by Crissy Smith
RJ watched as the three Stratton siblings stood together, Nikki placed between the two brothers just like he and Dylan had put Ben.
No one moved or spoke. He’d convinced Ben to help set Dylan up to meet with Brandon but now, with the tension flowing through all the shifters, he had to wonder if it had been a good idea.
Nikki’s distress was evident in her face and it was all he could do to not go down and comfort her.
It was Ben who broke the silence.
“Please, won’t you all come inside so we can talk?”
Brandon glanced to his siblings before he nodded and started to the house. RJ never took his eyes off Brandon, though. Brandon, for his part, looked loose and relaxed, but RJ could tell he was just as wary.
Ben turned and led the way inside. Brandon, Nikki, and Justin followed with RJ following, and finally Dylan.
The biggest room was the den and that was where they headed.
“Please sit and be comfortable,” Ben invited.
Brandon took one of the recliners, Nikki sat on the couch, while Justin shifted nervously from foot to foot.
“I just put some coffee on, let me bring it in,” Ben stated once everyone was in the room.
“Let me help you,” Justin offered.
Dylan took the recliner across from Brandon. RJ squeezed his shoulder as he passed and sat on the fireplace hearth across the room. He hoped by taking himself out of the situation Dylan and Brandon could work something out.
“Thank you for coming,” Dylan started until Brandon snorted.
“Like I had much of a choice?”
Nikki pressed her hands together in her lap, looking guilty.
Dylan sighed and leant forward. “It seems to me my brother and your sister had a little more sense than us. We should have met earlier.”
Some of the fury seemed to leave Brandon as he took deep breaths. Brandon looked over at his sister, and RJ watched as they locked gazes. Brandon’s eyes narrowed before he looked over to him. It was clear when Brandon realised something more was going on.
“You son of a bitch!” Brandon yelled and launched himself at RJ.
RJ took a hard knock back as Brandon’s fist hit his chin. His head snapped back and he tasted blood in his mouth. He vaguely heard Nikki scream and Dylan holler as he shook his head. He managed to block the next punch to his head but missed the left to his stomach.
Dylan pulled Brandon off him and pushed him across the room to face off with him. From the corner of his eye, he could see Ben and Justin rush into the room.
“Brandon, stop!” Nikki tried to grab her brother but he pushed her back.
RJ growled but Dylan blocked his path. “No, we finish this now. If you have a problem with my family you come through me,” Dylan told Brandon.
“Is this going to be how you run the Pack?” Brandon spat at him. “You have a problem and you send in one of your brothers to seduce an innocent?” Brandon accused.
“No!” Nikki gasped.
Dylan obviously was caught off guard because he took a step back and faced him. “RJ?”
RJ shook his head. “It’s not like that. Come on, Dy, you know me.” Dylan stared at him as he searched RJ’s face for something. Finally, he nodded.
Dylan turned back to Brandon. “I do know my brother. And whatever you think, you have it wrong. But this isn’t about them, it’s about us. Do you want to challenge me? You want to do this now?”
Brandon still fumed. “Fuck you. This is about all of us. If I didn’t want to challenge you before, you crossed a line tonight. She”—he pointed at his sister—“has nothing to do with this.”
“Brandon—” Nikki started.
“No, I don’t want to be the damn Alpha. I never did. But I won’t let this Pack belong to someone with such little consideration and respect. This is just too much. Do you know what is going to happen in three months when we go public? No, none of us do. We have to trust our leader.”
Brandon grabbed Nikki’s arm and pulled her towards the door.
“Wait!” Nikki dug her heels in. “Just listen to me.”
“We’ll talk about this in the car or at home. We’re leaving now.” He tugged her again.
“We’ll talk about this now,” Nikki argued and yanked her arm from his hold. “RJ didn’t seduce me or whatever you think.”
“Nik, this isn’t the time or place.”
She shook her head and sidestepped his reach to stand by RJ. She didn’t look at him as she addressed the room.
“RJ didn’t do anything wrong. Dylan and Ben didn’t even know we were coming up with this. Can we please just sit down and try this again?”
“Brandon…” Justin moved from the doorway to his brother. “We need to hear Nikki out.
Brandon looked torn but eventually he nodded. Ben gripped Dylan’s shoulder and led him back to the chair.
Once Brandon and Dylan were settled back in chairs and Ben and Justin on the couch, Nikki bit at her lip. RJ wanted to reassure her, pull her into his arms, do something to help. But he stood silent while she worked out what she wanted to say.
He was so proud that the woman he would mate had stood up for what she believed in.
“First, let me clear up one thing. I went to RJ,” Nikki told them. “I’m sorry, Brandon, but I couldn’t let the Pack pressure you into doing something you didn’t want. I understand you have to look out for the Pack. But you’re my brother and I have to look out for you.”
Brandon opened his mouth but promptly snapped it shut. Instead of speaking, he just nodded.
“I knew you didn’t actually want to be Alpha. I also know that Dylan doesn’t want to meet you in a challenge. A challenge would leave one of us”—she gestured between her and RJ—“without one of the people we love the most.”
RJ held out his hand. He’d let her talk, but he needed her to know that he was behind her.
She clasped his hand in hers. “Yes, I didn’t expect the complication of my feelings getting involved when I went to talk to him. But they did.” She smiled up at him. “We have to work this out. It’s about more than just the Pack. It’s about our families coming together.”
“Our families, Nik?” Brandon shook his head. “You’ve been here two days. You can’t just come in and fix things.”
“Why not? No one else was doing anything. You talk about what happens when we go public. You’re expecting the worst. You always do,” she accused.
“I’ve kept you safe, haven’t I?” Brandon snapped back.
“Yes.” Her voice softened as she let go of RJ’s hand and knelt in front of him. “You have. But you also taught me to stand up for what I believe in.”
Brandon ran a hand over his face roughly. “Even if I don’t challenge, I know someone will,” he said tiredly.
“Can I ask a question?” Ben asked from the couch where he and Justin had settled. “Who approached you to challenge?”
“I can’t…I can’t tell you. It wouldn’t be fair to him.”
“But it’s fair to let him pressure you to challenge an appointed Alpha?” Nikki questioned.
“Let’s start this way,” Dylan offered from across the room. Everyone looked over at him and he smiled. “Let’s look at the issues. Issue one is I support the shifters going public.”
Brandon shrugged. “I see both sides of the argument. But I guess I have been lax in supporting it, so that is what’s brought up the most. And I don’t honestly think that is what this is about. I think they’re using it as an excuse. They are more worried about losing the ear of the Alpha. Especially when you decide on your own inner circle. That will leave a lot of us out in the cold.”
“Okay.” Dylan leant forward. “Cameron had agreed to go public, and when I accepted the Alpha position I kept the agreement. I have also discussed my inner circle with Cameron and he has agreed. You can’t tell me that Cameron would have been challenged.”
“No, I don’t think so,” Brandon conceded.
“So what else
is the problem? Me being a stranger? Cameron spoke to several of you, from what I understand, about bringing in an outsider.”
“He did,” Justin spoke up. “To all of his inner circle plus several of the younger wolves who were dominant.”
“Did he contact the elders of the community?” Dylan asked next.
“Not until he’d decided on you,” Brandon answered.
“Now, I’m not trying to get out of you who approached you, but I would bet it was one of the elders. Maybe an elder who is worried if you don’t challenge me his own son will,” Dylan guessed.
Nikki gasped. RJ raised an eyebrow and she shook her head. “You can’t protect him forever, Brandon. I know he was your best friend, but he’s not the same kid you grew up with.”
“I know.” Brandon sat back. “I know.”
The room fell silent. “Have you tried talking to him?” Nikki finally asked.
“Yeah, couple of weeks ago. He says Dylan will take us in the wrong direction. But the thing is…he never said anything against going public.” He looked over at Dylan. “I wasn’t born to lead, I know that, but I don’t want to see my Pack split in half either.”
“I don’t want to see that, either. It’s not only me, but my family and my friends. I want this Pack to be strong and flourish,” Dylan told him with conviction. RJ was proud of his brother.
“Then let’s figure out what to do,” RJ suggested and received nods of agreement.
Chapter Eight
The plan was simple. So simple it might just actually work.
Get everyone involved who would support them, and spread the word that the Pack needed to stick together and support Cameron’s decision.
Cameron and Dylan went to the diner for breakfast before making the rounds around town together, while Ben and Nikki wrote articles for the paper to publish the next morning, RJ would speak to the new Pack members asking them to mingle with the older members, and Justin talked with the kids at the school and in his shifter classes.
Hoping the support of the Pack and bringing everyone together before the ceremony would calm the waters, they all worked hard to do their best.
Once Nikki had turned in her special edition article, about her hope for the future under Dylan and her support of the Cross family, she walked out of the office and headed downtown.
She waved at Sabrina and Max, who were posting flyers of the pre-ceremony barbeque on shop windows. Ben had come up with the idea of getting the Pack together before instead of just after the ceremony, and Nikki thought that was brilliant. The youngest Cross brother was smart as a whip…and, if she wasn’t mistaken, taken with her own sibling, the middle child. Justin had been sending sly looks Ben’s way also. It would be fun to see where that went.
She’d learnt from her time away that you couldn’t judge people by how they looked or any preferences they had. If her brother was interested in Ben, she was a bit surprised but already liked Ben a lot. One thing Cameron had always preached was acceptance. She had a good feeling Dylan would continue with that lesson.
She crossed the street a few stores before RJ’s tattoo shop. He stepped out, holding the door open as another man walked out. The stranger was shorter than RJ but had the same muscular build. His hair was buzzed and the Marine Corps tattoo down his left arm that matched RJ’s had her figuring this was one of RJ’s military buddies.
RJ glanced up when she got to the sidewalk and the smile he sent her was so bright she felt her breath catch. God, he was handsome.
He held out a hand and drew her in up against his body before taking her lips in a sweet, deep kiss. She moaned, pressing closer, feeling him wrap both arms around her waist.
A throat-clearing broke the sexual haze and she pulled back from RJ but didn’t look at the stranger yet.
“I needed that,” she whispered against her lover’s lips.
“Me too,” he agreed and turned her towards the stranger, who was grinning ear to ear.
“This is one of my best buds, Mike Jackson,” he informed her. “Mike, this is Nikki Stratton.”
Mike held out his hand. “RJ’s barely talked about anything else on the phone. It’s funny how your name keeps coming up in every sentence.”
Nikki laughed. “Well, honestly, I’m not gonna complain about that.”
RJ blushed a little and shuffled his feet. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
Mike and Nikki shared a laugh at his expense.
“Ben and I finished our articles. They’ll be in the paper tomorrow. I just hope we’re doing enough,” she shared.
“I think it’s a good plan. Uniting both Packs. Even if there is a challenge, maybe the aftermath won’t be so bad,” Mike offered.
“I guess we’ll see soon enough.” She shrugged.
“We’re heading over to the café for lunch, join us?” RJ asked.
Nikki glanced at her watch. She needed to meet Justin in an hour. “Sure, I have time.”
They started down the street. RJ still had his arm around her waist and she enjoyed the casual touch even though she had never been one for public displays of affection. Maybe she just had never been with the right guy.
“So, Mike, where is your Pack?” she questioned RJ’s friend.
“Northern California. I haven’t been back in a couple years. The last mission…made me miss it, though,” Mike admitted.
RJ stiffened against her.
“Mission?”
He shook his head. “That’s something we’ll have to talk about in private.”
“Oh.” Nikki wrapped her arm around his waist. It hit her that she really didn’t know RJ well. Oh, she knew he was loyal to his family, was smart, good looking and hot as hell, but the real part of him, what was deep down? There just hadn’t been time.
He kissed the top of her head. “There’s time,” he whispered.
She hoped there was. But with all of the drama that had happened since she’d come to town, it felt like she’d been there months already instead of just a few days. And she had plans, future assignments that she had moved aside to come home.
She pushed those worries away for now. She had more than enough on her plate. Besides, when this was all over, she wasn’t even sure where she and RJ would stand. She shook the thoughts from her head and concentrated on the story Mike was telling about the mating ceremony he had come from. She listened as she learnt about the town of shifters and the new wolf and bobcat couple.
“A wolf and a bobcat,” she mused. “I bet that was interesting.”
RJ chuckled. “Gray is a good guy. Helped us out with a situation and still managed to get the girl.”
Nikki grinned up at him. She got his point. “Well, talking about getting the girl…” She reached up to grab the back of his neck when she was interrupted by a growl.
“Well, looky here, boys. Nikki Stratton is back and playing in the gutter.”
She twirled around and faced the speaker.
“Samson,” she greeted politely. She nodded at his two friends.
He sneered back. “Didn’t your brother teach you any better than to hang out with trash?”
She gripped the back of RJ’s shirt when he moved forward.
“You got a problem, man?” RJ snarled.
She noticed Mike moved a little to the side and straightened his shoulders, bracing his feet. RJ vibrated in fury next to her. Crap, she didn’t want a brawl in front of the café the day before the party to unite the Pack.
“Yeah, I got a problem. You. You and your brothers.” Samson’s lip curled.
Nikki stepped into Samson and RJ. “That’s enough. Why don’t you just keep going, Samson?”
He snorted. “I see where your loyalties are. Brandon knows about this?”
“Why? You gonna tattle on me?” she challenged. She wasn’t afraid of him. Brandon and Samson had been best buds until they’d reached high school. After that time, Samson had changed, turned into a bully, and Brandon had spent less and less time with him. “Don’t forget, Samson,
I grew up with you. I know all your secrets, too.”
Samson shook his head. “Bran was always too easy on you, should have turned you over his knee, maybe I’ll do that myself.”
RJ surged forward. “Touch her. I dare you.”
Samson’s eyes narrowed. “You think I’m scared of you? I’ll touch who I want.”
To prove his point, he grabbed her left wrist. She managed to hold off RJ with her right but barely. It was Mike who moved the quickest. He had Samson’s free arm back and angled. Samson hissed.
“Why don’t you just let her go?” Mike suggested calmly.
Samson released her and turned on Mike. “You’ll regret that.”
Mike shook his head. “Get out of here, man. You’re making a scene. Just go and get control of yourself. Sober up some. I can smell the alcohol on you.”
Samson brushed past them and headed off, cursing them and making threats. Nikki looked up into the wide café windows and saw several tables staring at them.
“Damn it,” she muttered and dropped her head.
“Asshole,” RJ grunted, still watching Samson as he crossed to an old Chevy truck.
“Hey.” She yanked RJ forward by his belt loops. “Let it go.”
He frowned and twisted his neck. “He fucking put his hands on you.”
She held up her wrist. “And I’m fine. But now we have to go eat and make sure we show a united front.”
He glanced up at the café. “Shit.”
She moved up to her tiptoes. “We need to choose our battles. If that’s how he acts tomorrow, we may have some problems, but I didn’t realise how far gone he was. If he challenges Dylan, he won’t win.”
RJ threw his arm around her shoulder and herded her to the café door with Mike following behind. “Can’t believe your brother was best friends with that dick.”
She sighed. “He actually used to be pretty nice. They stopped hanging out when they were still in school here. My second year in college they had a final falling out. Bran never told me what about, though.”
“Well, let’s try to enjoy our lunch,” RJ suggested, opening the door.
There was still a fire in his eyes but she let it go. It was going to be a long day.