The Alpha's Choice

by Jacqueline Rhoades

  "Buddy! Buddy!" If Buddy had felt the call and answered it, he could be anywhere and might take hours to find. Or, God forbid, they might not find him at all. There were miles and miles of forest on this mountain. Buddy could run forever and never be found.

  Calm down, she told herself. It was only a few minutes. Even if he was running wild, he couldn't have gone that far. She thought about going back to the house to get Tilda and the others, but decided to follow Buddy's route instead. If she could find him, maybe she could lure him back to his assigned task and no one need be the wiser. If they were caught, Buddy would never be allowed to run again.

  Slowly, her eyes adjusted to the dark. Following Buddy's route counterclockwise, Kat trotted along, scanning to either side and hoped to run into him as he completed his rounds.

  It was full dark, darker still because of the cloud cover and misty rain. The silence set her teeth on edge. Like those gothic novels she read as a girl, the dark and the silence brought a portent of evil.

  "Don't go down those dark stairs alone with only a candle to light your way!" Those words could easily be translated into something more apt. "Don't go wandering along the edge of the dark woods without any light at all." Nothing good ever came of either one of those scenarios.

  Where the lane curved around the barn, a flash of white caught Kat's attention, so quick and faint, she thought it must be her imagination. Then it happened again.

  Buddy was running back and forth in a frenzy as if he was caught behind some kind of invisible fence within the trees. He ran back a few feet and then forward to a line imperceptible to Kat, but very real to him. He suddenly changed his direction and ran along the unseen fence for a couple of yards and then turned back.

  Kat watched, mesmerized by the white wolf's strange behavior. She thought at first he might be tied, but there was no telltale jerk of his head when he reached the end of his tether. She stood, stock still, in the shelter of the trees and watched and finally saw what held the wolf. It wasn't a fence or tether, but two dark shadows, quietly working in tandem to drive him back.

  She saw the flash of vicious looking fangs as one snapped at his panicked face. The other lunged at his side. The wolves weren't attacking. They were confining him, preventing him from moving forward to… to what?

  These wolves weren't part of Charles' pack. He would never send someone to test Buddy's strength of will and certainly not to torment him this way. These wolvers, and she was sure that's what they were, had a mission and suddenly she knew what it was. They were there to prevent Buddy from alerting the house to their presence. No, not their presence, someone else's. Someone who was heading for the house.

  The other women were back at the house alone, asleep and vulnerable. If someone wanted to harm them, they would have no warning and no defense. She should go back to the house and alert them, but she didn't know where the intruder was. He would be a wolver, too, and as man or beast, he'd be faster and stronger than her.

  Buddy, on the other hand, was fast and strong, too. If she could distract one, he might be able to outrun the other.

  She reached around with her foot until she found a branch that was long enough and felt sturdy. There was no time to strip it down to create a pole and it would make too much noise. Hefting the branch, she ran toward the wolves shouting.

  "Run! Call the Alpha, Buddy. Run!" She took a deep breath, charged the nearest wolf and screamed.

  The scream was high and loud and it echoed through the night and drew the attention momentarily away from Buddy.

  "Run! Call Charles! Buddy, run! Oooph." The branch made contact with the wolf. It yelped, snarled and snapped at the branch, breaking off the ends with his teeth and lunging body. A fork in the branch was the only thing that saved Kat from the lunge that followed.

  "Char-r-r-les!"

  The name turned into another scream, this one unplanned, but just as loud and piercing. Kat swung the branch in an arch, her only protection against the wolf. This was as far as her plan went. It was up to Buddy now.

  A frightened howl tore through the night. That was Buddy. She was sure of it. Her heart soared at the sound and then sank in misery when the howl became a scream of pain and then abruptly cut off. Sorrow filled her, but she didn't let herself cry. She hadn't sent Buddy for help. She'd sent him to his death.

  The wolf snarled and grabbed the branch that she'd begun to lower in her defeat. His jaws slowly crunched down on one thick length of the fork and the wood splintered under the crushing force. It was a threat, a warning of what he could do. The animal's eyes never left Kat's face.

  Across the yard, two upright shadows ran toward them. The wolf's ears flickered at the sound of their boots clumping across the ground. His eyes, however, never strayed from Kat's face and she knew he recognized the runners.

  Kat also saw what the wolf and men did not. Two long dark shadows slinked along in their wake. She shoved the branch at the wolf with renewed effort.

  "Bastard! Bastard! Bastard!" she screamed to keep attention on her and not on the shadows.

  "Shut her up!" one of the runners hissed. They slowed to a trot.

  "At least we got somethin' out of this," the other one laughed and Kat recognized the voice. "And I owe this one, big time." It was one of the men who'd trapped Buddy.

  Both men's heads turned in the direction of an approaching wolf running at full speed from the field behind the barn. It yipped and snarled and barked as it ran. Kat thought it was the second wolf, but the one guarding her snarled and turned to face the newcomer as if he was the enemy.

  Kat took advantage of his neglect to attack with what was left of her branch. She stabbed at the wolf's side, but the wolf's body spun with her thrust and her failed blow only served to draw his attention back to her. His snarling jaws grabbed the useless branch and wrenched it from her grasp.

  The next few moments were a blur of flesh and fur. One of the men drew a gun from his waist. Kat screamed. The two slinking shapes sprang into the forms of leaping wolves. The running wolf leapt with no decrease in speed, driving the enemy wolf into Kat who was rolled to her back in a torrent of snarling fur.

  Pain lanced through her head as they rolled over her, driving the breath from her lungs and when she was finally free of their crushing weight, she curled herself into a ball, her mouth opened in another scream that had no air to fuel it.

  The screams tearing through the night weren't hers. Something wet and sticky spattered her face and she clamped her mouth shut, covered her ears with her hands and closed her eyes in an attempt to shut out the mayhem surrounding her.

  Chapter 22

  Her eyes were still closed, but her hands were no longer covering her ears. Her knees were no longer curled into her chest. She was flat on her back and the ground beneath her was no longer hard and damp. She was, however, still wet and cold and when she finally managed to open her eyes, it was to find a mouth full of white teeth grinning into them. It was a full ten seconds before she realized the battle was over and done and the teeth were no longer sharp and pointed, but even and flat. The teeth were surrounded by pale lips in a paler face with sparkling eyes.

  "Buddy?" Kat whispered.

  He was alive and whole and happy.

  "There. What did I say? She's fine. Had a bit of a bump is all."

  Mrs. Martin was standing over them, wrapped in an old flannel robe. It took Kat a moment to figure out that her eyes were fine and the housekeeper's misshapen head was the result of curlers.

  "Were you scared, Kitty Kat? Mama said you was scared, but you didn't look scared to me. You looked like one of them lion tamers at the circus, 'cept he weren't no lion and you got no chair." Buddy laughed and then frowned. "But then you curled into a ball and wouldn't wake up and Charlie had to carry you home."

  "Charles? Where is he?" She sat up on the sofa, swung her legs to the floor and grabbed Buddy's hand until the wave of dizziness passed.

  "The Alpha says you're to stay right where you are. He'll be
back," Tilda said firmly. She wrapped a fleece throw around Kat's shoulders. "He's busy with Jo. The fool girl got herself tore up some, but he's taking care of it. She'll be fine and he'll be back down to take care of you."

  "Jo? What happened to Jo? Did they get in the house? Is everyone else okay?" Oh, God, what had she missed?

  "Everyone's fine," Tilda assured her. "Or they will be. The Alpha took her over the moon and set her to watch same as Buddy, but he kept that to himself. She wasn't to do naught but sound the alarm if someone should come snooping around."

  "You sent me runnin' to Charlie," Buddy took over. "I was scared, but I was runnin'. Trouble was, that mean old wolf was runnin', too. He almost got me, but Jo, she come flyin' out of nowhere and wham!" Buddy clapped his hands together so suddenly, Kat jumped and a whoosh of pain expanded in her head. "Knocked him clean over. I kept runnin' and I called, just like you told me to do. I howled my heart out."

  "I heard you, Buddy. I heard you. You were wonderful."

  "Charlie, I mean the Alpha, he heard me, too. He was in my head and I knew he was a-coming." Buddy patted the side of his white head. "In here. I knew it plain as day." Buddy was silent for a moment and then he spoke to the floor. "Charlie told me what to do, but I didn't do it. He told me to call and then lay low, hide until he came, but I didn't. That mean old wolf had Jo and he was hurting her bad. He had his teeth in her just a-shakin' and a-tearin' at her."

  Buddy raised his head and his finger and Kat knew there was another rule coming.

  "Boy wolvers are bigger and stronger than girls and you ain't never supposed to hurt a girl. He made her cry, Mama," he said as if that would explain everything.

  And it did. Tilda stroked her son's head. "You did good, son. I'm right proud of you."

  "Finish it, Buddy! What did you do?" Kat wanted to hear the rest.

  "It made me mad, so I ran back and I whupped him. I whupped him good." Honest to a fault, he added, "Jo helped. We whupped him together and he ain't gonna hurt no one no more."

  "Oh Buddy, you're a hero." Kat gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and his pale pink face turned red.

  "No ma'am, that was Jo," he said, "She was bleeding bad and I wanted to hide, but she made me follow her and we snuck up on those two men. They were going to hurt you, Miss Kitty Kat. We jumped on them and then Charlie came running in and then Tanner and Rawley and it was a big ole mess and Jo was just lying there all bloody and you wouldn't wake up and Mama came running and then I was really scared, but Mama said the Alpha would make it all right." Buddy grinned. "And he did."

  "Well, you're my hero, Buddy, and so is Jo." She looked around. "Where are the others? How long have I been here?"

  "Some's upstairs, some's across the way waiting on the Alpha, and some's cleaning up in the kitchen and the bathrooms. They came back as he was carrying you here. That man's going to be wore out with all the fighting and coming and going and now the healing. You've only been out but a few minutes." Tilda glanced over her shoulder at the murmuring from beyond the door. "I need to get back to the kitchen. They're not likely to sleep and after a night like tonight, they'll want to be fed."

  "I can help," Kat volunteered and this time rose with only a wince. If she held her head straight and steady, it hardly hurt at all.

  Tilda hesitated. "I don't know, the Alpha, he's…"

  "Busy and tired and has more to worry about than me helping you make sandwiches. God," Kat started to shake her head and thought better of it, "I can't believe I did that, Tilda. I have never, ever fainted in my entire life."

  "It happens," Tilda said, smiling cryptically and then immediately reverted to her role as housekeeper. "There's ham, roast beef, chicken salad and half a dozen cheeses. We ought to be able to put something together out of that. We'll lay it out on the kitchen counter and while they're busy chowing down, I'll get that front hall mopped up." Mrs. Martin shook her finger at no one in particular. "There's got to be some changes around here, I'll tell you that. Half of them came in shaking their wet coats and padding about with their muddy paws as if nobody ever taught them no manners." She was still grumbling to herself as she headed down the hall. "Hmph. Acting no better than untrained dogs. From now on, they want fed, they'll do they're changing before they come into the house and they'll use the back door."

  "Mama tends to get grumpy if you don't wipe your feet," Buddy explained helpfully. He put his finger in the air in the gesture Kat now realized he learned from his mother. "Just because you was born a beast don't mean you can't act like a civilized human being."

  "She's got a point," Kat laughed and then winced and rubbed the back of her head where the pain was centered. "We'd better go help before we're in the doghouse, too."

  They were halfway down the hall before Buddy laughed. "Doghouse! That was a good one, Kitty Kat."

  * * *

  Kat carried a tray loaded with sandwiches and beer upstairs. The others were congregated in the kitchen arguing about the night's events. Charles, Ryker and Hyatt were still with Jo. Kat tapped softly on the door with the toe of her shoe and eased past Hyatt when he opened and held the door. Ryker, strong, stone cold Ryker, lay on the bed, his long muscular body molded to Jo's tucked beneath the covers. One arm cradled her head and the other was wrapped protectively around her.

  Charles sat, slumped in the chair by the window, his head held in his hands. He looked up at her entrance and then back down.

  Kat had seen what the healing magic cost him in energy and each time he shifted it cost him more. The man must be exhausted.

  She placed her tray on the nightstand and nodded to Ryker, who hadn't moved but watched her with narrowed and focused eyes. Jo's face was pale and she didn't open her eyes.

  "How is she?" Kat asked Ryker in a whisper.

  "She'll live," Jo said through barely moving lips. "Can you all just go away now?"

  "Sure, honey. Sorry," Kat apologized.

  Ryker started to rise.

  "Not you," Jo mumbled, "You get your warm ass right back where it was."

  "That wasn't my ass," Ryker deadpanned, settling back down.

  "I know and if these people would leave I have other places that need to be warmed by the part that's not your ass." Jo opened one eye. "Go away," she said to the others.

  Hyatt looked worriedly from his sister to Kat. "I don't think…"

  "That's right, Hyatt. You don't think. Otherwise you'd be thinking I'm about to throw your ass out of here," Ryker growled. "Now go and take him with you." He pointed his chin at Charles.

  It was obvious that Jo was fine and didn't need anyone but Ryker. It was kind of sweet and Kat looked to Charles to share a smile.

  He didn't look up. His head was still bowed and now she noticed the tremor in his hands as they gripped the sides of his head.

  "Charles?" Kat went to her knees in front of him. This was more than exhaustion. "The others are in the kitchen, Hyatt. I'll take care of the Alpha."

  Thankfully, Hyatt didn't argue.

  She laid her hand on Charles' knee and he finally looked up. His eyes, always so bright and glittering with fire, were dull, a green so dark they were almost black. They were filled with a painful knowledge she hadn't seen in them before.

  "Do you need…?" Ryker started to rise.

  "No! We're fine." She didn't mean to snap, but she didn't apologize. Whatever was wrong, she knew Charles didn't want it shared.

  "He's tired is all."

  She maneuvered her shoulder under his arm and he rose with her. His weight almost buckled her knees, but somehow she managed to get him out of one bedroom and into the next. She eased him onto the bed where he resumed his position of hands gripping head.

  "Oh God," he moaned, "Make it stop. Make it stop. They're all in my head."

  "Who's in your head?" She'd no sooner asked than the answer dawned and she understood.

  There was no question now as to who was the rightful Alpha of the Wolf's Head Pack. The mantle had fallen on Charles' shoulders and it ha
d fallen hard.

  As gently as possible she undressed him and forced him to lie down under the covers. Then she undressed and climbed in beside him and held him and rocked him and stroked his hair and offered what comfort she could, her own headache ignored and forgotten.

  She heard the others pass their door on their way to their rooms and finally, with the house silent and asleep, Charles slept, too.

  Kat tried to sleep as well, but her dreams were haunted by the dark green eyes so filled with pain and it was as if she could feel it, too. Was it only his pain, the pain of the adjustment to the terrible weight he now carried? Or was it the pain of his pack, unsettled and unhappy with his leadership?

  Chapter 23

  Kat awoke to the faint light of daybreak, the lump on her head a mere sore spot, her headache gone and Charles sleeping peacefully beside her. She stretched a bit, carefully so as not to awaken Charles and snuggled back under the covers. They'd had a long night and there was no reason not to catch a few hours more sleep. Then she remembered. The children were coming today!

  There was so much to do. Bedrooms would need to be rearranged. She wanted the children settled and quickly, no shifting of bedrooms from here to there as the adults moved out. This was to be their home and she wanted them to see they were planned for and wanted. These children would need more than a teacher. They needed someone to love them as well.

  They would no doubt feel lost and alone and frightened just as she'd felt when her father left her with a grandmother she barely knew. Grams' hugs and kisses had meant a lot to that nine year old girl. Poor as she was, she'd made sure Kat had a bed with a new and pretty pink coverlet to welcome her into her new home and that small gesture had made Kat feel wanted and welcome.

  She carefully rolled to her side to slip from the bed, but Charles rolled with her and captured her waist, hauling her back, nuzzling her neck and hair.

  "Go back to sleep," she whispered. "It's early and you need your rest. You've had a rough time of it. I'll send Buddy up with some breakfast later. You'll be starving after last night." She started to pull away and Charles tightened his grip. "Come on, Big Bad, I don't have time. The children will be here soon and they'll need me," she said quietly and tried again to pull away.