He sat the girl on the side of the bed and bent to take off her orange sneakers. She listed to the side and almost fell, so propping her head against his shoulder and balancing her weight against him, he turned his attention to removing the jacket and tee shirt first. She reminded him of Meadow's old ragdoll, smudged and stained and a little frayed around the edges, but in Meadow's eyes, still beautiful.
Just like that doll and the little girl who owned her, his Babe-in-the-woods was beautiful, too. He stroked her hair and tucked the strands that hung by her face back behind her ear. She smiled, a dreamlike curling of the lips, and rubbed her cheek against his hand. Wet, and mud stained, and beautiful, and way too trusting.
Meadow was too old for ragdolls now, but River remembered how she slept, curled around that doll in the same way he'd curled around her when she was a pup. She never said a word, but her little hand would clutch his shirt while she slept as if she was afraid he'd leave her behind in whatever abandoned shed or car they sheltered in. He never would have left her.
It was the little girl who left him when she turned her loyalty to Charles and Kat. River was happy for her. The Alpha and Mate gave Meadow all the things that he never could.
His current ragdoll raised her hand to the side of his head and, soft as a whisper, ran the pad of her thumb across his cheek.
"Are you crying?" she asked, not critical, but concerned.
River blinked and sniffed. "Nah, just tired."
She plunked her forehead into the middle of his chest. "Me, too. I want to sleep and sleep and never wake up. I want it all to go away."
He knew that feeling, too. The problem was that no matter how long she slept, her troubles would still be there. They always were. Still, exhaustion fogged your brain and dulled your instincts.
"Then sleep," he told her, "But only for a little while."
She sighed and River felt the flutter of her eyelashes against his chest.
"You won't leave me, will you?"
She really was a babe in the woods; tired, brain fogged, and instincts dulled.
River bent and kissed the tangled hair at the top of her head. He made sure his touch was light, so she wouldn't feel it. He used to do that with Meadow, too. Only she was always sound asleep.
He laid her down and tucked the covers around her.
"I'll only be gone for a few minutes, but I'll be nearby. I'll keep watch while you sleep."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
"What's your name?" she asked drowsily.
"River."
She didn't open her eyes, but her lips turned up in a dreamy smile. "River. I like that. It suits you."
Whatever. "What's yours?"
"I don't know anymore. I used to be Rebel. It's who I wanted to be, but I guess I'm just a Becky after all." Another sigh. "I just want to sleep."
River wasn't sure what the hell that meant. Was she Rebel or Becky? "Sleep then. I'll be back soon."
He was already at the door when she spoke again.
"River?"
"Yeah?"
"Tell them to come. Tell them they're welcome."
"Tell who?"
She rolled to her side, facing the back of the room, and snugged the covers up around her neck. "Your talk," she mumbled. "They want to come with us. Tell them they can."
"Oh, Babe, I don't know if that's a good idea."
He'd thought she was asleep. That she'd heard the conversation and still wanted them to come was proof of her exhaustion. Brain fogged, definitely, though he was beginning to wonder if she had any instincts at all.
"We need them and they're a lot like you."
She was right about that. They said they were pack, but they smelled like rogues. Just like him.
"River?"
"Yeah?"
"We need you, too."
No, they didn't. They needed to go home to wherever they came from, where the Alpha could play King-in-a-lawn-chair and his Mate could serve tea. They needed to find their daughter a suitable Alpha who lived the same way. They needed Eugene Begley.
He wasn't sure why she thought they needed to bring in guys like the Leathers or wolvers like him.
She was asking for trouble, but it was none of his business. As soon as he returned her to her parents, he'd be on his way. When that trouble came, it wouldn't be his fight.
"Shit," he muttered.
"Shoot," came the mumbled correction.
Chapter 10
The four were waiting for him outside their door just as he'd demanded, and they hadn't lied about Quentin. He was leaning against the doorframe, looking pale. His arms were braced around his middle to support his broken ribs. River felt for the cub. Busted ribs were a bitch, but they healed fast. A day or two and he'd be back on the road, unless they got caught and thrown out.
Scarface caught River's glance at the office. "We paid."
"Waste of good money if you ask me," the big guy, Ben, snarled.
Apparently, no one had. Scarface ignored him and went on.
"Rigged Toby up in Dennis's suit." He shrugged. "The pants and shirt, anyway. The jacket was too big. The cub looks good in a tie." The sideways look he gave the young wolver, said it wasn't really a compliment. "The old lady was thrilled to have such a nice young man in her respectable establishment. Come on in."
River followed him into the room. The same ten year old had decorated this room, too. "Damn, you guys lucked out. Caveman surfers beat hula zombies hands down."
"No kiddin'? Hula zombies? Can we see 'em?" Toby was off the bed and headed for the door.
"Not unless you want to play whose ribs are busted up the most." The grin River gave him wasn't playful. "Stay away from her," he warned. He heard his possessive sounding mistake as soon as it came out of his mouth, but he wasn't about to stutter a correction.
The cub grinned and wiggled his brows. The other cub snorted and then winced and grabbed his ribs. What the hell was their Alpha thinking? Bringing those two cubs to that disaster in the park was like going to war with two pissing dicks.
Blue eyes took exception to his order. "Fuck you. You can't tell..."
River cut him off. "I just did." He let it hang there for a moment, just long enough for the blond wolver to recognize it for the challenge it was and then added, reasonably, "You saw her. She's exhausted and she needs sleep to think straight. Nobody's going to take that away from her." He left "especially you" unsaid, but his look made it clear. "You'd have told them the same thing," he added to give the guy an out.
The smell of flowers tickled his nose and River followed it to a waste basket in the corner. What were these guys doing with flowers? And then he put it together with the suit. The Chase. Did they really think a suit and flowers would make it right?
"Who's Dennis?" he asked, though he thought he knew.
"Our Alpha," Quentin said proudly. And then the brightness left his eyes as his head sank along with his shoulders, exposing his pain to everyone in the room.
River felt sorry for the cub, but didn't let it show.
"Former Alpha," Ben corrected. His blue eyes showed no emotion at all for the loss. "He's dead."
Quentin sank back on the bed, hand holding his ribs. "I know. I just forgot for a minute, Ben."
"You have a right to be proud," River told the cub, mainly because Ben's reaction pissed him off. "He fought well. I saw it. From a distance," he added, "But I had a clear view."
"He lost." Ben wasn't giving an inch.
River couldn't argue that, so he chose something else that would rub the wolver's fur the wrong way. "He did, but there'll be another to take his place."
He deliberately let his eyes roam over the big blonde and dismissed him. He turned to the older wolver and offered him a bow of his head. The bow was too slight to be a gesture of submission, but it was enough to say he recognized the man as the dominant power in the group.
Scarface didn't return the gesture, but he did lock eyes with River for a moment before sucking in
his cheeks and turning away to take a seat.
Ben got the message, too.
"You going rogue again?" River asked.
"No beating around the bush with you, is there?" Scarface asked.
River shrugged. "No point."
"We're not rogues." This time it was Toby. "We have, um, had an Alpha. We're pack."
"I hate to break it to you, cub, but an Alpha doesn't make you pack."
Ben, who'd taken a seat on the edge of the bed, now stood, fists clenched. "You ought to know. Where's your pack, princess?"
"Right where I left it, asshole, and I'm still a member." At least he hoped so.
"Fuck you."
River looked him up and down. "Not likely." He turned to Scarface. "You said talk, but you're not doing any."
"I was just waiting for you two to finish measuring dicks."
"We're done."
"I know." Scarface opened his mouth and shut it again, leaving whatever he'd been about to say unsaid.
The older wolver was no fool. He knew what River was doing, but refused to play along. That alone told River something about the guy. He was checking out River while River checked out the others.
River held out his hand and the scarred man shook it. "Name's River."
"Scar."
"No shit?"
"No shit."
"Your mama a Lion King fan or what?" River asked just to be a pain in the ass and see how the guy would react. Meadow had watched that fucking movie so many times, everyone in the house knew all the words.
It wasn't the reaction he expected. The guy grinned. "Nope, I am, but if you're expecting a rousing chorus of Hakuna Matata, you'll have to wait for the Booby Brothers' next gig." He pointed a warning finger at the two youngsters. "After Quentin heals and I'm out of hearing. Damn cubs'll drive you bat shit with it," he muttered and then he shrugged. "I earned the name."
"As a rogue." Behind him, River felt Ben puff up, but he didn't take his eyes off Scar.
The man didn't deny it. "Fifteen years. I was made. So were the cubs' fathers."
"We're cousins," Toby added, which explained the resemblance.
River didn't ask what Scar or the cubs' fathers had done to be made Outcast and Rogue. It had to be bad. The cubs, on the other hand, were different. They were rogue only by accident of birth. They'd grown up in the life and River knew, first hand, what that would make them. Still, there was something about the two that didn't strike him as rogue bred. They were too much like Ranger and Dakota, who'd left the life early.
"What about you?" he asked the big blond.
"None of your fucking business."
"Then our talk is over." River turned toward the door.
"He wasn't made. He left," Scar said, and the difference was clear. Ben had chosen to go rogue. "He's been with us for two years." Fact, not endorsement.
River nodded. "Now we can talk. You don't want your money. You don't want the girl. What do you want?"
"A pack," the two cubs answered in unison.
Damn, the girl was right.
Ben clenched the fists at his side. "Will you two shut the fuck up? You're not even supposed to be here."
"We just wanted to see Dennis get..."
"Shut up!"
River was done with this guy and he wondered why Scar wasn't done with him, too. "I asked. They answered. It's called talk."
"Fuck you. You don't make the decisions."
Every time the guy spoke, his chest puffed out and he stood a little taller, just like he did at the bar. Intimidation was his strength and River had the urge to show him how little that meant.
"You're right, I don't, and that makes you the lucky one. Just call me..." He paused, trying to think of the term he'd heard Charles use. "A disinterested third party, or," he added, because he really didn't like this guy, "The hired gun. You have to go through me to get to them." He deliberately turned his back and spoke to Scar.
"You've got a pack. Why not take your money and go home? Lick your wounds and start over."
Alphas could be replaced, though it could get messy with Challenge after Challenge, but sooner or later one with enough power to hold the pack together came out on top.
"We don't have a home. Not one where these cubs can live right, mate, and breed," he corrected when Toby opened his mouth to protest. "We're a small pack. So is Sweet Valley. We don't have land. They do. We don't have enough females. They don't have enough males. Dennis wanted to combine the packs, make a fresh start for everyone."
"He wanted to take it over." River had seen the Lawn Chair King and he'd seen Dennis fight. Taking over would have been a cake walk, the Challenge short and an easy victory.
Scar bobbed his head once. "Eventually, but not right away, and not by Challenge. Dennis wasn't built like that. He would have given up the mantle on the condition that it would be his again someday. He was willing to serve loyally as Second until the time came for the mantle to pass."
River didn't try to hide his skepticism. He knew an Alpha could give up the mantle, but few did except through old age or death. Most hung on until someone took it by force. Why would a young and virile male give up that kind of power?
The scarred wolver watched and waited while River digested the idea. He finally sighed. "Pack comes first. Dennis believed that," he said, and his eyes travelled to the young cousins who were watching and listening intently. "No," he said, more to the cubs than to River. "He didn't just believe it. He lived it. He wasn't seeking a Mate for himself. He was looking to the future of the pack. He was willing to sacrifice anything for it, including the mantle. He did sacrifice everything for it."
Message sent, he turned his eyes back to River. "Alpha's Mates are hard enough to find. How many do you think would be interested in the likes of us, a pack that stinks of rogue? Dennis saw this as a way to clean our slate. He met the girl and liked her. He said she had a good heart. She seemed to like him, and she believed in the plan."
"Then why the hell didn't they just take you in and give him the girl?" All that death for nothing.
River's wolf snarled at the idea, so incensed, it thrashed inside him begging to get out. Not wanting the others to see how close it was to the surface, he shuttered his eyes until it calmed. It was a habit he'd learned early. Never let them see what's in your eyes unless you wanted them to.
"The deal was sealed with the other Alphas," Scar continued. "Her father wouldn't go back on his word. He said it was a matter of honor. It wasn't supposed to be a Challenge to the death. The Alphas all agreed on that. It was supposed to be a race, and Dennis was as fast as the wind. It was a sure thing." He tried to hide it, but River saw the pain in the older wolver's eyes before they shuttered closed. "And then it wasn't."
The suit, the flowers, and a girl who wanted him to win. It all made sense. He remembered her cry and the sharpness of her breath when he told her the young Alpha lost the fight. She'd wanted him to win. He would have made it right.
"How many are you?" River asked.
"Twenty-two, with three females and two pups. We only lost our Alpha at the Chase."
Seventeen adult males all vying for their place in the pecking order of an established pack. Those kinds of challenges weren't to the death, but that many that fast could get out of hand quicker'n shit. They could end up with a brawl if there wasn't enough established strength to keep it organized and under control.
Scar said Sweet Valley pack was small, too, but how small? Could they absorb twenty-two wolvers, feed them, house them, and clothe them until they were on their feet? River didn't know much about it, but he'd watched Wolf's Head expand and he'd heard the arguments about expanding too quickly or not quickly enough.
Okay, so he didn't know anything about Sweet Valley, but he'd seen the Alpha and Mate, and he'd talked to the girl, and you had to figure their pack would be the same. How would they handle what amounted to an invasion of rough cut wolvers into their pack? That they were mostly female worried him even more. Male competition
was part of the life. It was a good thing, but too much could get out of hand, too.
Still, pack was everything and to deny cubs like Quentin and Toby a chance at a normal pack life would be like telling Ranger and Dakota they had no place in Wolf's Head. To deny them might destroy their pack which had already suffered a crippling blow. But what if combining the two packs destroyed both instead of just one?
It wasn't his business and it wouldn't be his fight. He delivered the girl's message, but because he wasn't sure what name to use, it sounded more like it came from him.
"You can go with them. You'll be welcome," he told Scar, but his warning was for Ben. "Remember, you're doing the asking. Make sure you show the proper respect."
The cubs were beaming at him like they'd just won the lottery. They reminded him so much of Dakota and Ranger that it hurt.
"If you're still interested, you can come down to the room and see the hula zombies. When she's awake and moving again," he qualified when they looked like they were ready to follow him that instant. He looked from one to the other. "You wouldn't have anything she could wear, would you? An extra tee shirt or something?"
"No, but she can have this one," Quentin offered.
"It's bloody," his cousin argued.
"So's yours," Quentin argued back.
Then both cubs turned to the suit hanging on the bathroom door. They turned as one to Scar who nodded his permission.
"He'd like that," he said.
The two rolled off the bed and dove for the suit. Toby won because Quentin was on his hands and knees groaning in pain. Broken ribs really were a bitch.
Watching from a distance as the two Alphas fought, it was hard to judge their size. Seeing the breadth of the shoulders of the jacket, River now realized their Alpha had been huge, as big if not bigger than Ben. Huge, brave, and a fucking saint. No wonder they admired and followed him. He was probably good looking, too.
Wolver's Reward Page 10