiled evilly and gave a slow shake of his head. “Supper first,” he said.

  The look at Sand’s face when he glared at Sky was almost amusing. “I could punch him,” he suggested hopefully.

  “No.” She twined her arm in his. “We may as well eat. I don’t want you to faint with hunger half way through the night.”

  She laughed when he seemed to take this seriously. The dining room was crowded, every seat at the table full except for two near the head. When they came in, everybody jumped up and shouted, “Congratulations!”

  Mrs. Nord, the house’s cook, came in with whiskey steak casserole, Amanda’s favorite. She’d been married only a few hours. She’d spent those hours thinking of the wedding night, not the wedding supper. But after all the trouble everyone had gone to, it wouldn’t be right to ditch them to go right upstairs. Darn it.

  “How did you know?” she asked, allowing herself to be pulled along to the empty seats.

  “I sent a messenger while we waited for your father,” Sky replied.

  Wine was poured and toasts were drunk to their happiness. Sand applied himself to his food with single minded determination. “Goodness, Sand,” Amanda whispered. “I didn’t know you were so hungry.”

  His face was grave. “I don’t want to faint half way through tonight.”

  She laughed so hard she choked on her wine. He didn’t laugh, and appeared entirely serious, which made her laugh harder. The cake was brought out and Sky made them cut it and feed each other. When Sand kissed her she could taste the lingering sweetness of frosting on his tongue.

  “That’s enough of that!” Ms. Mary teased. “It’s not night time yet!”

  Sand smiled down at Amanda. “Do you want to wait for dark?”

  A tremor of delicious heat settled low in her belly. “Hell, no. Then we’d have to waste electricity keeping the lights on. I want to see you the first time we make love.”

  “Then we shouldn’t waste daylight.”

  With his wolf’s howl cutting through the cheers of her friends, he picked her up and ran out of the dining room. Amanda couldn’t remember ever being carried all the way through the house and up the stairs to her room at a dead run before. She was laughing when he kicked the door shut and lowered her to her feet. She reached up to frame his lean cheeks between her hands.

  “I love you,” she whispered.

  He matched her, curving his palms around her face. “I love you.”

  “I need about ten minutes alone, okay? It’s a girl thing.”

  He leaned down until his forehead touched the top of her head. “Okay. Ten minutes. But only because I love your girl things.”

  Her giggle turned into a belly laugh. “That is one of the reasons I love you! You make me laugh.”

  His blink was confused. “I wasn’t making a joke,” he said with dignity. “I’ll go use the bathroom and be back in ten minutes.”

  She gave his hair a light jerk. “Maybe only eight,” she suggested.

  As soon as he left, she went down the hall to use the bathroom. She brushed her teeth and washed up, then hurried back to her room to open the box of lingerie she bought this morning.

  She froze. Was that only this morning? Incredible. She undressed and put the little nightie on, then the robe. The reflection in the mirror showed her a pale, excited face above a barely veiled pale body. Would Sand like it? She had bought it just for him. Should she stretch out on the bed or meet him at the door? Would he prefer her to guide the lovemaking or should she let him take the lead? Which would turn him on more, a display of innocence or an experienced seductress? Usually with a new client, she…

  Icy fingers danced down her back. That’s what was different this time. This wasn’t an appointment that she had to put on a show for. This was Sand, her husband. The door opened almost violently and Sand strode in, looking ready for battle. After one swift glance around he
turned to her.

  “What’s wrong? Are you alright? I could smell something wrong in your scent all the way down the hall.”

  “I love you!” she wailed, then burst into tears.

  His arms, bare and warm, came around her. “Then why are you crying? Darling, what’s wrong?”

  She sniffled into his bare chest. Her husband was wearing cut off jeans and nothing else. “I want to make tonight perfect for you, but I don’t know how!”

  He stroked her hair, and his reply sounded a little wry. “I thought if one of us would have any idea of what to do tonight, it would be you.”

  Her chuckle was still teary. “If you were anyone else, I would,” she told his chest. “I mean, if you were a client, I would know how to act. They didn’t really matter. But it’s different with you.” She wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand and looked up at him. “With them, it was just an act. I pretended to be what they wanted. I don’t want to put on an act with you.” She wiped her cheeks again, feeling unbearably insecure. “And I’m afraid the real me won’t make you happy.”

  He kissed her. “All I want is you. The real you, not some pretty doll putting on a show. That would put distance between us, and I don’t want any kind of distance between us.”

  “Neither do I.” She pressed her lips against his.

  “Do you know how many times I’ve dreamed of tonight?” he murmured against her mouth. “In my dreams I knew exactly what to do.”

  In his voice she heard a hint of the same uncertainty she felt. She took a careful step back and held her arms out. “Tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it.” She smiled at the way his gaze ran over her, hot and not at all uncertain. “I can make your dreams come true.”

  “They’re already coming true. You accepted my mate claim. You’re my wife.” His voice was a little hoarse. “That’s pretty, that thing you’re wearing.”

  She pinched a fold of the robe. “I bought this outfit this morning after I decided I would accept you. Do you like it?”

  “Uh-huh. That little bit of cloth looks like the mist rising off the prairie after a summer night’s rain. Did you know that when you cry, your eyes turn bright blue?” he whispered. “I don’t want you to cry, but your eyes sure are pretty.”