by Bianca D’Arc
“Do you know where he keeps the key to the gun cabinet?” Maria asked quickly, already moving into the room, but Patty shook her head, her lips compressed in worry. “Okay. We have to break the lock. Maybe we could use this screwdriver as a pry bar? Twist it in the lock and break the hasp?” Maria picked up the long metal screwdriver, sitting conveniently on a side table among a bundle of tools, and put actions to her words, but she wasn’t quite strong enough.
That’s when Patty stepped over and set Mina down at her feet. “Let me try,” Patty said, taking the screwdriver out of Maria’s hands. She put all her considerable shifter strength into it, and with a clang, the lock broke in two. Maria didn’t have time to be impressed, but she made a mental note to thank Patty sufficiently later.
At the moment, she was pawing through the cabinet. There were a couple of hunting rifles and one very big shotgun. Perfect. Maria took a few boxes of ammunition off the small shelf in the cabinet and slung one rifle over her shoulder using the attached strap. The shotgun nestled into the crook of her arm, ready to load.
“Do you know how to shoot?” Maria asked Patty.
“I know the basics,” Patty replied.
“Good. Take the other rifle. You take care of Mina. I’m going to go help Shane. Don’t be alarmed if you hear shooting. I may have to graze a few furry butts if they don’t listen to reason.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Patty said, strapping the remaining rifle over her shoulder and filling her pockets with ammo.
“I don’t have to take them all on. I just have to cause enough of a delay for backup to get here, right?” Maria saw understanding dawn in the other woman’s eyes as she headed for the front door, leaving the mother and child behind in the comparative safety of the house.
“Goddess go with you,” Patty said as Maria opened the door.
*
Shane died a little inside when he heard the door open, and his mate’s scent wafted to him on the breeze. His opponents stilled, facing the house—Russ in human form, while his brother Jon had gone wolf a few minutes ago. Shane didn’t want to turn his back on them, but he had to know what was going on. He dared a quick glance behind his back and then did a double take.
There was his professor, leveling a shotgun expertly at the McCarthys. Not only that, but she had his favorite rifle over her shoulder, and she sure as hell looked like she knew what she was doing with both weapons.
“Next one who puts a toe out of line gets buckshot in their ass,” she called from the front stoop. She was keeping the house at her back, not advancing into the yard where she might be flanked or, worse, surrounded. Smart mate. The wolf approved.
“Are you kidding me?” Russ panted as he stood up straight, leaning back a bit to slow the bleeding from his busted nose. “You fucked the human, Shane? We would’ve shared her with you, if we’d known you rolled that way.” Russ made the mistake of laughing, and Shane’s wolf rumbled in his chest.
“Don’t…” Shane warned, his voice turning into a growl as the wolf wanted to break free and grind Russ into dust.
“Hell,” Russ went on, apparently oblivious to the danger he was in, “the little human thinks she can take us on, boys,” he yelled to his McCarthy backers, still arrayed around the front yard in a loose semi-circle. They jeered along with Russ as their attention focused on Maria, and Shane grew angrier.
“Let me say this in small words, so you’ll understand,” Maria shouted, undaunted. “Make a move, get shot. Simple as that. Stand down, live to be an ass another day.”
“Come on, honey, I doubt you even know how to fire that thing. Did you even load it?” Russ laughed at her, and she took aim without hesitation, firing at the man’s feet. Leaves and dirt scattered a few inches from Russ, and he jumped back involuntarily.
Hot damn. His woman could shoot.
“Don’t fuck with me, mutt,” she warned in a low voice that made Shane think of sex, which was wildly inappropriate in that moment, but happened, nevertheless.
He wanted to smile. If they died in the next few minutes, he’d die proud of his mate. Even as a human, she could make grown wolves sit up and take notice that she wouldn’t take any of their shit.
Then, Shane’s breath caught as Jon rushed her. He was a big, mangy wolf, leaping straight for her. Shane tried to reach out and grab him, but the cur’s tail slid right through his fingers as another boom sounded from the shotgun, followed by a whimper and thud as Jon fell to the ground, bleeding from numerous punctures.
Buckshot wouldn’t kill a werewolf, but it would definitely slow him down, and it hurt like the dickens. But now, both her barrels were empty. Shane chanced a glance back at Maria to see that she’d taken aim with the rifle, now held expertly in her hands. If he wasn’t much mistaken, she was sighting straight down at Jon’s furry head.
Now that would kill a werewolf. Bullet to the brain in either of their forms would pretty much guarantee death. Smart mate. Shane’s wolf approved, again.
“Now that it’s a fair fight, let’s finish this,” Shane growled at Russ. One-on-one, Shane would destroy the other man, and everyone gathered in his front yard knew it.
Shane was about to go for it when the sound of engines reached him. Lots of engines. And, then, he saw a line of pickup trucks skidding toward the Pack house down the road that ran in front. He recognized the crew that was working to rebuild Patty and Mina’s home. Her mate had come, and he’d brought the entire construction crew with him.
It looked like maybe Bob or Patty had put out a call to the rest of the Pack, as well, because within moments, the yard was full of Pack members ready to enforce the traditional rules of a challenge.
Then, Joe Villalobos ambled into the clearing. Hot damn. The cavalry had arrived.
*
It was amazing, really, how fast things changed once Joe and the others arrived. The semi-circle of onlookers, who had been jeering at Shane and egging the two who were fighting him on, seemed to shrink into the background as they were surrounded by more than double their number.
The fighting screeched to a halt as Joe stepped forward to stand beside Shane. Shane stood proud and strong. He had nothing to be ashamed of, it was obvious. The McCarthy guy, not so much. His square chin lifted in defiance, though his gaze remained lowered. He couldn’t look anyone in the eye, which spoke volumes about his actions—and their less-than-honorable state.
The Alpha looked at him with disdain, and gave Shane a proud sort of respect, as if reaffirming his opinion of the man he’d chosen to be the Pack’s enforcer. A lot of them seemed surprised by Shane’s actions. As if they didn’t really know him. And perhaps, Maria thought, they didn’t. Not really. Not if Shane had only recently come to this Pack. He was still a bit of an outsider, even though he was their sheriff. It was an odd situation, to be sure.
Maria knew all about this kind of thing, though. She was the newbie on the faculty in her new job. She was the new girl in town, even though the townsfolk had met her before and had known her Aunt Lulu for many years. She was even the odd woman out here—the only human among werewolves—but she tried not to let that stop her.
She had just as much right to be here as anyone else. More, in fact. Her home had been invaded, her person targeted. She’d heard enough of their taunting to know that those two men hadn’t been joking around when they’d lured her up into the woods last night. She would have been killed, or worse. Of that, she no longer had any doubt.
Those bastards owed her. An apology. A pint of blood. Something! They couldn’t just get away with what they’d had planned. They had to pay in some way. Maria trusted Shane to see that justice was done. It only remained for her to see it carried out. Maybe then, she’d feel a little better about this whole situation.
Joe Villalobos, the older man Aunt Lulu had insisted was the Alpha of the Big Wolf Pack, stood next to Shane. He turned to look at Maria and the rifle she still held in her hands, but she wasn’t lowering the weapon. Not until she was sure this
situation was under control.
“How are things going, Shane?” the Alpha said, not as a question but more in the tone of a greeting.
“Could be better, Joe,” Shane answered, not letting down his guard at all.
“Is this a challenge fight, Russ? If so, why has Jon got buckshot in his fur?” Joe’s wise old eyes turned to the two miscreants who had been ganging up on Shane.
“It was a fight, ‘til the human bitch shot my brother.” Russ sounded like a petulant child more than anything, and Maria fought the urge to scoff.
“Two-on-one isn’t right, Russ. You know that. It’s not the proper way to do things. If you want to challenge Shane for dominance, you have to face him one-on-one,” the old man said, as if talking to a two-year-old.
“Maybe,” Russ admitted grudgingly. “But that don’t give her the right to shoot my brother.”
Maria had had enough. “I was defending myself.”
The old man frowned and looked carefully at the positions of the wounds on the wolf who still lay on the ground nearby. Finally, he nodded.
“Every being has the right of self-defense, Russ. You know that. She was well within her rights to shoot him since he was jumping at her when the buckshot hit.” The older man looked from brother to brother and shook his head. “You are two sorry excuses for werewolves. Personally, I don’t think we need idiots like you two in this Pack, but as a sign of the faith I have in him, I’m leaving the decision to my new enforcer. Shane, this is up to you.” Muttering to himself, Joe waved a dismissive hand at the two brothers and stalked off toward the Pack house, disappearing inside a moment later.
Russ slunk a little farther away, his chin dropping as if he’d just realized the shit storm he’d stirred up. The rest of his supporters seemed to realize it too.
“McCarthys.” Shane’s voice boomed out through the clearing in front of the house.
Everybody froze, waiting to hear what the enforcer—the enforcer who had just been giving the highest form of trust by their Alpha—would say.
“In case proper behavior towards humans wasn’t made clear before, I’m spelling it out now. Nobody hunts humans—male or female—without express permission from me. I’m the sheriff here and your enforcer. If you can’t live by the rules, you’re welcome to leave. In fact, Russ and Jon are out of here. For setting up this woman to die last night in the forest, they’ve forfeited their membership in this Pack. For vandalizing and ransacking her home, they’re banished. And, for being total pains in my ass and not adhering to the rules of the challenge fight, they’re cowards who do not belong in the Big Wolf Pack.” His voice rang with authority. “Any of you McCarthys who still support their actions are banished right along with them. I want you out of the territory by moonrise. If you’re still here in the morning, there’ll be hell to pay.”
Grumbling broke out among the McCarthys, many of them shuffling their feet and looking upset. One brash youngster broke out from the group to face Shane.
“What’s so special about this human that we get thrown out of the Pack for messing with her?” Belligerent didn’t even begin to cover the sound of the teen’s voice, but Shane merely looked down on the youth with disdain.
“All life is precious. Not just ours. This woman did nothing to earn the treatment Russ and Jon had planned for her. She didn’t deserve to have her home violated by two imbeciles who are old enough to know better. And, besides all that,” Shane seemed to pause for effect—or maybe to get his voice back under control, since it had gone all gruff and rumbly, sending shivers down Maria’s spine, “she’s my mate.”
What, now? Had he just said what she thought he’d said?
No. Way.
Maria almost dropped the rifle in surprise but managed to hang onto it as two older McCarthys came over to help her gunshot victim off the field of battle. The fight was over, but after Shane’s surprising announcement, she wondered if the war had only just begun.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Shane didn’t dare turn around to see what Maria had made of his claim. He hadn’t meant to reveal his feelings so publicly—not until he’d had a chance to talk to her about it, at least. But his furry side was adamant. The wolf wanted all the others to know that she was his to protect, his to love, and just…his.
Shane hoped like hell that his furball side hadn’t just screwed things up royally with Maria.
One of the elderly women stepped up to him, drawing his attention. “Are you sure about this, Sheriff?”
He nodded. “She’s it,” he said in a low voice, filled with the conviction that was in his heart.
The elder, a wise woman named Sue, looked at him for a long moment then shifted her gaze to Maria, still standing by the doorway to the house. Sue nodded, as if in approval, and backed off.
Truth be told, Shane didn’t need anybody’s approval in choosing his mate. Not really. All werewolves understood that the mating process couldn’t be influenced by man. Instinct guided their furry halves, and when it drew you toward a particular person, it had to be obeyed.
Shane was glad to see that the elders in the Pack weren’t all curmudgeons. Some actually embraced the role of guiding and teaching the younger generation. Those were the ones who had shown up today. The ones who had answered the call for help. They were the ones Shane would come to depend on as he solidified his position as sheriff of Big Wolf, Texas.
He looked around, making note of each face, each person who had come to his aid. He wouldn’t forget this show of support. Nor would he forget the McCarthys and their dishonorable bid to kill him…and Maria. That couldn’t be allowed to stand. The McCarthys had earned their exile from the Pack. The Big Wolf Pack didn’t need people like that in its ranks.
The punishment might seem harsh, but Shane could have demanded their heads, instead. Everyone knew he was being lenient with Russ and Jon, in allowing them to live. As Russ hobbled away after his brother, Shane took some comfort in the fact that he had, in all likelihood, given Russ a permanent limp.
As the McCarthys left en masse, the tension ratcheted down, and Shane tried to relax. It wasn’t easy. His wolf was keyed up from the fight and wanted to chase after Russ and Jon and rip them to shreds. His human side was more than a bit nervous about facing Maria. She had to have heard what he’d said. How would she react?
There was only one way to find out.
Shane took a deep breath, turned around, and faced her. She was still holding the rifle but had it pointed at the ground as the rest of the Pack moved a little closer, the tension draining from the area.
He was so proud of her. This woman surprised him, again and again. Not only had she not cowered in fear, but she’d taken steps to defend herself—and her mate—whether or not she realized that they were meant to be together, yet. A shifter mate couldn’t have done better.
“You’re pretty handy with that shotgun,” Shane commented as he walked toward her. “The rifle, too.” He nodded at the weapon still in her hands.
“I may be only human, but I’m not helpless.” Her chin rose a bit as she declared her strength for all to hear.
Shane knew her defiant stance was earning her major points with many of the Pack members. Even as a human, it was becoming clear that Maria had the spirit of a dominant female. She was not someone to mess with, and it was time the Pack realized it. Maria had just done a great job proving that all on her own. Her actions today would go a long way toward cementing her place in the Pack when, and if, she allowed Shane’s mate claim to stand.
Shane walked right up to her, smiling at her tough stance. “Damn right, you’re not. You’re amazing, Maria.”
He couldn’t help himself. He dipped his head and kissed her right there in front of everyone. He put his arms around her, glad when her hand that was still holding the rifle dropped to her side. Only then could he sweep her into his arms the way he wanted.
It was Patty that finally made him come to his senses as she opened the front door, leaned out, and invited everyone
in for coffee and snacks. Leave it to Patty to take care of the social niceties. She was a good friend and a typical maternal female.
Her words had the effect of snapping Shane out of the sensual haze that had almost overcome him when he finally had Maria in his arms, once again. He had to convince his inner wolf that everything was okay now. The bad guys had been run out of town, and Maria was safe.
He marveled at how proactive she’d been in keeping herself that way. She was going to be one hell of a mate—if she would have him. He still had to figure that part out. She hadn’t exactly agreed to anything permanent, but he would spend the rest of his life, if he had to, convincing her. Starting now.
*
Maria wasn’t sure how it had happened, but she’d ended up sitting at a very large dining table, surrounded by what looked like key members of the Big Wolf Pack, including Joe Villalobos, the Alpha of the entire organization. Shane had made sure to keep her by his side, even going so far as to hold her hand under the table, from time to time, as if he wanted to reassure himself she was there. She liked it. His strong grip made her feel safe after the tumult of the morning. She hadn’t let it show, but her knees had been shaking the entire time she stood on the front steps, presenting the façade of a pistol packin’ mama.
While Maria knew how to shoot and had done target practice any number of times, today had been a first—she’d never shot someone before. She prayed she never had to do so again, but she would defend herself if she had to, and the werewolves needed to understand that.
“I always wondered about old Lulu,” Joe said at one point. “She seemed to know more than she should have, but she never came out and said or did anything to confirm my suspicions.”
“It sounds like Lulu was Justin Wilcox’s mate, but he died before he could formalize things and bring her into the Pack,” Shane said, squeezing Maria’s hand gently.