"He's lost a lot of blood," Charles said, "I repaired the damage, but…" His knee folded under him.
"Give him to me." Ryker held out his arms.
"I've got him." Charles pushed himself up and trudged a few more steps.
"Don't be a damned fool," Ryker snapped. He all but shoved Charles back and took Tanner's body by force. "Godammit, you've done what you could. There's others who need you."
Charles nodded reluctantly and followed Ryker, the other guards, all in human form following closely behind.
Kat walked quietly by Charles' side, tense and chastened, with her tail now hanging between her legs. She understood. First law; pack comes first. Second law; she'd let her wolf rule her human, something that must not be done.
Charles' hand reached down and scratched her head. It was like a blessing, her Alpha's forgiveness. She stayed where she was, content at his side, lesson learned.
Chapter 37
"We were too damn close to the road," Charles said, "I should have known better."
"How you figure?" Ryker asked angrily. "You had guards against wolvers. Who the hell would expect some fucking asshole with a rifle at four in the morning? It's not a fucking highway. It's an unpaved back road. We own the land on either side. No one lives there. He was probably banging his girlfriend, saw you guys and decided to take a potshot at a couple of dogs to show off."
Kat remove yet another plate from the table beside Charles. He'd been eating almost constantly since he awakened from his nap, a nap where he had slept like the dead for almost four hours. Healing Tanner and bringing River and her home had sapped a great deal of his strength and his magic.
"Bullshit. I saw that truck, Ryker. The guy was alone and the plate was covered in mud. He fucking knew what he was firing at. Someone firing at dogs doesn't run back to his truck and take off. They don't expect to be chased. That shot was meant for me or Kat. Tanner was in the trees out of sight."
The plate wobbled in Kat's hand. She used her other hand to grasp it tight.
"Can I get you another hamburger?" she asked weakly when Charles glanced up.
Charles nodded. "Please. Bring two. You need some, too."
She would have laughed if they weren't talking about murder. He always fed her something from his plate. It was a bit silly to Kat, but Charles seemed to enjoy it so she never protested until today. He'd been feeding her nonstop since he'd awakened and come downstairs and he'd insisted she stay nearby while he talked with his men. Now she understood why.
The conversation went on. "Who knew you were there?"
"Who was there when the boys reported back?"
Kat took the plate over to the grill where Buddy was serving as chef in a white cook's hat and apron. Hamburgers and hot dogs were his specialty and also the only thing Tilda let him cook.
"Two more burgers, please."
"Two more coming up." Buddy plopped two more burgers on the grill and moved a half dozen hotdogs to the side away from the flame. He regarded Kat for a moment and then asked, "You all right, Miz Kat? You're not still crying, are you? Cuz Mama says what's done is done. No sense crying over it. You learned your lesson. Now that's enough."
Everyone, it seemed, knew she'd been reprimanded. Buddy, having seen her ears down and her tail between her legs, thought she'd cried, but it wasn't until she was human again that the humiliation set in.
"I'm fine, Buddy." She smiled to show him she meant it. "Jo says it happens to everybody."
Actually, Jo had laughed first. "Looks like the new pup got her nose whacked." It was only after she saw how miserable Kat was that she'd added. "It happens to all of us, you know. It's easy to let the wolf take charge, especially for the women. We don't get as much practice."
It helped a little, but not enough. It was no way for a Mate to act and it had to have embarrassed Charles. Kat had wanted to apologize, but when he brought her up to their room and brought her home, he was so exhausted, he fell back on their bed immediately asleep.
More humiliating yet, it was she who had to make the rounds of the departing guests and thank them for coming. Alex, as Second, came with her which made it that much worse. He politely refused all offers of help, saying the pack could stand on its own, but she could tell he was unhappy, angry even.
It was he who was speaking now to the group gathered around Charles.
"Alpha, I think we need to rethink this move. There's been damage done to the worksites, costs are escalating. We have leases to honor back in the city. If we're going to shift our client base to strictly wolvers, we've got to start making face to face contacts…"
"We're staying."
"I'm saying delay it, not abandon it. Recruit more wolvers, ones who can fill the needs here better than we can…"
"Godammit, Alex, are you deaf! We're staying. You want more members? Talk to John Morgan, Blue Ridge Pack. Marshall says he's got a couple of young men who mated Rabbit Creek girls who are missing their Mamas. Marshall can't take them. He's got a hard enough time finding work for the ones he's got. Call Burt Hennessey, Lowland Pack. He says he's outgrowing his territory. Same with Zeb Trehune. He's talking about a possible split and that's a nightmare."
"Sending us his malcontents will be a nightmare for us, too," Alex argued.
"Give men jobs, homes for their families, maybe they'll be contented instead," Rawley added. "My brother…"
"Who gives a shit about your damned brother? You have no idea…"
"Know more than you do…"
"If you had to…"
Buddy froze, hamburger half way to the bun as Charles straighten and seemed to expand. The magic rippled the air.
"Oh, oh," he whispered.
"Alex, shut the fuck up. I've spoken. You don't like it, resign as Second. I'll find someone else to do the job."
"No," Alex said sharply and Kat could see how much effort his refusal took. "This is my pack. I serve it well."
When he said no more, Charles nodded at Rawley. "I give a shit," he said. It was another slap at Alex and everybody knew it. "What about your brother."
Kat gave Buddy a relieved smile. "Let's get those hamburgers served."
This time, she held her ground and refused Charles' offer of food and his insistence that she stay.
"I have children to care for, work to do. Everyone's working but me. It's not right."
"It's your mating day," he said and held her hand tightly. "You shouldn't have to work."
"It's yours, too," she said, pulling against him, "And I don't see you sitting back to relax. Come on, Big Bad, let me go."
"Yeah, Big Bad, let her go," Ryker said, and the others laughed.
Charles tugged her hard enough to pull her over the arm of his chair. "You'll pay for that," he said before he kissed her.
"I hope so," she laughed. "Now let me go."
* * *
After helping Tilda finish straightening the downstairs rooms and fending off Jo's questions about her mating night with Charles, Kat headed for Tanner's room.
The injured wolver had been asleep since they brought him home. Everyone agreed that this was best, but Kat was worried about Rhonda. She'd been sitting by her lover's side since they'd brought him in.
Becky reported that the young woman had refused to eat or drink, so Kat fixed a tray with tempting tidbits leftover from the mating feast and a glass of the sweet ice tea Ronda was so fond of. Rhonda wasn't a favorite of Kat's. She seemed too artificial and Jo was wary of the woman because she was a friend of Stephanie's.
"I automatically deduct twenty points off my friendship scale if they like Stephanie and another fifteen if they kiss her ass. Rhonda's not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, so I gave her ten points back," was how Jo explained it. "How anyone that stupid can be that good at her job defies explanation."
Kat wasn't sure exactly what Rhonda did, but she knew the woman was devoted to Tanner and Tanner seemed pretty fond of her, too. She knocked on the door and entered quietly to find Rhonda lifting her he
ad from the bed where it had been resting on Tanner's pale hand. Her eyes were red and swollen.
"I brought you a tray. Tanner probably knows you haven't eaten and knowing won't make him feel better."
"Do you think so?"
"I do. He likes to see you eat. He's just like Charles that way, always feeding you."
Rhonda giggled a little. "That's a sign of love, silly. Everybody knows that."
"I didn't," Kat laughed softly. "I think you guys should get together and write a book, the Mate's Handbook, Everything an Alpha's Mate Needs to Know. There are so many little things going on that I don't understand."
"It goes back to the early days when wolvers hunted for their mates. It's like saying I want to take care of you. I guess it's kind of stupid, but it's tradition." She smiled and stroked Tanners hand and then took one of the little salami cornucopias filled with cream cheese and took a bite, chewed and swallowed. "I love these things."
"Good. I brought you sweet tea, too." Kat handed her the glass.
"You remembered?"
How could she not? Every time someone asked if Rhonda wanted something to drink she'd ask, "Got any sweet tea?" Never iced tea or tea, always sweet tea. Kat just smiled.
"I know what you mean about not understanding," Rhonda told her after taking another tidbit from the plate. "Our pack was big and we had our own schools. I didn't have much to do with humans until I went to college. It was like living in a foreign country, England or someplace. We spoke the same language, but I didn't understand half of what they said."
"Like they were speaking in code and you didn't have the key."
"Exactly!" Rhonda was delighted that Kat understood. "And they knew it. I didn't dress right, either. I started copying what the popular girls said and did and then I felt better."
And you're still doing it, but Kat didn't say it aloud. Instead she asked, "Why did you join Wolf's Head?"
Rhonda sounded like she'd be more comfortable in the familiar surroundings of her own pack.
"Because of Tanner," Rhonda said simply. "We're from the same pack. He's four years older than me, but I've loved him since the first time he came to supper with my brother. I was six."
"Six?" Rhonda was using the only chair in the room, so Kat sat on the corner of the bed. "How about Tanner?"
"Oh no," Rhonda giggled. "It took him way longer. We just got together last year." She sighed and then frowned as she looked down at Tanner. "You don't think he can hear us, do you? You won't tell anyone, will you? I know it sounds stupid…"
"I won't tell and I don't think it's stupid. I think it's the sweetest thing I ever heard and someday you should tell him. I bet he'd think it was sweet, too."
Tanner groaned and both women stopped talking and watched until he groaned again. He half opened his eyes.
"Tanner?" Rhonda brought her face close to his and when he smiled, she kissed him. "Oh, honey, I've been so worried."
"You always taste like sweet tea, baby," Tanner mumbled, not fully awake, "Got any left? I'm thirsty. Hungry, too."
"Soup," Kat said, smiling. "You feed him kisses and sweet tea. I'll get the soup."
* * *
In spite of her promise, Kat told Charles about it that night when they were snuggled together in bed. This was swiftly becoming her favorite part of her day. Charles would lie back on his pillows with his arm around her and she would curl up beside him with her head on his shoulder and her hand on his chest and they would talk of the simple things that made up their lives. It was their version of 'How was your day, dear?' and it worked both ways.
Charles would tell her about the progress of the renovations and construction, how the business was doing, who irked him and who made him laugh.
Kat would tell him about the children, what they learned in the schoolroom and out, what they said that made her think and what they said that made her laugh. When she told him about Forest, he held her while she cried.
It was mostly because of that that she told him about Rhonda and Tanner. She wanted to end her day with a smile.
"I'm a little ashamed. Rhonda's not what I thought she was," Kat confessed. "Jo says she's good at her job, so she's smart, but I don't think she really knows it. She's really very sweet, but I don't believe she thinks that's enough for other people to like her. In some ways, she's a lot like me, feeling like the people around me are talking in code. I feel that way when you talk about business with the others. The terms are foreign to me. And wolver terms and culture?" she laughed. "The only time I ever heard about being over the moon, someone was talking about falling in love."
She was ready for Charles to laugh and tease her and was therefore surprised when he didn't.
"That's one of the things I love most about you, my Katarina. You're open to seeing the best in people and you don't mind sharing your weaknesses with them. They see that and they feel it and they trust you. It's a wonderful quality to have for an Alpha's Mate."
"Except when I'm a wolf who acts like an ass," she whispered. His having to reprimand her still stung.
"All it showed them was that you were just like them. They appreciate that, too."
Kat snuggled closer and closed her eyes. It was good to have someone to share your secrets with.
Chapter 38
There was one secret, however, Kat failed to share with Charles and the longer she waited, the harder she found it to tell.
River was still running off at night and returning in the wee hours of the morning.
Two weeks had passed since their mating, two weeks of confinement to the house and yard, two weeks of antsy children who needed a run in the woods, two weeks of snarling wolvers who were overtired from working all day and patrolling all night and still the harassment continued.
"Ryker's going to be bald the way he's pulling his hair out over this," Jo told Kat one afternoon while she took a break by the pool. Ranger deliberately splashed water up onto her bare feet. "Get out of here you little beast, before I ask Mrs. Martin to cook you for supper." She grinned maliciously. "I like little boys, especially when they're served with carrots and onions."
"Mrs. Martin wouldn't listen," Ranger shouted back, "She likes me."
"Don't be too sure. She wasn't real happy when she found that snake in your bed the other day," Jo laughed. They'd all come running when the housekeeper screamed.
"That wasn't my fault! He got out of my pocket and got lost." Ranger had a habit of pocketing anything that jumped or wiggled.
"You'd probably taste like old shoe leather anyway." Jo banished him with a wave of her hand.
"Come play with us, Auntie Jo."
"I, unlike some people I know, have to work for a living. I'm taking a break and then it's back to the grindstone," she told him and turned to Kat with a wrinkled nose and curled lip. "Auntie Jo?"
Kat laughed. "And Uncle Ryker. They decided that if they were going to be brothers and sisters, they needed aunts and uncles."
"Poor Uncle Ryker. I think he'd like to spend more time with the kids. I think he'd like one of his own." She frowned.
"You don't?" Kat found that hard to believe. Jo tormented the children mercilessly, called them names and was sometimes as crude as they were. They loved her for it and regularly asked her to join in their fun. In spite of her loud protests to the contrary, Jo loved them, too.
"I don't know. I like them best when I know I can hand them off to someone else and babies are so, so tiny. I wouldn't know what to do with one. I'm not very maternal."
Kat thought otherwise, but it wasn't her decision to make, so she kept her mouth shut. "So what's this about Ryker going bald?"
"Pack security is Ryker's baby and he feels like a failure as a father. He knows the men are tired. Hell, he even lets some of us women ride shotgun on patrol." She laughed without amusement. "He's willing to let us risk our nails dialing our cell phones for help. Like the damned things work up here." She shrugged. "He makes new schedules. He changes the routes and the times, but it doesn't ma
tter. The vandals show up where we aren't. He can't track them, either. There's too much water, too many streams and ponds. They lose the scent. The damage they do isn't major, but it's annoying and time consuming to repair and as Alex so frequently points out, it's costly. He's going nuts over it."
Kat nodded. "So is Stephanie. All she does is complain about the 'drain on our resources," she mimicked in a snooty voice and then relented. "I shouldn't mock. She has a right to be concerned and she's gone out of her way to be nice to me. In a sticky sweet kind of way."
Stephanie felt pleased. It was the only way Kat could describe it. Since her mating, Kat felt more attuned to the feelings of others and she understood what Stephanie felt but not why. Why should she feel so pleased when she was still off the Council and nothing with the pack was going as she'd planned?
She'd moved her things into Alex's room and Kat had regaled Charles with her visions of Stephanie poured into black leather complete with whips and chains and Alex splayed on a cross taking his punishment.
"Damn. I guess this means I'll have to return those packages that were delivered in plain brown wrappers," he'd said.
"Not until I check out what's in them," she'd giggled.
"Just don't trust her," Jo was telling her now.
Kat most certainly didn't.
* * *
She was reminded of her conversation with Jo three days later when River once again disappeared.
Charles had gone to the city and had a late dinner planned with clients. He'd done this before and, as in the past, he promised to drive home that night even though Kat had urged him to stay in the city. The fool man didn't understand that she worried more about him driving back in the middle of the night than she did spending the night alone.
Kat couldn't sleep. She never did until Charles was safely home.
"Of course," Jo laughed when Kat told her, "Makes perfect sense, because everyone knows that ghosting around the house in the middle of the night is the mystical answer to keeping drunks off the road."
The words were said in jest, but when two o'clock came and went, they haunted Kat.
The Alpha's Choice Page 28