by Maddy Barone
Taye and the Pack took her back to the rec room to the table near the fireplace and swept an arm at a chair set beside the fireplace. Carla hadn’t seen that chair before. It was deeply padded and upholstered in leather.
“This is your chair,” Taye told her. “Mikey and Alec made it for you.”
Two men stepped forward, both with Native American features, but with their dark hair cut short like Taye’s They were shy, but clearly proud of their creation as they showed off how the padded arms could be lowered so they wouldn’t be in the way while she played her guitar. Carla was touched and thanked them sincerely for the gift. Then Taye unwrapped the big bundle he had been carrying earlier.
“Here are a few things for you until we can go shopping for new clothes for you.” First he held up a pair of loose pants with a drawstring waist, then a dark blue button-up shirt. Then, like a magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat he unfolded and held up a full-length leather coat lined with dark fur. “I promised I would dress you in fur like a Russian princess.”
The wolves all howled when Taye helped her put it on. It was double-breasted, fastening with buttons carved from bone. The hem hit her just below the knee. Taye put his arms around her from behind and breathed deeply against her neck. “When I’m not near to keep you warm, this will,” he murmured into her ear.
The light brush of his lips made her shiver. “It’s beautiful.”
“You are beautiful,” he corrected.
Though they had spoken softly, the Pack heard and howled agreement. “You’re our Lupa!” said one man. “Only the best for our Lupa!” shouted another. “Kiss!” called Sky.
Taye grinned at the teen and tilted Carla’s chin to kiss her tenderly. Carla’s stomach growled, and Taye stopped grinning at Sky’s disappointment at the tame kiss to frown down at Carla. “You’re hungry.”
“She didn’t come out for lunch, Chief,” said Sky.
“You missed lunch again?” Taye asked, exasperated. “How will I ever get you to fatten up if you don’t eat? Pack, this is an order: if I am out and your Lupa doesn’t come for a meal, pick her up and carry her to the dining hall. Understood?” The wolves all agreed loudly. Carla thought they were teasing her, but their faces were serious. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s get supper.”
Carla took the coat off and laid it over her new chair. She let her fingers stroke over the fur when she looked at the Pack. “Thank you, everybody. I’ve gotten some really nice presents in my life, but none as special as these. Tonight I’ll play all the songs I’m going to play tomorrow at the library as a thank you for you.”
The wolves howled again, grinning at her. Supper was roasted venison. Carla’s chunk was actually well-enough cooked that she didn’t need to take it back to finish cooking it. Taye spend the entire meal focused on her. There were long hot looks and times when he bent near to take deep breaths of her scent at her throat, but he also told her what he usually did with his days. He hunted for meat both as a man and wolf, and spent a lot of time training the younger wolves in hunting and fighting. Such hunts and training sometimes took him away from the den for weeks. It would be a while before he would leave his new mate for such a long time (he leaned close to inhale her scent at her nape when he said that, making her shiver), but soon he would begin being away for a night or two a week so they could stock up on meat for the winter. He traveled into town and to smaller settlements nearby to arrange trades for the hides and dried meat from the hunting to obtain the items the Pack couldn’t produce themselves like sugar and flour and cloth. As the Alpha, he sometimes judged disputes for the Pack and the humans under the their protection, and he often went out to visit the Clan on the plains. As Lupa, she would be expected to settle any issues while he was away. She was uncertain about that.
“What kind of disputes?” she wanted to know.
Taye sopped up the juice from his meat with bread and popped it in his mouth. He chewed, thinking. “Different things. Last week Denny Preston came to me because his neighbor’s sheep kept getting out of their pen and eating his garden.” Taye shrugged. “I told the neighbor to build a taller fence and if it happened again he would have to give one of his sheep to Denny. A lot of the time it’s a man asking for an extra share of meat. That’s pretty typical. Last summer Bob Rakowski asked for help escorting his daughter to her wedding at the Old Fort settlement. I sent a dozen of the Pack along, half in wolf shape and half in human shape.” Taye laughed in remembering. “It’s a good thing Bob asked for our help. While they were fording the river some woman stealers ambushed them. If it would have been just Bob and his sons, the girl would have been taken. But the ambushers didn’t expect wolves.”
The wolves, even the ones furthest away, heard every word and began boasting about which of them had killed which ambushers. Taye saw the horrified look on Carla’s face.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
“You killed those men?”
Taye raised a cool eyebrow. “Men who were trying to steal a woman under our protection and kill her escort? Of course. What else would we do?”
“Arrest them! Put them in jail for a trial.”
Taye was familiar with the concept from reading books from the Times Before. “We don’t have a jail here and no trials, especially for something like this. I am Alpha and you are Lupa; we are the judges over our people and those who would hurt them.” He feathered callused fingers over her temple. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, it doesn’t happen often. Let’s talk about something else. Aside from singing for strange men, what would you like to do?”
Carla told him that she was willing to take charge of the kitchen, as long as she had helpers to do some of the work. She would knit socks and sweaters to help keep herself warm in the winter. Other than that, she would care for her horse and ride, write music and play her guitar, and hopefully, make friends and visit them. Yes, she agreed when Taye voiced concerns over her safety, she would take an escort of wolves whenever she left the den. She couldn’t imagine anyone stupid enough to try to bother her. But those men the night that Taye first brought her home had been stupid enough to try.
Taye leaned so close they were almost glued together from knee to hip to shoulder. “And someday you’ll have children to take care of,” he murmured in her ear.
Yes, after her contraceptive wore off. Carla wondered what sort of children they would have. Would the boys be wolves? Would they have a little girl? Carla would like a little girl. Of course, she would have to be careful that her daughter wouldn’t turn into a brat. Taye would spoil her rotten, and so would the rest of the Pack. And good luck finding a boy to date that Taye would approve of. She pitied any boy who tried to lure their daughter into the back of his pickup—or whatever the equivalent would be here.
Her future didn’t seem terribly exciting. Except, she amended when Taye’s eyes smiled into hers while his fingers crept up the inner seam of her jeans, for the nights. Taye’s lovemaking was plenty exciting, and teaching him that she intended to be a full partner and not a doll for him to tease would be fun too. And if this concert at the library went well, maybe she could convince Taye to let her do other shows either in town or in the nearby settlements.
Her concert for the wolves that night was a hit. For feral murdering wolves they were amazingly tenderhearted. They cried at her love songs and laughed at the children’s songs, and cheered when she sang about soldier coming home from the desert. When she spoke a little about Mr. Gray and his wife’s guitar that he had given to her, they all nodded seriously, and then sobbed out loud when she sang about sweet Kylie and the guitar her husband treasured. Taye had tears in his eyes when he leaned close and kissed her gently at the end of the song.
“That was wonderful, sweetheart. You made that up yourself, didn’t you? You are—” Kiss. “—so—” Nibble at her ear. “—talented.” Another kiss that parted her lips for his tongue to glide against hers. “Let’s go to bed.”
Carla flashed a smile at him, already planning t
o take control this time. But as she was putting her guitar in the case three men came into the rec room. Carla recognized Jay and Des but not the third man, who was dressed like an extra in the movie Dancing With Wolves, with a breechcloth and hair in two braids past his waist. Carla did a doubletake, not because his clothing was odd, but because he was wearing clothing at all. Jay and Des were naked. Taye nodded at them, suddenly alert and passion forgotten. “Report.”
Des nodded back, and spoke to Taye, but his words were for all the wolves. “Chief, good news. Your cousin, Wolf Shadow, has found his mate. She is brave and beautiful. She was walking alone on the prairie trying to find help for the ones injured in the airplane—” He spoke the word slowly like it was foreign. “—crash when he found her. There are twenty-nine unmated women from the Times Before and three girl children, but most of them are injured. The Grandmother sent us back to ask for supplies to care for the women.”
Carla felt her stomach drop. “Only twenty-nine? And three kids?” she cried. “But there were more than that on the plane. What about the men?”
Des shrugged unconcernedly. “A lot of them died.”
“But at least six of the men weren’t hurt that badly! What about them?”
Des shrugged again, and Jay said matter-of-factly, “The Clan doesn’t have enough food or medicine for everyone. Saving the women is more important than helping a few men who will only try to take the women for themselves.”
Taye’s arm restrained her from jumping forward. “You killed them?” she shrieked.
“No, Lupa. They died on their own, except for the two we eased. Their infections would have killed them eventually, and with a lot of pain. We spared them that.”
“But what about antibi…” Carla was appalled. “No antibiotics?”
“Sweetheart, medicine is hard to get here. We wouldn’t murder helpless men, but neither would we allow them to suffer. If your horse had a badly broken leg and there was nothing you could do to save her, wouldn’t you give her merciful end?” Taye tightened his arm around Carla’s shoulders to comfort her and looked at Des. “Did you or any of our Pack that went with you find their mates?”
“No.” Des tightened his face, as if to force back any sorrow or anger. “Wolf Shadow and two others from the Clan found mates.” He glanced quickly at the stranger with him.
“Which women?” Carla asked. She didn’t know any of those women well, but after working together with them to save others she felt a special bond. Besides, they were all that was left of her old world. “Taye’s cousin’s wi—mate. Who is she?”
Jay answered in a dreamy voice. “Her name is Glory, and she is glorious. So soft and round.” His hands moved as if stroking generous curves. “And her hair is pink. I didn’t know hair could be pink.”
Carla remembered her, a free-spirit Goth type with surprisingly down-to-earth manners in a crisis. Taye looked at her questioningly. “Do you know her, sweetheart?”
“I know who she is. She was one of the ones who volunteered to walk to try to find help, but I never saw her before we were on the plane.”
The wolves were on their feet, almost trembling with excitement and hope. Taye nodded at them. “Sky, Black Wing, Radden, and Snake, get blankets, cloth for bandages, and food together and ride out to the Clan. We will send everyone to the Clan so you can look for your mates, but in groups of four to six at a time. We can’t leave the den and the Lupa without protection.”
The stranger was looking at Carla with interest. “This is your mate?”
Taye squeezed her shoulders with his arm. “Yes, this is Carla,” he said proudly. “Sweetheart, this is my cousin Jumping Stag from the Clan. We call him Stag.”
Carla nodded at the stranger, and was surprised by his eyes. They were vibrant blue in his sun-browned face, even brighter than Sky’s eyes. He smiled, and Carla saw the family resemblance. His teeth were glowingly white, and the same dimple that Taye hid beside his mouth flashed briefly. She thought he might be about the same age as Taye. “Nice to meet you.”
“You were on the airplane too?” Stag asked. “You’re from the Times Before?”
Carla agreed that she was.
“I came because your advice is needed. And Taye’s. You are happy with him. I can smell it. You care for him. You share your body with him.”
“Um, yes,” Carla said, embarrassed. But with these wolves and their noses she couldn’t lie.
“My mate is from your world. Her name is Sherry. She…” He trailed off and took a deep breath. “She says I’m unnatural. A monster. She calls me a liar. No one can make her happy. Please tell me what I can do to make her love me.”
Carla sank into her new chair. “You’re a wolf, right? Wolf-born, I mean. Has she seen you change?”
“Yes.” Stag dropped to his haunches in front of her. Taye settled onto the arm of her chair and put his arm around her shoulders. “We’ve all told the woman that I will be a good husband. I can provide for her and our pups.”
“Well, back in the Times Before we didn’t have wolves, only movies—stories about men who turn into wolves and eat people. Horror movies.” Carla was aware of the whole Pack listening. “She’s probably scared. You have to think of it from her side. The plane she was riding in crashed. That is pretty scary right there. Now she has a stranger—who turns into a wolf—telling her she belongs to him. Can you understand why’d she be scared?”
Stag sighed and looked at Taye. “How did you get your mate to accept you so quickly?”
Taye caressed Carla’s shoulder. “I was lucky. It took my parents three years, remember? But I promised Carla that I wouldn’t demand sex until she was sure she wanted it.” He looked down at Carla with an inquiring look on his face. “What did I do, sweetheart, to convince you?”
“Well … You did so many nice things for me. The hot water, and the stove, and the guitar…” Carla had been thinking about this for a while and struggled to put her feelings into words. “You showed me you cared. And I knew I could never go back to the Times Before. I had to make a new life here. You made me feel safe. I didn’t even know that until Pete challenged you. I was scared to death of you at first, and I was afraid you would rape me, but you didn’t. Pete would have. And you treated me like an equal. Mostly. I felt like you respected me.” She fiddled with the end of her braid, frowning. “You made me believe I was important to you.”
Taye lifted her hand to press a kiss to her palm. “You are important to me. At first it was because my wolf had chosen you to be my mate. I would have felt like that whoever my mate was. It was natural to want to protect you and make sure you were comfortable. I began to admire you when you took the man who tried to steal you down with a kick. I liked that you could take care of yourself. Liking and admiration and respect are a good beginning for a couple starting a life together. But now it’s more than just liking. I love how generous you are to people. You share your music with joy, like you have with the Pack and you will with Mr. Gray and his family tomorrow. And you listen to me when I talk about things that are important to me like my parents, and my new cousin. I love the way you decide what is right and do it, even when I might not like it, like when you insisted on accepting the guitar as a gift. I love you because you make me happy to see you.” He kissed her temple tenderly.
Carla forced her tears back. Taye loved her. It was more than just lust for him. She put her hand over the arm he had over her shoulders and squeezed gently. “We were lucky,” she told Stag, who was watching them wistfully. “I think it will take more time for you. Be patient with Sherry. Maybe treat her like a sister for a while until she gets used to you. And,” Carla paused to clear her throat. “It might be good to wear clothes around her. In the Times Before people didn’t run around without clothes on. It makes us uncomfortable.”
Stag glanced around the room full of naked men.
“I’m getting used to it now. But at first … It was pretty hard.”
“The Grandmother requires clothing in cam
p.” He looked at Taye. “Will you and your mate come so the women from the Times Before can see that they can be happy with a wolf?”
Taye nodded. “In a few weeks, maybe. Aren’t Shadow and Glory happy together?”
“They seemed to be, the first day and night. Then Glory found out she couldn’t go home, and she went crazy. Poor Shadow is begging her to love him again, but she only punches him and tells him to drop dead.”
Taye coughed to cover a laugh. His cousin was fifty pounds heavier than he, and five inches taller, and so fierce that his reputation was known for hundreds of miles in all directions. The mental image of a woman with pink hair defying his ferocious cousin was amusing. “Have you eaten? There’s food in the kitchen. Take what you need.”
Stag got up and left. Taye bent to kiss Carla on her temple. “Will it be so hard for these women to accept their mates? Lisa seemed happy with Eddie Madison, and you and I care for each other.”
“Yeah, but I think that’s unusual. And something about the way Mr. Gray spoke makes me wonder how happy Lisa really is. And, you know, I bet most of the women are going to be scared to death at first. Some of those women are probably new widows if their husbands died in the crash. I don’t know how it’s going to work out.”
“Well, let’s not worry about it tonight.” His lips brushed over the corner of her jaw. “There are several steps we skipped last night—”
Carla stood up and turned to poke her finger into his chest. “No, tonight I get to torture you.”
“No,” he smiled. “That’s tomorrow night. Tonight I get to continue what I started.”
They argued all the way back to their room, and Carla waited until he had closed the door to hold up her hand to make him keep his distance.
“Taye, do you remember that first night when you said you wanted us to always tell each other the truth?”
“Yes,” he said warily.
“Well, I know you’re the Alpha, and you need to be in charge. And don’t get me wrong. I love what you do to me in bed. But it’s really important to me to be your partner. Okay?”