Charles frown wasn't what she expected. Kat thought the children's sleeping arrangement was rather endearing all tangled together like that. They reminded her of a litter… Oh. She frowned.
"They'll learn, Charles. You'll see. River wasn't with them. He was in a chair by the window. He's keeping watch over them, Charles, protecting them. They didn't try to run away," she said, thinking that, in itself, was an improvement. "They know they're safe here."
"Or they're waiting until our guard is down and their strength is up."
Kat stopped abruptly, forcing Charles to stop with her. She put her hands on her hips. "Look, I know it's your job to look at the dark side of this. I understand that now where I didn't before. The safety and well-being of the pack comes first. I get that. I really do." She looked over her shoulder to make sure the others were well ahead and out of hearing range.
"You can't let yourself get too close to them," she continued, holding his cheek in her hand and stroking him lightly with her thumb. "I understand that, too. It would be too painful when… if…" She forced herself to say the words. "If you have to send them into the wild. But Charles, you have to give them a chance. They've had years of living like animals. That won't come undone overnight. You have to show them you have faith in them. You're the Alpha and they'll believe it if it comes from you."
Charles gripped her shoulders and looked deeply into her eyes. "You understand it's not a decision I want to make."
"I know it's not," she told him, "And if it comes to that, I won't pretend to like it, but I won't stop loving you because of it. I trust you. You're my Alpha."
Charles' somber face split into a grin. "So you love me, huh?"
"Yeah, I think I do," she said as she took his hand and they started back to the house.
"I knew you would. Who could resist this handsome face, this muscular physique, this…"
"…swollen ego, that furry tail, those muddy paws." Kat shook her head, laughing. "Come on, Beasty Boy, let's get you something to eat and go to bed."
"Not in the mood for another run?" he asked with a leering arch to his eyebrows.
"No," she said firmly, thinking of the boy upstairs watching from the window, "You said bed and I'm holding you to it."
"All righty then. Bed it is." He stopped her before they entered the house. "I love you, too, you know."
"I knew you would. Who could resist…" But she couldn't think of anything to say.
"The most beautiful woman and understanding soul I've ever met." He said and she knew it wasn't one of his silly pickup lines.
"Oh, you're good, Wolfman. Very good," she smiled.
* * *
Several days later, the television news was still reporting on the meth lab explosion and the subsequent discovery of a dog fighting ring. Talking heads described the perils of meth addiction and animal rights activists protested the cruelty and immorality of gambling on dogs killing each other for sport. Everyone wanted in on the act.
The violence was attributed to two rival gangs. Two men were killed along with several large dogs that lost their lives in the fire. The county Sheriff made a statement about the drug trade infiltrating the countryside and assuring the populace that they were doing everything in their power to combat the problem and urging the citizenry to report any suspicious behavior.
"Yeah right," one of the younger men sneered. "Like there wasn't a deputy's cruiser parked out front the first time we stopped by. The only ones running these bastards to ground is us.
"We didn't get them all," Ryker reminded them, "And I still want to know why in hell they're working with humans."
Kat watched River out of the corner of her eye. He was watching and listening from just beyond the doorway to the TV room. He shook his head in disgust and turned back to the schoolroom, reminding Kat of where she should be.
Dakota, the bloodthirsty nine year old, was straddling a sofa cushion on the floor of the schoolroom. "Kill 'em dead," he shouted in his odd froglike voice and stabbed the pillow with a ruler. "Take that and that and that!"
"Dakota, stop that," Kat admonished. "There'll be no pillow killing in the classroom. Put it away and let's get started." She pulled the pocket doors closed behind her.
"But that's how you do it if you don't have claws and teeth," he argued. "You slash and stab until they're dead, dead, dead…"
"Dakota!"
"…and their blood and guts are all over the floor and then you have a party. We killed them dead!" he shouted one last time.
"Dakota! No!" Kat took a deep breath and after a short tug of war, removed the ruler from his hand. "We must never rejoice in another man's death be he human or wolver."
Dakota looked at her as if she had two heads. "Huh?"
The words were too big for him. "I'm saying it's not good to be happy about someone getting killed. Killing isn't good."
"They're happy." Dakota pointed at the door.
"They're happy the bad people are gone. That's not the same. They would be just as happy if no one died."
"They deserved to die." River spoke so quietly it almost passed unnoticed.
"Maybe they did," she said quietly, "But that doesn't mean we should enjoy it. Now let's get out our reading books and get some work done."
It was difficult to explain it properly to the children when she wasn't sure how she felt about it either. The more she saw of these wolvers, the more she recognized their primal instincts running close to the surface. Some of them took pleasure in the kill and even those who didn't saw nothing wrong with those who did.
In business, they were ruthless, though Charles swore they were above board in everything they did. They had to avoid scrutiny by the various government agencies that kept track of businesses like theirs. In play, they were aggressive and as Jo so crudely put it, constantly measuring their dicks against the next guy.
A psychologist would label them Type A personalities, but it was more than that. They were territorial and their first thought when threatened was to eliminate the threat. The preservation of the pack was their sole moral compass and the wiser heads of the pack hierarchy kept many of them from following their baser instincts.
That too, she was beginning to believe had more to do with pack preservation than a sense of right and wrong. They couldn't afford to attract the outside scrutiny of the human world. She wondered what would happen if the Wolvers did someday come out of the woods. Under the wrong leadership, they could make organized crime bosses look like pansies.
* * *
After what felt like a six minute reading lesson and two hundred and twenty-six minutes of "Please sit down. Let's put that away. No, no, we don't eat crayons. Be careful, that sharp!" Kat was ready for a break.
"How about we go outside for a walk? We could all use some fresh air and you can run some of that energy off. What do you think?" she asked River who had ignored the lessons and the children, and spent all his time staring out the window to the trees beyond.
He looked at her and turned back to the window where he spent most of his time staring through the glass. He could hold the same position for hours at a time and his stillness was uncanny, particularly when his stare was directed at Kat. She could feel his eyes boring into her back and it made her stumble and stutter when she presented lessons. She wondered if he took satisfaction in that.
There was no way to tell. He didn't look away when she turned to confront his stare, but his face showed nothing. Questions he was forced to answer were preceded by a snarl and the only time he smiled, if a smirk could be called one, was when Kat begged him to intervene and help her maintain some minimum of discipline.
Still, there was something about him that touched her. He had an innate ability to lead and the children were quick to follow. He never raised his voice or his hand and yet she was sure they would follow him anywhere. There was a danger to this, she knew. Sooner or later, they would have to transfer their loyalty to Charles and the pack, but for now, she needed the boy.
&
nbsp; When she explained that they would no longer sleep on the floor, but in a bed like all good wolvers do, a riot ensued. It was River who settled them down and offered a compromise although it came in the form of an order.
"Dakota, Ranger, you two sleep in that bed there. You don't have to use the pillows. Forest, Meadow, pick a bed in the other room. Meadow, no whining. Forest will hold you if you're scared and the bathroom doors will be open. I'll be right here. Say good night to Miz Kat."
He made the boys brush their teeth and the girls brush their hair, but refused to help out at the table. His face was already filling out with Mrs. Martin's cooking, but he still refused to eat until the younger ones were fed and he eschewed the use of utensils of any sort.
He was a strange mixture of cooperation and defiance, pushing the children to learn some skills and ignore others. He rarely smiled, but the children held no fear of him except for Forest who trembled when any male came too close.
As for Kat, she wanted to rest her hand on his shoulder and stroke his hair away from his brow. She wanted to tell him how proud she was of him for taking on these kids. She wanted to tell him it was all right, now. There were other people here to do the job, but she said nothing. Any overtures of kindness were met by hostile glares and a curled upper lip.
Outdoors, River became a different person. He laughed when Buddy played Bear in the Woods with the younger boys and he whirled Meadow high in the air until she giggled with delight. He brought the shy Forest wildflowers. And he ran. River ran like the breeze that skimmed over the new grass, so light and playful. He ran like the gusts caught in the trees, leaping, dodging, laughing. He ran for miles, always staying within sight of the other children, always ready to run back if one of them called his name. Outdoors, he was free of the burdens that weighed so heavily on his young shoulders.
Kat decided that outdoor activities should become part of their daily schedule. The others needed time to play. River needed a time and place to be free.
Chapter 28
Charles, however, had little time for play or freedom and was more and more confined to his office. Alex was still in the city with a contingent of others whose missions were to transfer the various operations to the Hell Hall location. This should have been a tedious, but facile procedure, since most of their work was stored in a main server with off-site back-up. It was simply a matter of moving hardware. Or it should have been.
During the move, it was discovered that certain client files had been misplaced while others had been deleted altogether leaving some financial statements altered and suspect.
Charles was left with the daunting tasks of trying to rebuild computer files from existing hard copy, while informing clients of their investment status. All this was made more difficult because their Chief Financial Officer, namely Alex, had left everything in the hands of Stephanie who was at this moment basking in the sun in South America and refusing all forms of attempted communication.
"It's not like something like this hasn't happened before," her friend Rhonda explained to anyone who would listen. It was Rhonda who told them she was at the Copacabana Palace in Rio. "The place always falls apart when she leaves town. Everyone calls her a bitch, but no one gives her the credit she deserves."
"Why would they when she's already said it first," Jo countered. "She earns a damn good paycheck for what she does and you can't say Charles doesn't recognize her for it. She gets away with murder and all because she's good at what she does. I've even said she's the best damn negotiator we've got and I'd probably say it more often if she didn't always beat me to it."
The children were in bed and the women were spread over Kat's bedroom, gossiping and painting their nails. Charles, Ryker, and Tanner were out roaming the property as wolves.
In addition to all his other problems, Charles was having trouble at the job sites where work on the new roads had begun. Some heavy equipment had been damaged and several vacant houses that were due to be refurbished had been vandalized. The men were convinced it was the work of those who were absent from the raid a few nights before.
"I don't like Stephanie," Kat confessed only because her feelings were made known the night Charles found Stephanie in their bed. "But regardless of my personal feelings, I think ditching the pack to go clubbing in Rio is a shitty thing to do. She knew she was needed to reassure clients and help with the move. Charles was planning to leave her in charge of the city offices. She could have had the best of both worlds."
"You don't understand," Rhonda argued, "She couldn't stay. She had to get away for a while. She was heartbroken, humiliated."
Kat understood humiliated, but heartbroken?
"Rhonda, you are such a romantic," Jo laughed, "Or is that what she told you? Honey, you have to have a heart before it can be broken." She stroked a last layer of polish onto her nails. "Note to self. Hair and nail salon, top priority in new development. If Stephanie's 'heartbroken', it's because her little plan for world domination has been foiled by our little schoolteacher here."
"World domination? Like Wolvers Unite!" Kat giggled. "I doubt even Stephanie could pull that one off. Wouldn't she need some badass Alpha to act as titular head?"
"Not the whole world, just ours and she thought she had an Alpha in her pocket. You screwed that up royally." Jo waved her hands to dry the nails and eyed the unopened bottle of wine. "How many smeared fingernails does it take to open a wine bottle."
"Give it here. Mine are dry." Kat reached for the cork screw with one hand and the bottle with the other. "So," she asked as casually as she could, "Were Charles and Stephanie… ah… an item?"
"An item?" Rhonda giggled, "They were hot and heavy."
"A year ago," Jo snorted, "And it was a lot hotter and heavier on her part. She had visions of being the power being the throne."
"She did not," Rhonda argued, but without much heat. "She loves him. She thought she had a chance to work it out with Charles when she came here."
"Right. She was just seeking consolation for her broken heart when she spent the rest of that night in bed with Alex." Jo snorted in derision. "Or was she setting herself up with the one guy who might be persuaded to take over the pack. Food for thought, I'd say."
"But she's not an Alpha's Mate." Kat was thoroughly confused.
"There was never supposed to be an Alpha's Mate. We didn't want one. Remember? I admit one of the things that attracted me to this pack was being recognized as an alpha. I wanted to hear someone say it out loud. Charles gives us that recognition, but Stephanie wants more than alpha status. She wants the whole shooting match and she knows the only way she'll ever get it is to rule side by side with a weaker Alpha. That's the only way she can be top wolf."
"She only wants what's best for the pack," Rhonda said loyally. "She calls me almost every day and always asks how things are going. She wants to know everything that's going on and she wants to be a part of it. She just doesn't know where she stands with Charles." She looked pleadingly at Kat. "She thinks you've turned him against her."
"Me? I don't give a damn what she does as long as she doesn't do it in Charles' bed." Kat had a history before Charles just as he had one before her. It was pointless to get upset over things that were over and done as long as they remained over and done.
* * *
Kat was learning about surviving in the woods and while some of what she learned made her cringe, like when Ranger laughingly showed her how to find and eat grubs, other things she found fascinating. Forest shyly introduced her to fiddleheads, the small, curled fronds of a newly emerging ostrich fern. Dakota thought her wits were clearly dim when she couldn't tell the difference between a good mushroom and a bad one. He found it hilarious that her choices could kill them all.
River patiently showed her how to set a snare and while her soft heart broke for the rabbits they caught, she did enjoy the stew Mrs. Martin concocted from their harvest. The housekeeper had no sympathy for the greedy creatures.
"Just wait until you wake up
one morning to find half your garden gone, then you can tell me all about the lovely little bunnies."
The children showed her where a variety of birds nested in the trees and a fox den built into the earth. They showed her how to follow the deer and the shallow caves that would make good places to sleep.
Buddy always came with them and Forest usually stayed home, preferring the company of Mrs. Martin in the kitchen.
She was slowly coming out of her shell and she blushed with pride at the least little compliment to her awakening skills. Tilda swore the girl chattered when no one else was around though said little about her previous life. What little she did say led Tilda to form some strong opinions about the girl's behavior.
"That child has seen things no child should see. She worries about the women in the house, but you and the Alpha most of all," she told Kat one morning in the kitchen. "You watch her. Every time one of you gives a man a bit of sass, she cringes. She hangs that head of hers down every time a man walks by, but she's watching and waiting.
"Yesterday, Ryker called me from the kitchen and he sounded put out, but it wasn't at me. He was giving some of the younger ones a good telling about leaving their plates and glasses about. He said I wasn't to be picking up after them. They were big and ugly enough to do it themselves. When I got back to the kitchen, that girl was curled up in the corner, froze stiff with fear. She clung to me and cried. She didn't say so, but I suspect she thought I was in for a beating."
Kat nodded in agreement. "I've noticed it, too, even with River. If he asks her to do something, she scurries to do it. Tilda, you don't suppose he's…"
"Not for a minute. I've seen him cuff those two boys, not hard mind, but enough to get their attention. Never seen him raise a hand or his voice for that matter to either of the girls. He'd never hurt a one of them. I think he'd die for 'em. And I've never seen him watching Forest like a boy does a girl, like a man does a woman. No ma'am. Those cubs's got nothing to worry about from River."
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