by Dannika Dark
If we were meeting a Packmaster today, he was just going to have to accept me in a pair of jeans and my strapless shirt. It was undeniably a cute top with elastic around the edges and turquoise patterns mixed with black flowers. Summertime in the South was nothing to mess around with; I’d just thought we’d be sleeping in a hotel with room service and movie channels.
I didn’t pack for BFE at four in the morning weather.
The hollow note of a wolf’s howl sounded in the distance and goose bumps rippled up my arms. “Austin?”
The tent zipped open quickly. “Get out. Come on, let’s go,” he said hurriedly, grabbing my bag and hauling ass.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, hopping in place and slipping on my sneaker.
“I marked the property and some sonofabitch is on it. There are too many rogue Shifters around these parts, so I’m not about to go after him and leave you sitting in my car by yourself. Lexi, dammit,” he chastised, yanking my arm so hard I stumbled. My left shoe wasn’t all the way on, but I managed to make it to the car in record time.
Once the doors shut, he rubbed his face and I looked around, noticing how quickly the yellow and lavender colors filtered through the branches overhead. The sublime beauty of early morning could rarely be matched in my eyes. I preferred mornings over sunsets because beginnings are always better than endings, even if you don’t know what the day will bring.
His bright eyes were sharp and alert, but more relaxed. “You hungry?”
“Now that you mention it, I’m starving.” My stomach gave an angry growl as if to agree.
He reached in the back seat and handed me a stick of jerky. I tore off the plastic wrapper and nibbled on the end. It wasn’t half bad, although it was a little greasy.
Austin frowned.
“What’s wrong? There’s plenty if you want some,” I offered.
“That’s not what you’re craving, is it?”
I held his glance and his crystal-blue eyes captivated me in the morning light. “No, but it’ll tide me over until breakfast.”
“Why did you buy so much of it?”
I shrugged. Who knew why I bought anything edible from a gas station? “At the time, it sounded really good. What’s the big deal?”
“You’ll know when you figure it out,” he said with a frustrated sigh. “Try to think of what it is you’re craving and I’ll have it for you next time. You’ve got a picky wolf.”
“Tradition? Or does the wolf like a little snack after walkies?”
He cut me a hard glare. “This isn’t a joke. Being a Shifter is an honor. We get enough shit from some of the other Breeds, I don’t want to hear it coming from you. There are a lot of prejudices, and many of ’em treat us like we’re the lower end of the totem pole. Someday I’ll tell you what they used us for.”
“Sled dogs?”
He leaned over and restrained every spark of anger until it only glimmered in his eyes. Austin was nose to cheek with me and I lowered my eyes, feeling immediate guilt for my predawn sense of humor, not to mention his alpha power flowing over me like a punishment.
“Slaves. We were chained, whipped, beaten, slaughtered, raped, and the wolf packs were used as guards or bloodhounds. We were forced to kill and do other people’s dirty work. It was before our time, but there are many from that era who are still around. Ivan is one of those men, so be careful what you say around him. We’re not immortal, but some Shifters are hundreds of years old.” His voice softened, and he tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear.
“I’m sorry, Austin. You know I’d never be disrespectful if I knew all of that. I’ve just been having a hard time dealing with this and I didn’t think it was off-limits to make a few jokes.”
A grin slid up one cheek. “We joke all the time, Lexi. I just want you to keep your nose out of trouble when we’re around other packs,” he said, tapping my nose.
The engine growled to life and by the time we hit the highway, I’d put away three sticks of beef jerky.
***
After a quick breakfast detour for sausage biscuits and black coffee, we pulled up to a majestic ranch house. Ten acres of cleared land surrounded the property, and there was a red riding mower off to the right.
“Ivan’s living it up,” I said, admiring two bright red sports cars on the left side of the house.
Austin parked behind them and cut off the engine.
“How long is this going to take? I can wait out here.”
“No, you’re coming inside with me. You’re also going to hold my hand, and not because we’re dating, but because I don’t want you out of my sight for a minute. I trust Ivan; he’s been around a long time. But I don’t know his pack and in your condition…”
“Someone please explain what my condition is, because I feel perfectly normal. I thought only alphas could smell me?”
“We can pick up the scent when you first change over, but going into heat is something entirely different. It’s like a pheromone. It draws the males to you before it starts and once it does, the weak ones aren’t able to control themselves.”
“Maybe it’s my perfume.”
He clicked open his door. “Come on, smartass.”
Austin held my right hand and we walked up the steps to a winding porch. A small set of wind chimes tinkled in the breeze as we clomped across the hollow wood floor, announcing our arrival before any doorbell was ever rung. The door swung open, replaced by two men. One had a handlebar mustache and looked like he was short a Harley while the other was missing a surfboard and needed another bottle of bleach to touch up his roots.
“Ivan here?”
“Who’s asking?” Harley demanded, folding his hairy arms.
“Tell him Austin Cole is here. He’s expecting me.”
“Austin Cole,” a voice boomed. “Been a few years.”
Harley and the surfer parted like two lovers who were just not that into each other anymore.
Ivan’s presence made me grab Austin’s arm and curl up against him. The man had salt-and-pepper hair with about two inches of beard, but he sure as hell didn’t look like Santa Claus. More like the guy who slips into your house in the middle of the night, strings you up by your ankles, and cuts off your ears while telling a story about his time in a Mexican jail.
Austin stood his ground and made no move to coddle me in any way.
“You’ve sprouted up, Cole. Not quite the young pup I remember,” Ivan said in a gravelly, southern drawl. Not the good kind of southern drawl, but the kind you hear whenever you’re skating through those tiny towns and pull over into a truck stop to use the bathroom as fast as humanly possible.
“I’ve formed my own pack, Ivan. The Weston pack.”
“You don’t say?” Ivan put his hands on his waist and tapped his snakeskin boots against the floor. “Boys, leave us alone. Y’all come inside before the skeeters get you. Damn bloodsucking insects have been a nuisance around here since the last hard rain.”
The two men obediently disappeared. Ivan led us to a quiet sitting room full of musty old books and bizarre artifacts such as animal skulls and a tarantula in a glass orb. There were only two chairs and after Ivan sat in the red one, he began packing a pipe with a pinch of tobacco.
Austin hesitated. He still had hold of my hand and our palms were sweating.
Ivan struck a match and waited a moment before he lit up his pipe. After a few puffs that clouded his face, he extinguished the match and grinned slowly as he looked me up and down.
“Someone’s about to make you feel real good, Cole,” he said with a knowing chuckle. “Ever had one in heat? Ain’t nothing like it. Nothing in the world.” He took a few short puffs from the pipe and blew out the smoke, shifting his hips. “Have a seat.”
It wasn’t a suggestion.
Austin sat down in the chair and I jerked my hand free, wiping my sweaty palm on my shirt. He burned me with his glacier eyes, so I leaned on the back of his chair and that seemed to satisfy him.
“Wha
t brings you out here?” Ivan asked.
Austin sat forward with his elbows on his thighs. “You’ve got connections, Ivan, and I’ve got a situation. We have a woman missing—kidnapped—and I know you got men who can find her.”
Ivan listened to the details, including the fact my mother was human, which rubbed him the wrong way. Then Austin said he would be indebted to him and Ivan’s cloudy eyes lit up with interest.
He took another small puff from his pipe and set it down in a holder. “As it so happens, you can even out that debt today. I got a female I need you to take off my hands, and I’ve been knowing your family long enough that I trust she’ll be in good care with you. If she chooses to go with another pack, then you let her, but I want you to look out for her as one of your own.”
Austin rubbed his jaw and I listened to the bristly sound of his whiskers. “Who is she?”
“My daughter.”
I gasped. Just a little bit. Ivan looked up at me and I dropped my eyes to the floor.
“She’s going through the change soon and I need fresh blood in the pack. I can’t have my own flesh and blood mating with any of these sons of bitches. You know pack rules—can’t keep our girls, and she hasn’t met anyone to take her off my hands.”
“Why not one of the local packs?”
Ivan shrugged and tapped his boot heel on the floor with an outstretched leg. “I made a promise to her mother before she died I’d get her the hell out of Oklahoma. She never was fond of the packs in this territory and I guess I can’t blame her. We’re not like you city boys,” he said, scraping Austin up and down with his eyes.
“Do you have a bathroom?” I interrupted, doing the embarrassing dance on my tiptoes.
“Lexi, no,” Austin said.
“Tight little leash he’s got on you, honey. ’Round the corner to the right.”
Austin caught my hand and I jerked it free. “Sorry, Austin. I refuse to stand in here like a three-year-old holding it in. My bladder has needs.”
Ivan rocked with laughter, but it was a silent laugh with a bit of a wheeze. His chest shook merrily until he wrapped it up with a long snarl and snort. “She’s a keeper, that one. I think she’ll get along well with my little girl.”
I sprinted down the hall and opened three doors before I found the bathroom. It took a good five minutes before I was ready to come out. When I finished drying off my hands and opened the door, three men blocked my exit.
Their pupils were dilated and their nostrils flared. They shared the same look men possessed who watched Naya dancing on stage in her leather thong.
“Beep, beep,” I said in a panicked moment as I tried to cut through the wall of muscle.
They weren’t yielding, reversing, or allowing me to merge into traffic. Their bodies formed a roadblock and began walking me back into the bathroom. I stepped to the side nervously and one of them shut the door.
A hand slid across my thigh and I slapped it away.
“Don’t touch me,” I ground out through my clenched jaw. I’d had enough and snatched a bottle of shampoo and lathered it in my hands. Had there been a razor within sight I might have grabbed it, but Prell seemed good enough. If I didn’t blind them, they’d at least have fresh-smelling hair.
When the tall guy in front of me yanked my shirt down so hard my boob popped free, I Prelled him in the eyes.
And then I blacked out.
Chapter 17
Cold tile numbed my ass and when my surroundings became clear, I was sitting in the center of Ivan’s bathroom with a black robe draped over my back.
“Jesus, Lexi,” I heard Austin gripe. “Feeling better?”
The door was closed and he was sitting on the toilet with the lid down. I tightened the front of the robe and glanced around at a torn curtain, bottles strewn across the floor and bathtub, a flipped over bathmat, and tiny blood spatters across the mirror, cabinet, and floor.
“What happened?”
He sighed. “I’m not letting you out of my sight. If you gotta pee again, I’m going with you.”
“Over my dead body. Where did those guys go?”
Austin straightened up and stretched out his legs, crossing them at the ankle. “Two of them are shifting to heal; I’ve never seen anything like it. A female taking down three men—that’s just fucking wild,” he almost said to himself. “Your wolf can hold her own, that’s for sure.” Then his chuckle evolved into a laugh. “One of them came running out with shampoo in his eyes and the ass-end of his jeans hanging open like a flap.” He palmed away the tears and I sat up, staring at my clothes piled on the floor.
“You have a twisted sense of humor, Austin Cole. Get out so I can get dressed. God, this is so embarrassing.”
Embarrassing because I felt no fear. Nor was there a sense I’d been a victim in this situation. In fact, I felt a lot like a prizefighter might after a boxing match. I had no idea what had happened, but my wolf was strutting her stuff and trotting around like nobody’s business.
After I put my clothes back on and brushed off the fur and blood, I rejoined the merry little group in the study. Ivan folded his arms, unable to look away from the drop of blood on my white sneaker.
“This is why you’re taking my daughter,” he said to Austin without lifting his eyes. “If your boys ever try something like that, I’m going to know about it. You hear?”
“Why don’t you think about it before—”
“You backin’ out on me? I’ll back out on you,” he threatened. “Think about it, Cole. I got men in five states who can solve your problems. They got connections in law enforcement and work directly with some of our own internal organizations. We can track a flea in a desert. What do you want me to do with the man who took her?”
It was the kind of question that suggested he had a few things in mind involving cattle prods.
“Austin, no,” I whispered, tugging at his faded red shirt.
“Bring him to us.”
“Unharmed,” I cut in. Austin gave me a sideways glance. “He might be an asshole, but he’s still my dad.”
“Tough girl you got there, Cole. Feel like doing some trading?”
“I’m not a baseball card,” I barked out.
Ivan shook with laughter and released a snarly snort at the end. “I like her. If you change your mind, give me a ring. I got a few bitches you can choose from, unless you want cash.”
“She’s not part of the deal,” he said in slow, threatening words. When he took a step forward, I had to pull him back by the waistband of his jeans. His shoulders were stiff, his back straight, and his jaw was clenched so tightly it created a sharp shadow along his unshaven cheek.
“Fair enough,” Ivan said. “I’ll give you a ring tonight and I should have them in your custody in no more than forty-eight hours. How’s that sound?”
“Like a deal.”
They didn’t shake on it. In fact, I had yet to see a Shifter shake hands.
Ivan patted Austin on the shoulder and led us to the door. Austin held my hand, except now I looked like a hot mess with my hair in tangles. One of the men in the room flew down the hall and slammed a door so hard a picture fell off the wall.
“She’s in the car,” Ivan said in a private voice. “Didn’t want to make a production out of it because some of the men have had their eye on her. She’s a good girl, Austin. But she has an effect like poison in this house because of her beauty. I’ll be in touch to make sure you’re looking after her.”
We reached the car and a young woman peered through the window from the back seat. She appeared to be a little bit younger than me, but not by much. Her hair was pulled back in an untidy braid that fell past her shoulders. It was a beautiful shade of mahogany with a few faded highlights. Her lashes were dark, a soft glow warmed her skin, and she wore a long brown dress that tied around her neck. Very earthy, and Ivan was spot-on about her being beautiful.
“Hi,” I greeted her, sliding into the front seat. I twisted around and she didn’t lift her
eyes. “I’m Lexi. This is weird and I’m sure you’re as freaked out as I am about it,” I babbled as Austin walked around the front of the car, glaring through the windshield. “Austin’s not a bad guy and… Good God, this is awkward. What’s your name?”
She lifted her warm brown eyes. “Ivy. My father likes to call me Poison Ivy, but don’t tell anyone. I’d rather no one call me that name again.”
“Did you want to come with us?”
Austin opened his door and got in. The car rocked a little and he sighed, turning around. “I’m Austin Cole. I run a small pack and they’re all good men. You have nothing to worry about in my group; they’re just a little rough around the edges because they’ve been on their own for a number of years. I’m very selective, and so far, it’s just my brothers and me. What do they call you?”
She clammed up.
“Her name is Ivy,” I said softly.
Then I turned around in my seat and wondered exactly what had changed regarding slavery. We had essentially just traded my mother’s life for a man’s daughter. No one was fighting it, which evidently meant these people played by rules, even though they still had free will. Austin had explained that women preferred to stay in packs because it offered them the protection they needed. Shifters who were panthers or other animal types didn’t have to be concerned with these things as much as the wolves because of our inherent instincts. After seeing how those men had behaved in the bathroom, I could see his point.
“Jerky?”
She glanced at the overflowing plastic bag in the floor and reached in to pull out a stick. “Love these,” she said. “Got any of the spicy peppered flavor? Something with a kick?”
I leaned around and rifled through the bag, then I glanced at her hands. “Ooo, I love that color polish,” I said. “Turquoise or green?”
“It has an iridescent quality, so it’s a little of both. I brought it with me if you want to borrow it later.”