“Does it matter Decker? They’re gone! All you want to talk about is what Trevor said.”
At Tara’s snappy comment he shot her a look that said shut the hell up. “Answer please, Shana.”
Shana looked annoyed too. “Same thing he always says. That he’ll hold them soon, and he wanted them to know his voice.”
Decker ran. He ran as fast as he could to Trevor’s room and threw open the door. No one was there. No twins and no Trevor. He walked quietly the length of the hall and, finally, heard a small cry. He knew it was Abby, his fussy girl.
Decker walked into an unfamiliar room and saw no one. He didn’t leave. He called out. “Trevor, it’s safe. You can come out now.”
He heard a sound to his left. Turning he saw Trevor open a door that appeared to be hidden in the bottom of the closet. He didn’t even know it had existed.
“Can you help me? I didn’t know they would be so heavy. Why are you crying?” Trevor sounded exhausted and scared.
Decker was so happy he couldn’t stop the tears that fell from his eyes. “I’m so happy to see you and the pups, is all.”
“Oh, I knew you’d come, yous smart. I seened it. But I didn’t see you crying, I don’t like it when you’re unhappy. Mr. Brett Decker, you helped my mommy before I was even born. Now, I helped you.” Trevor gave an innocent grin.
Decker approached Trevor and wrapped him in a bear hug. “You did make me happy, and I thank you.”
Trevor simply said. “Welcome. I’m gonna go get mama because I think she will definitely give me hot chocolate, even if it is night time. I made you happy and Auntie Tara too. Bye.”
Trevor ran off. Decker fetched Abby and Brady who were tucked away in a small space that looked to be a safe in the closet. He walked back to the living room, but before he got there, he ran into a shouting Tara. He handed her the twins and walked right out the front door.
He couldn’t do it. If he was going to be in a committed relationship he wanted to be an equal, not the guy who takes the punishment; in front of everyone no less. He was tired of being blamed for things he wasn’t responsible for. He didn’t force Tara to come to his hotel room, and his bed. He certainly hadn’t forced her to claim him.
He went back to the hotel room, but it smelled of Tara and still had some of her clothes lying around. So he left and went to Conner and Katie’s house to crash.
Quinn answered the door at two in the morning looking fresh and put together. “Can I stay a few days? I know Conner and Katie aren’t home, but I don’t want to be anywhere else right now.”
“Of course, dearie, you’re always welcome here. There’s a room available on the third floor. Before he left, Conner said to keep a room ready because there’d be an unexpected guest. I’m so glad it’s you. I have to say I was a bit nervous it might be some type of mafia person, so I’m pleasantly surprised.”
She opened the door wide and said. “Do you care for a spot of tea or are you hungry?” As he walked by she inhaled and said. “Oh, I understand.”
“What do you understand?”
“You’re Tara’s mate. You must be upset because you get no sleep dealing with her brood. I understand, it’s a lot to have to deal with when newly mated.”
Decker walked down the hall muttering. “Bloody women, I’ll never understand their logic.”
Quinn yelled up, “Good night, it’s the second door on the right. Third floor.”
“Yeah yeah.”
Decker arrived in his borrowed room and climbed into the bed fully dressed. He tried to sleep but could still smell Tara. He got up and stripped tossing his clothes outside in the hall he walked to the shower and tried to wash her scent off. He was able to wash most of it off but he still smelled faintly of her. He guessed it was the mark, which he could do absolutely nothing about.
He toweled off and fell into the middle of the bed pulling the covers up over his head. He wanted this day to be over. Even more, he wanted a nice strong alcohol to drown his sorrows in. He was too lazy and emotionally exhausted to get up.
Chapter 9
Decker came awake slowly, disoriented, where was he? He poked his head from under the covers and saw bright light coming through the window. He got up and checked his phone which said it was nine in the morning. He had thirty four missed calls, from Tara, Jake, Shana, Paul, and even little Trevor. There was no one that he wanted to talk to right now. He went to the window, pulled the shades closed and went back to bed.
Decker woke a couple hours later when he heard the door to his room slam. “Good morning Mr. Decker. Rise and shine, the coffee is quite tasty this morning.”
Really? He was depressed, pissed, and just wanted to be alone and this old woman was waking him up for coffee. “Go away.”
“Oh Dear, not a morning person I’m guessing. I’m sorry but you’ve had quite a few people call to inquire on whether you’re here. What shall I tell them?”
“Just don’t pick up the phone, that’s what I’ve been doing.”
“But that would be rude.”
And waking him up wasn’t? “Okay then, tell ‘em I’m not here.”
“But that would be an untruth my good man, and a woman such as myself, does not lie.” She sounded outraged.
“Fine then tell ‘em that I’m here but I’m in bed and don’t want to be interrupted.” Hopefully she got his meaning. Go away.
“That will be fine, sir. Shall I make you breakfast?”
Nope, she didn’t get it. “No thank you, I’m quite tired though since I was up all night. Do you think I could sleep a bit more before eating?”
She cocked her head to the side. “No, I don’t think that would be at all well done. Hop up and out of bed, time to shower and start your day.”
She pulled back the covers and that’s when he felt the cool air hit.
“Oh my, nice tushy.” She smacked him, none too lightly, and said. “Up and at ‘em young man.”
He stayed lying on his stomach but brought his head up. “Unless you want another show, you should leave.”
She flushed and began to walk from the room. “Do not linger. Breakfast will be ready in thirty minutes. Well, it’s really more of a lunch at this hour. Chop chop.”
How could one harmless old lady be such a bother? He snickered to himself knowing Quinn probably drove Katie insane. He got up from the bed and went into the bathroom to relieve himself. He had no doubt that Quinn was being bombarded by phone calls, but he really didn’t care. He had no desire to be anyone’s bad guy, he’d always been the hero and it really rankled that with Tara, he was always to blame.
He was going to be an adult and do the only thing he could, ignore them all. He was going to start work today even though he still had several days off. Decker called Paul. “Hey boss, I was hoping all the paperwork was done and I could start on the job today.”
There were several beats of silence before Paul’s response. “Sure, whatever you want. What time can I expect you?”
“Maybe an hour and a half. I really appreciate you letting me start early.”
“No problem man. Great job last night by the way, you’ll be a benefit to the force with your deductive skills. We’re proud to have you.”
Yeah whatever, he didn’t want to talk about last night. “How are Tara and the kids?” What the hell was he doing? He didn’t want to know, he was still pissed. “Never mind, see ya soon.” He disconnected before he heard the answer.
Goddammit! He needed to push Tara to the back of his mind. He was starting a new job and needed to be at the top of his game.
Decker was in the shower and running on autopilot. He’d woken up, and simply wanted the day to be over, so he could go back to sleep. He dried off, went into his room and heard a crash coming from down the hall. He pulled his weapon and got into a defensive position. The door slammed open and Katie ran in and engulfed him in a bear hug.
Decker heard the growling from the doorway and attempted to pull Katie off of him. She was stuck like
an octopus. Decker stood there while Katie was wrapped around him. “A little help.”
Conner’s eyes had turned golden which Decker knew was bad, really bad. Conner stopped growling a moment so he could yell at Katie. “Motherfucker Katie, have some restraint, release the naked Decker. I don’t want to have to tell you again, you can hug him, but not when he is naked. Or wet.” He turned to Decker. “I won’t be able to control the beast if you don’t get her off you, now!”
Katie quickly released Decker. “God Conner you’re so dramatic. Relax.” She looked over at Decker, “you smell different.”
Conner pulled Katie to him and kissed her senseless. When he came up for air he approached Decker sniffing furiously. “Wow, who knew.” He held out his hand to shake. “Welcome back, I assume you’re staying for good.”
Decker pinched the bridge of his nose and took a calming breath. “I’ll talk to y’all later. I need to get dressed and go down to lunch before that Quinn lady comes back.”
Conner was pushing an angry Katie out the door. “What’s going on? Stop pushing Conner! I want to stay and talk to Decker, I missed him.”
Decker was surprised that he could hear Conner’s whispered words. “Not now Katie. Let him be for a while.” Decker could hear her Katie protests all the way down the hall.
Instead of staying for the show he knew was to come, he got dressed and headed straight to the station. He was halfway to the station when his cell phone went off in his pocket. Looking at the screen he laughed knowing Katie was going to be pissed he’d left. He felt a little sorry for Conner, but not enough to go back.
He parked at the station and went to find Paul, who was supposed to be his mentor of sorts. Decker signed in and picked up a radio. He had just tuned the radio and heard a call going down, ‘assault on pack’. He sighed knowing what had happened.
Decker supposed he deserved this by trying to ignore everything that was going on. He wasn’t being very honorable by running away from his problems but he never expected it to explode into this. He ran out to his car and saw Paul climbing into his cruiser.
“Are you going to Alpha house?”
Decker responded with a clipped. “Do I have a choice?”
Paul shot him a sympathetic smile. “You don’t have to go if it’s going to cause more problems.”
“It’ll be fine. Let’s go and get this over with.”
*****
They pulled up to Alpha house and it was chaos. Jake was holding Shana by the back of her shirt, Conner was face down on the ground and Katie was walking away from him and towards Tara. Tara had a dumbfounded look in her face while she watched Katie approach her.
Paul yelled, “Everyone, stand down.” No one listened.
Decker knew that look in Katie’s eyes, unfortunately. He ran full out until he was between a feisty Katie and a flustered Tara. “What the fuck Katie? Stop it right now. What are you doing?”
Katie looked into his eyes and she began to tear. “I’m defending your honor, so get out of the way.” She tried to push him out of the way but he didn’t budge. So she tried to go around him but he anticipated her moves and stayed in her way.
“Are you kidding me? I can defend my own honor. You should pick up Conner and take him home.” What the hell happened to Conner? Damn, it must have been the right hook Decker had taught her. Oops.
Katie turned around to look at her mate. “Great, now I’m going to have to apologize. This is all your fault.”
Katie had said the magic words to set Decker off. “I am not responsible for your stupidity! I’m serious Katie; I’m done with all of you crazy people. Get in your cars and leave. Now!”
Katie flinched back. “But Decker, I just want these people to give you a chance, be nice to you.” She motioned to Tara, “that disrespectful brat has no idea what you’ve done for her. She had the chance to love you and she blew it. You come home with me and we can hang out, like the old times.”
Decker looked into her eyes. “Things have changed. Pick up your mate and leave.” He turned his back on her and walked over to where Jake and Shana were staring with open mouths at Decker “Break it up. Take Shana and Tara in the house. If we have to come out again we’ll arrest someone.” He couldn’t stand being around Tara right now. Even being outside he could smell her unique peppermint scent surrounding him. It pissed him off even more that he could feel himself getting hard in his jeans. Not now big boy.
Decker walked to Conner and helped him to get up. “You alright? She caught you with the right hook, huh? I never should have taught her that move. Go home and take Ali over there with you, unless you want to press charges.”
“Why did she hit me?” Conner looked stunned.
Decker shrugged. “You must have been in her way. You never should have brought her here, someone could have gotten hurt.”
Conner yelled. “I did get hurt! She said she wanted to see Shana. I forgot Tara was even here.”
“Don’t forget again, please. Go home.” Decker started to walk to his car when he heard Conner yell.
“I am second in this pack and you will not tell me what to do. Understand human.”
Jake, Shana and Tara were watching from the window. Decker could feel their eyes on him. “I am an officer of the law and this pack, you will do as I say, or I will take you to the station to cool off in lockdown. Don’t mistake the face of a friend, with me doing my job.”
Now Katie started to look worried. “Come on Conner, let’s go home and I’ll kiss all your boo boo’s.” She took his hand and led him to their car. The whole time Conner was staring Decker down. Katie called back to him. “Call me, Decker.”
“Not anytime soon, Mrs. Matthews.” He whirled around and practically ran to his car. Katie was going to be pissed that he had dismissed her, and then he had called her by her married title. She had always been either Katie, Ward or sissy to him. Yep, things had changed.
Decker was having a sudden bout of anxiety. Maybe he should have stayed in Petaluma where they had normal crimes like burglary, drug deals, and murders. No werewolves, pack politics or failing friendships.
Chapter 10
After his first complete shift as an American Canyon police officer he should have gone back to Katie’s house and picked up his clothes, to once again check into another hotel. He didn’t want to deal with her, or an angry Conner, so he took a cab to the nearest bar and drank away his worries. Funny enough, he saw Dante at the bar and they made short work of a bottle of tequila.
They both passed out at the bar. The bar owner called them a cab that took them to a hotel down the street. Decker woke up with a raging headache and cotton mouth. He brought his head up and the pounding intensified. Where the hell was he? He slowly turned his head and saw a drooling Dante on the bed next to his. “Hey, wake up.”
Dante woke with a start but seemed clear headed when he sat up. “Morning Decker, feeling better this morning?”
Decker winced. “No, I’m hung over. Why do you look okay, you drank as much as me, if not more?”
Dante smiled. “Shifter’s have a high metabolism; I burned off the alcohol while sleeping.” He looked over at the clock. “Shit, I was supposed to be at your Alpha’s house, to see the kids, but I overslept.” He leapt up and looked around to make sure he had everything. “See ya.”
Decker was irritated, and felt like crap, so he decided to stay in the hotel until checkout. He didn’t have anywhere to be or anyone to see, so he slept on.
*****
Decker woke again when he felt a stabbing pain to his thigh. He was still hung over, which made his reflexes slower. He rolled off the bed and went into a crouch next to the bed and the wall. He was seeing things through blurry eyes. What he saw shocked him to his core. Why was the evil bitch from Alpha house standing in the doorway with a big bald mean lookin’ dude? “What do you want?”
She gave him a sadistic smile. “You, as a diversion.”
His vision began to fade and his muscles became weak a
nd floppy. “You dumb bitch. What did you inject me with?” His words were starting to slur and he couldn’t focus.
Victoria, Dante’s evil mother turned to leave. “Come along Vince, and bring the garbage,” pointing to Decker, “So we can take it out.”
The scary guy approached Decker and bent down to collect him. Decker gave one last shot. He used all his strength to shoot to his feet, and brought his fist up to monster man’s face. It connected and he saw blood leak from the guy’s nose before Decker passed out cold.
Victoria saw Vince walk out of the hotel room with blood on his face, and his nose was crooked. Tara’s fated mate was bleeding from a cut to his eyebrow, and had a black eye forming. “I told you not to injure him.”
“He hit me, I had to defend myself. Where do you want me to take him?”
“I don’t care. Just take care of it, stash him where no one will find him for a long time. You need to be at the meeting spot in one hour to collect the precious cargo. Allen wants them by tonight.” Victoria walked to her car and watched Vince toss Decker into the back of the van. Perfect, things were coming together, finally.
Dante rushed up the steps to Alpha house and knocked on the door. Tara answered but she had clearly been weeping. “Is everything okay? The twins?”
Tara opened the door wider. “Come in, the pups are fine.” She walked to the sitting room where Abby and Brady were awake in the basinet. She picked Brady up and went over to Dante, placing the wiggling baby in his arms. She stopped a few paces from him and inhaled. “Why do you have Decker’s scent on you?”
He looked sheepish. “Uh, we went out drinking last night and got pretty drunk. I woke up in the hotel room and didn’t have time to shower. I’m sorry; I didn’t want to miss seeing them.” He shot an amazed look to his child.
“Is he okay?” She felt like a fool asking the father of her pups how her mate and lover was doing.
Dante smiled. “Yeah, why wouldn’t he be?”
A Pack Family Page 7