by Maddy Barone
“I’m twenty-four years old now,” she began, and stalled.
Little Feather kicked his feet into his father’s side with infant vigor which made Taye chuckle. “We should have named you Little Mule,” he told his son proudly. His smile still lingered when he glanced back at Rose. “I know how old you are. We had the party just last week.”
Yeah, the party had been well attended by the Pack, and many of the members of the Lakota Wolf Clan had traveled to the den to celebrate with her. The Clan was nomadic like their Native American ancestors had been, and the Pack was an offshoot from the Clan that had settled outside Kearney, Nebraska. Their name wasn’t mere symbolism. Rose remembered the dizzy shock zipping through her the first time she saw a member of a Wolf Clan change from man to wolf. Now it was so common she barely noticed. Just as she barely noticed the Pack habitually wore as little clothing as possible. Taye had only a ratty pair of denim shorts on now, which was probably more than he liked to wear. He and the other men pointed out how much it cut down on laundry. It was an unconvincing excuse for going nearly naked, considering the Pack had given her several new outfits for her birthday.
Her fingers tightened on a fold in the cotton of her pants at her knee, one of her birthday gifts designed by Lisa Madison. “I know. What I mean is… I want…” She swallowed, trying to find the right words. “When Ellie was twenty years old, she was a mother. She and Quill have four kids now, including Connor and Tommy. Lisa and Eddie have four. You and Carla have three. Tracker and Tammy have three. Shadow and Glory have five! Sand and Amanda, and Stag and Sherry, and Des and Connie, Marissa and Red Wing, and Renee and Hawk, they all have kids. Everyone has kids!”
Taye nodded at the door connecting this room to the one Carla was sleeping in, a warning to her to keep her voice down. “Yeah,” he said softly. “The Packs are growing.”
“I want kids too,” she said baldly.
Taye waited politely for her to go on, rubbing his son’s head in soothing circles.
Rose steeled herself. “I want kids, but to have kids I need to have a husband.”
“You have a mate,” Taye said. His hand kept moving gently over his son’s head, but he gaze was sharper now. “Blue Sky At Midday.”
Sky. Taye’s cousin had claimed her as his mate when he was seventeen. She had only just turned sixteen, so Carla had forbidden him to court her until she was eighteen. As the Pack’s Lupa, even budding Alphas like Sky obeyed her. “Taye, it’s been eight years since I’ve seen Sky.”
“Nah, it hasn’t been that long.”
“Fine. Seven years, ten months, and two weeks.”
Taye arched one of his eyebrows in an expression of doubt.
“Yes, almost eight years,” she insisted. “I got on the plane on October 29, 2014. The plane crashed on the same date in 2064. I’m not likely to forget that date, you know.”
She couldn’t forget it. The memory of the plane falling in the sky wasn’t as vivid eight years later, but the feeling of shock and terror in the memory would never entirely go away. Nor would she forget the sick feeling in her stomach when she was convinced she and the other crash survivors had actually jumped forward to a time fifty years after the plane’s take off. Everyone she loved was dead. Her mother in St. Paul, Minnesota, her father in San Francisco, California, her uncles and aunts, her cousins, her classmates, her friends, were all gone. Even if they survived the nuclear war and the plagues the terrorists created, she couldn’t possibly find them. The loss of life was so immense there was no one to keep up with technology. Without the internet or cell phones or even a reliable postal service there was no way to track anyone down. Even if any of them still lived, they’d be fifty years older while she was still young.
She focused her gaze steadily on Taye. “And it was only a few days later that Sky claimed me for his mate.”
That brought more memories flashing through her. Her fingers clenched on the fold of cotton at her knee. The crash survivors had been found and brought to the camp of the Lakota Wolf Clan. One of the Lakota men made Rose feel slimy. He stared at her and followed her around until she couldn’t bear it and ran into the healing tent where she knew others would keep her safe, and there she first set eyes on Sky. Even now, all these years later, she could picture his long black braids falling over a bare chest with amazingly developed musculature for a boy of seventeen. She remembered the vividness of his eyes, so blue in his dark Native American face that even in the dimness of the tent they glowed. She remembered more, in a jumble of confusion and horror, like the way he stared at her, so protectively that she wanted to hide behind him and so domineering that she wanted to punch him.
“You sent him away,” Taye remarked.
She remembered to keep her voice down. “No, I didn’t! He left on his own!”
“Because you rejected him.”
She felt color rise to her cheeks, the curse of being a blonde with very fair skin. “He practically attacked me!”
From a vantage point of several lonely years, she wondered if she could have handled it better. Her emotions in the weeks after the crash were nothing short of a train wreck. Who wouldn’t be upset to find herself thrown into a world where women were commodities made valuable by their rareness? She had gone from a life where her old-fashioned mom wouldn’t let her date until she was sixteen, to acquiring a bossy, jealous, would-be husband in a blink of an eye. She tried refusing Sky, and she avoided him as much as possible, but one day he leaped on her, shoved her against the wall and kissed her savagely.
“He scared me.”
Taye nodded. “I know. I had a talk with him. He was upset because you flirted with that man from Kearney.”
Outrage nearly sent her to her feet, but she clenched her hands on the edge of the stool’s seat instead. “I did not flirt. Sky overreacted. As usual.”
“Well, he was young.” Taye shrugged, careful not to jostle the baby in the crook of his arm. “He’s probably better now.”
Rose took a deep breath. “Taye, he was supposed to come back in a year or two. It’s been eigh— seven years and ten months, and he’s never left Omaha. I write him letters every month. He sends maybe two or three letters a year. If I’m lucky a letter might be a whole page long.” She took another breath and blurted, “I’m done waiting for him.”
Taye’s long mouth set in an expression of disapproval, but whether it was at her, or at Sky for staying away so long she wasn’t sure. “Rose, I’ve talked to Quill and Paint, and they’ve told me he has good reasons to stay in Omaha for a while longer.”
She shook her head slowly. “Not good enough. I wrote him a letter in July telling him he had until my birthday to come back, but he didn’t come, and he didn’t even send a letter.”
Taye frowned a little at that.
She steeled herself. “Taye, I repudiate Sky’s claim.” There. Her heart thundered in her ears, but it was out. “If this was the Times Before, being unmarried at twenty-four would be normal. I’d probably be working on my doctorate or working on passing the bar. But I can’t do that here.” She blinked tears back and gestured at the sleeping baby. “Back then I didn’t expect to start my family until I was thirty or so, but here I’m the only woman my age who doesn’t have kids. I’ve never even—” She choked words back. Taye knew she’d never had sex; he and the Pack made sure she was never alone. “I want to hold a baby of my own. I want a family. Sky isn’t here. I don’t think he ever will be. I want to find a husband now.”
Taye’s brows dove down over his nose. “Did you have anyone in mind?”
A blush set fire to her cheeks again. “Well, uh, Jasper Packard is nice, and he has a good business breaking and training horses.”
Taye’s voice was very soft, but not because of the baby sleeping in his arm. It was the tone that made ice slide down the backs of men confronted by an enraged Alpha. “Has he done anything to—”
“Of course not!”
Little Feather jerked in his father’s arm, letting out a
thin wail. He settled again with a fretful whimper under his father’s gentle hand.
“Sorry,” Rose said, lowering her voice. “Sorry. No, Jasper has barely spoken to me. Probably because the Pack won’t let him within ten feet of me! Do you know anything bad about Jasper?”
The Alpha didn’t look very happy about it, but he shook his head. “He’s a good man, from what I can tell. Raises some of the best horses around, and treats them well too.”
Rose let out a relieved breath. “All I ask is that you tell the Pack to back off. Let me have a little time with Jasper so we can get to know each other. Maybe we’ll hit it off. Maybe we won’t. I can’t tell if I don’t get to know him, right?”
“What if Packard doesn’t want you?”
Rose gave him the incredulous look that remark deserved. There were so few women nowadays that men fought for them. Any single man would jump at the chance to court a woman. “If we don’t hit it off, there’s Doug Grey or Johnny Sommers.”
Taye shifted the baby to his other arm, looking dissatisfied. “Grey is too old for you.”
“He’s thirty-five, only a few years older than you. He comes from a big family, so I’d have plenty of people to help me with housework. And his cousin is Ellie, so he already has ties to the Pack.” She lifted a gaze that she forced any hint of pleading from. “Will you tell the Pack to back off?”
Still looking sour, Taye nodded. “Alright. You can talk to men in public places. But you can’t be alone with them.”
“No, I won’t.” Rose nodded back, long ago having accepted the dangerous position of women in this crazy future world and the lengths the Pack would go to in order to keep their women safe. She couldn’t imagine anyone stupid enough to try to steal her. Everyone in a hundred miles knew she was under the protection of a pack of wolf shifters. Still, women were stolen from time to time, and she didn’t want Taye or any of his men to have to kill someone just because he was an idiot. She knew perfectly well that if anyone bothered her in even the slightest way, the Pack would kill him.
“Thank you, Taye.”
He pointed a finger at her. “But I’m writing one more time to Sky. If we don’t hear from him by Halloween you can be formally courted.”
“But I can at least talk to men? Get to know them?”
A low, unhappy growl rumbled in his throat. “Alright.”
She jumped off the stool to hug him, careful of the baby. “Thank you, Taye!”
****
One week later, Rose walked up the wooden steps to Martin’s Trading Store, followed by her escort. Today was her first trip into Kearney since Taye’s agreement that she could talk with men. Not that she never spoke with men, of course, but those conversations revolved around the weather, their wives and children, or other safe topics that wouldn’t rile an over-protective wolf. This would be her first chance to really talk with a guy.
She paused on the top step so White Horse could enter the store first. She waited for him to come back and nod that it was safe for her to enter. Three of the wolves in man form scattered inside the store to take up watch posts, and White Horse stationed himself near the door. With Stone flanking her on her right and Paint on her left, she walked into the store.
She loved coming to this store. She couldn’t catch scents the way the wolves could, but she could tell someone had just made up a new batch of potpourri and the wood floor had recently been polished with lemon. Eight years ago she might have thought a general store quaint. Well, no, she wouldn’t have used a word like quaint. She probably would have said it was boring. But now, with no mall to hang out at and no mega discount stores, the Martins’ place was her favorite place to shop. They had a little bit of everything, and Hannah Martin was half of Lisa & Hannah, the duo who created designer clothes that were in high demand from Denver to Omaha.
Hannah smiled at her from the counter. “Good morning, Rose. Be with you in a minute.”
“No rush. We have a shopping list from the den for you to fill, but I’ll just pick out some yarn for my winter knitting until you’re free.”
A six year old boy barreled out from behind the counter. “Rose!” he shrieked, and flung himself on her. “Guess what? I start school tomorrow! My first time! Jack gets to go too, but he’s already gone for four years, so he doesn’t care. But I do! It’ll be fun, won’t it?”
“I bet it will, Petey,” she agreed, smiling down into his excited face. What would it be like to have a little boy of her own? Her smile grew when she remembered she would soon have a chance to find out. “I’ll be back in town next week. You can tell me all about it then. I can’t wait to hear how you like school.”
His small white teeth showed in a big grin in his tanned face. “I heard there’s gonna be two girls in my class.”
Rose made her expression appropriately impressed. “Imagine that.”
Petey agreed with vigorous nods. “Dad says I have to be especially nice to them or the wolves will eat me up.” He sent a nervous sidelong glance at Paint, who was rather fierce looking with his scarred face and eye patch. She saw Paint’s mouth twitch with a suppressed smile. “Will they really eat me?” the boy whispered.
She leaned down to whisper back. “Just be nice and they won’t hurt you.”
He thought it over for a moment. “Okay. Come on. I’ll show you where the yarn is!”
She knew perfectly well where the yarn could be found. The store was just one big room crowded with everything from nails to toiletries to bolts of fabric. She stroked a hand through Petey’s sandy hair. “Okay, you show me.”
She followed him past the aromatic sacks of coffee beans, around a display of cups and plates, and past a few other customers. She knew most of them, but one, standing beside Paul Cruz from Odessa, was a stranger. She gave Paul a polite nod but didn’t pause to speak to him because she saw the very man she’s hope to find in town a little ways past him. Jasper Packard, tall and lean in a work shirt and jeans, with his sandy hair long enough to brush his shirt collar, stood at a barrel, counting out nails.
Rose zeroed in on him with a flutter in her stomach. She walked up to him with a smile she couldn’t control. She hoped she didn’t look like a clown as she struggled to make her smile small and friendly. “Good morning, Jasper!”
He smiled back and his hand lifted as if to touch her, but a glance at Stone made him drop his hand. Too bad. Stone’s face wore its usual cold expression, but he wasn’t growling or showing his teeth, which would have been his reaction a week ago. “Good morning, Miss Rose,” Jasper said, his tone cautiously friendly.
Rose had to use a little force to get past Stone, but she did it. She didn’t quite have the nerve to lay a hand on Jasper’s arm, but she kept her gaze and her smile fixed on his face. He wasn’t the most handsome man in Kearney, or the richest, but she liked him a lot. He had passed Taye’s exacting standards for what sort of man was allowed to court her. Jasper would make a great husband and father.
“So, any new foals?” she asked, at the exact moment he said, “Nice to have cooler weather.”
They both blushed and stammered for a minute. Jasper mimicked drawing a zipper closed over his mouth and gestured for her to speak.
“Yes,” she agreed. “I love summer, but by September I’m always glad for the cool nights and less heat. Too bad it’s followed by winter, though!”
His smile was sympathetic. “My brother feels exactly like you do. He likes the warmth of June, July and August, but after that he’s done with summer and ready for fall. Um, how is Flora working out for you?”
They were almost flirting! At least, she thought this was flirting. Maybe? Well, perhaps talking about her horse wasn’t quite flirting. “Wonderful! I know your dad bred her, but you trained her, didn’t you?” She fixed what she hoped was an admiring expression on her face. “Taye says you are one of the best horse trainers in the region.”
His lean suntanned cheeks darkened a little. “That means something, coming from him.”
; She moved a step closer, closer than she had ever been to a man outside the Clan or Pack, and shot a warning glare at Stone before smiling again at Jasper. “I wonder if you’d like to join m— us for lunch at the Plane Women’s Eatery today around one o’clock?”
His flush darkened, then drained away as he sent an alarmed glance at Stone and Paint. “I—I— Are you sure?” he blurted.
Paint grunted. Stone folded his arms with a glower, but neither said anything. “Yes,” she said firmly. “I’d really like that.”
His grin emerged triumphant, shedding confusion in dawning anticipation. “I would like that too. One o’clock.”
Relief eased her shoulders. “Yes, one o’clock. We can eat, and then maybe watch the train come in?”
He nodded enthusiastically. “That sounds good.” He scooped up the nails he’d been counting. “I’ll see you then.”
Rose watched him walk to the counter with a jaunty step and hardly suppressed a skip herself. She had a date! For the second time in her life, she had a date. Her first date was when she was in tenth grade, with Greg … Gary? She wasn’t sure about the name. Her life in the Times Before was distant from the here and now. They went to see a movie, but she couldn’t remember which one, and in the car when they were idling at a stop light he stuck his tongue down her throat. Rose shuddered at that memory. Even Sky’s attack was less gross than that kiss.
This date would be different. For one thing, she and Jasper would be chaperoned by her escort, and by Des and his Plane Women’s House Pack. In the unlikely event of Jasper trying to stick his tongue down her throat, blood would be shed, and he would probably be short a tongue. As for entertainment, watching the weekly train arrive at the station was the height of excitement around here. Half the town would show up to watch the few passengers disembark and the freight be unloaded. They wouldn’t be alone, so Taye couldn’t complain.