by Abigail Owen
Thank heaven for Shyla, who’d covered brilliantly. She whispered the words, but most likely those around them could hear perfectly. Werewolves had enhanced hearing. Attributing Tala’s reaction to the mating call was quick thinking.
“When is it supposed to wear off, anyway?” Tala grumbled.
Shyla laughed. “With that as my mate—” She nodded to Marrok. “I wouldn’t want it to.”
Marrok glanced their way, a knowing smirk playing around his mouth. “I think he heard you.” Tala turned her head to mutter the words. A glance at her mate told her he now watched them openly. As soon as he caught her gaze, he gave a sexy-as-all-get-out wink. Damn the man. How could he have her body leaping with anticipation with a silly wink?
With powerful strides he came around the fire to where she stood alone, Shyla having disappeared into the night. Blue eyes flickering in the firelight, he stared at her, and she couldn’t look away. He held out a hand. “Join me in the woods?”
Tala knew what he was asking. Throughout the evening almost every couple there had snuck off at some point or other, still affected by the vibes the two of them gave off, though supposedly things should have calmed down considerably by now.
She licked her lips and shifted on her feet. She shouldn’t.
He leaned forward, lips by her ear. “Yes. You should.”
Tala gasped, though only Marrok caught it. Probably. How had he known?
A quick check told her the rest of gathering weren’t paying them any attention. For once. Damn her body, and damn him for being nice to that little girl. The sight had her panting with lust. Even her wolf, who’d been distant since the night of the mating ceremony had perked up, tail twitching.
With a shaky little breath, Tala put her hand in his and allowed him to lead her out of the circle of warmth and light cast by the fire into the cooler, darker night beyond.
Every cell of her being focused on her mate, Tala was ready and willing for what he had in mind. They wound their way through the pine trees, the fresh, spicy scent surrounding them. A good distance from the party, Marrok slowed and pulled her softly into his arms, his body wrapping her in warmth, hard against hers. He lowered his head, and she lifted her lips to him.
A scream rent the air, splitting the quiet of the forest with a piercing jolt of fear.
CHAPTER 9
Tala rushed into the clearing and around the bonfire to where every person present had gathered. Marrok followed closely behind her as she pushed her way to the center of the circle of snarling werewolves. At least no one had changed.
There, sitting on a log, tears streaming down her face, was Accalia. Just her freakin’ luck. The woman was of the Canis pack and had an uncanny ability to make trouble. She also had a penchant for lies and drama.
“What happened?” Tala demanded.
Accalia pointed at a man from the Banes pack, her face twisted with distaste. “He tried to kill me.”
For his part the man let loose a low growl, which set off a chain of low growls. “I sure as hell didn’t.”
Shit. This was going downhill fast, and Tala was already in a rough position. “Do you have injuries needing treatment?”
Accalia turned that hateful glare her way. “You don’t believe me?”
“Not at all. I want to make sure any urgent injuries are treated immediately.” As far she could tell, other than a ripped dress and her tears, Accalia was fighting fit.
Accalia’s expression turned sulky. “No.” She narrowed her eyes. “I demand that wolf pay the price immediately. We are in neutral territory and have been forbidden by you to shift.”
“We will make an investigation, of course.” Marrok stepped closer to Tala.
Dammit. Why couldn’t the man have held off for two seconds? Tala turned her own glare on her mate, who showed no reaction, except a small flicker of confusion she barely caught. Did he really have zero clue what a horrible position he’d put her in with her pack? Or was he playing dumb?
Of course, she agreed with Marrok’s call, but his unilateral decision forced her into a “her pack versus his pack” situation—she could protect her pack-member from the Banes Alpha, or side with her mate condemning one of her own pack. Given her tenuous hold on her people, nothing could be worse.
Deliberately, Tala held her tongue. Accalia was a drama queen and a liar, but her timing tonight felt off. Tala’s gut instinct told her a hidden player was involved here, and she meant to discover who. Her wolf stood on alert, hackles raised. Shivers raced down Tala’s spine, as that same instinct warned her a fight was coming.
“What do you say, Alpha?” From beyond the flickering light of the flames, Sandalio stepped forward, the gathering parting for him.
Despite his age, only a few hundred years younger than Kaios, the aged werewolf still made an intimidating figure of a man. Tall, almost as tall as Marrok, and leanly muscled. Tala always mentally labeled him as wiry. His form of fighting was more that of a fox—quick and sneaky—than a wolf. He stood tall and straight, oozing the prowess one of his years boasted. Only his salt and pepper hair and wrinkled skin gave away his age.
She should have known he would be behind this. He’d been biding his time to move on her as alpha since she took over the role.
Tala crossed her arms. “We will conduct an investigation.”
“No!—” Accalia jumped to her feet, holding the tattered bodice of her dress up with one hand. “I want him punished now.”
Tala glanced at the man accused. His eyes glowed in the flicker of the firelight as he held his change in check, his chest heaving with the effort. Wisely, he said nothing. Tala held her ground and kept her heartrate even. “If the investigation determines him guilty, then he will be.”
Accalia’s eyes bugged. “If?” she screeched. “Are you calling me a liar?”
“I’m saying an investigation will be held first.”
“Is that how things will go now our clans have been joined?” Sandalio spit into the fire, the hiss fizzing in the thick silence following his question. “The Banes Alpha will decide everything for both packs, while the Canis Alpha meekly bows to his command?”
“I commanded nothing,” Marrok growled. His low voice reverberated with his authority and power. Even Tala’s wolf cringed.
Sandalio turned the crowd and held up his arms theatrically. “Even now he speaks and she listens. This is why a female alpha was never a good—”
“If you’re going to challenge me, old man, get on with it.” Tala’s quietly spoken words cut him off as effectively as a scream.
“Tala,” Marrok muttered. She silenced him with a glance so full of fury, even he knew to shut up.
Sandalio slowly pivoted to face her. “We both know a strong leader is what is needed now. Not our rival’s bitch.”
Tala gave a bored sigh. “Was that a challenge? I couldn’t tell.”
She pushed deliberately. If she didn’t end this now, he would undermine her leadership, and now her mating, every step of the way.
“You want me to challenge you?”
“I’m still waiting for you to have the balls you claim are necessary for the job. Either challenge me, or shut the hell up.”
That did it. The crowd scattered, pushing back and out of the way, as Sandalio’s bones cracked, signaling his change. Tala kept her eyes glued to him. Some weres took longer than others to shift, some were quicker. The grotesque realigning and elongating of bones was never easy, but over time supposedly became less jarring.
“Tala, shift!” Marrok yelled.
She ignored the order. “You do anything to interfere, and I’ll rip your throat out myself.”
Not removing her gaze from her opponent—attacking before the change was complete when the fight involved a challenge was deemed bad form—she knew without looking that Marrok got the message. His thundering growl told her he did and silenced everyone else.
The sick crack of bone on bone, as Sandalio’s head snapped into alignment, the final phase
of the shift, signaled the time to fight. Before her, where a tough old man had challenged her, now stood a massive wolf. Dark grey fur covered his body, with lighter grey around his eyes and snout. While wolf shifters took the shape and size of full-blooded wolves in the wild, werewolves were fifty-percent larger, and Sandalio stood larger than most.
Even while he made the change, she mentally took stock of what she had available to use against him, using her sleight of hand skills to slip one of the few weapons she’d bothered to bring into her palm. Tala never shifted for a fight. As a female wolf she was smaller, physically outmatched, but while she was more vulnerable as a human, she was also more adept and able to use weapons. The problem was Sandalio had seen her fight several battles to become alpha, but she’d never seen him fight in his wolf form. A disadvantage she’d have to deal with quickly.
Without an ounce of hesitation, she ran straight at the werewolf. As she came in range, he lunged, snapping his jaws, but she slid like a runner coming into home, between his legs and under his belly.
She used the kubotan she’d slipped from her pocket earlier like a baton of sorts. As she slid by, she jabbed the end of the hard instrument into the wrist joint above Sandalio’s forefoot, using her momentum for added heft. A satisfying pop signaled she’d done damage. See how he did with one foot hobbled now.
A cloud of dust followed Tala as she pushed up to her feet, making it hard to see, the itch of it inside her lungs annoying but not debilitating. Immediately, she ducked under Sandalio’s head. He’d whirled on her faster than she expected, and his razor-sharp teeth barely missed her, his breath hot on her back. Rather than put distance between them, Tala hooked her right arm around his neck, grabbing a hank of fur for purchase, and swung up onto his back. There she slammed her heels in, like a cowboy spurring a horse, only the three-inch-heels of her stilettos did a hell of a lot more damage as they pierced his skin and stabbed into his ribs.
And Marrok had teased her for wearing those shoes in the woods.
Sandalio howled and jerked under her, curling back on his body. She tried to pull her foot free, only the heel stayed buried. Pain lanced up her leg as the wolf’s teeth sunk deep. With a heave, he slung her off his back and slammed her into the rough trunk of a nearby pine tree.
Tala’s vision went black as she lay crumpled on the ground, pine needles raining down on her from above, filling her senses with the woodsy scent. In a haze she could hear Marrok yelling her name and others shouting at him. They had to be holding him back.
But Tala wasn’t focused on her mate, or her pain, or her lack of vision, which would clear shortly. Instead, she kept her eyes closed and used her phenomenal hearing, totally attuned to the soft tread of Sandalio’s paws on the ground, moving ever closer. He would go for the easy kill. The way she had fallen, her throat was exposed…perfect bait.
He leaned over her now, his stinky dog breath hot on her face. Do it already, you coward, she silently willed him.
With a snarl, he reared back. As he went for the kill, Tala moved with the speed of a rattlesnake strike. She snatched one of her specially-made hair sticks out of the long pocket along her thigh and jammed it, pointy-end-first, into Sandalio’s neck, though she avoided the artery. The sharp instrument plunged deep, and the werewolf dropped to the ground beside her. The metallic scent of blood spilled into the air as his wound seeped, red staining the earth beside him. The injury wouldn’t kill him but would take him out for several days as he healed.
Tala stayed on the ground, her leg pinned under Sandalio’s greater weight. Using her alpha voice, gathering the force of will to imbue the words, she spoke to those gathered. “Half-an-inch down and he’d be dead. Because of my respect for his age and all he’s done for the Canis pack in the past, I have decided to show mercy. However, he and his kin, will find a new pack immediately.
CHAPTER 10
After a long moment of shock held them all immobile when Tala came out the victor, those of his pack who held Marrok back, released him. He’d lost it when he thought his mate was about to be killed, and four of his strongest wolves still hadn’t been entirely enough. His wolf had been frantic inside his head, lending added power to his limbs, while at the same time pushing to be released so he could rip the bastard’s throat out who threatened their mate.
Now he shoved the unconscious mass of the wolf Tala had defeated away from her to pull her into his arms. “Tala? Baby? Talk to me. Are you—”
She shoved him off her. Hard. “I’m fine.”
His wolf managed to growl and whimper at the same time. Something was wrong with their mate. Marrok held up his hands. He watched as she gingerly rose to her feet, giving her head a shake. Then he, too, moved to his feet.
Rather than address him, Tala turned a hard stare on Accalia, who now cowered on the ground. His magnificent mate stalked to the she-wolf and crouched down. In a voice all the more deadly for the softness, she addressed every person listening.
“There will be an investigation. If your alleged attacker is found guilty, he will be punished. If it is found you have lied, you will join Sandalio.”
Accalia paled so drastically, Marrok wondered if she’d pass out.
“Do you want to rethink your charges?” Tala asked.
Accalia started to shake. “He didn’t attack me,” she said through pale, pinched lips. “Sandalio helped me fake it.”
“Was anyone else involved?” Tala asked.
Accalia’s hair fell into her eyes as she shook her head, her gaze lowered. “Not that I know of.”
Tala rose to her feet and surveyed the gathering. “Any other challengers tonight?” She asked the question almost conversationally. Like she was asking if anyone wanted more to eat. Damn, she was magnificent.
“No?” Tala asked. A long silence greeted her question. “Good.”
She took a deep breath, and the next words came out in a raised voice. “I believe we’ve celebrated this mating enough. Time to get to the business of learning to live together as one pack. In peace.”
She turned to him and held out her hand. “Shall we?”
Marrok grinned, unable to hold back his pride in his mate, and took her hand. His wolf still wanted to check she was unharmed, but he suspected he’d lose a limb if he tried. Together they left the clearing, leaving the business of cleaning up to the others. They made the trek through the woods to their car and the subsequent drive back to the hotel in silence.
Tala pulled back the blue skirt of her dress to reveal a nasty scrap up her thigh, probably from when she’d slid under Sandalio. She also inspected the bite on her foot. Marrok caged his wolf’s whimper at the sight. He should’ve carried her out of the forest. She hadn’t even limped. Irritation sizzled through him, and he couldn’t decide if he was impressed by how tough she was or annoyed by her stubborn streak. Either way, the barely there bond which allowed him to sense her warned him not to comment. While her heartrate remained steady, the emotions feeding to him through that tenuous link were rage-filled.
After checking her wounds, which were healing, Tala smoothed her skirt over her lap and stared straight ahead, refusing to look his direction. Marrok’s mirth disappeared slowly at the sensation of being shut out. When they got back to the hotel, she stalked through the lobby and up the wide ornate staircase.
“Sir?”
Marrok, following more slowly, turned to find one of the hotel workers. “Yes?”
“Is your wife all right?”
Oh, the bumps and bruises. Marrok grimaced. “She had a bit of a fall when we were out walking, but I think she should be fine.”
“Is there anything we could send up?”
“That won’t be necessary, thank you. We brought a first aid kit.”
Frustrated at the delay, Marrok took the stairs two at a time. He opened the door to the room to find the room empty.
“Tala?”
His answer was the click of the bathroom door. She emerged having changed from her dirty, tattered dress
into black slacks and a frilly white blouse. Even the stilettos had been exchanged for a different pair.
Without a word or glance his way, his mate moved to the wardrobe, where she pulled out her large suitcase and hefted it onto the bed, which squeaked its protest. Still ignoring him, Tala pulled a hunk of clothes out of the armoire and started packing.
Marrok scowled, not entirely sure how to deal with this side of her.
She didn’t pause as he stood and watched. “I will send you half my people to live in your territory for the next six months. The weaker half. You send me yours.”
His wolf paced and he crossed his arms. Somehow he knew a kicker was coming. “Sounds like a plan—mix everyone up.”
She didn’t look up, simply continued packing.
“And where will we stay? Part-time at your place and part-time at mine?” They still hadn’t finalized that detail.
“I’ll stay at my place.” Now she stopped packing and looked him directly in the eye. “If you want a place in my bed, you’ll have to earn it.”
If he didn’t know better, he’d swear the pit in his stomach was panic. Tala meant what she said. He didn’t need the mating bond to realize that on his own. His wolf growled. So did Marrok. The urge to cross the room and get in her space battled with common sense. Only the anger pouring off his mate in waves kept him where he was.
He’d now witnessed first-hand what she could do in a fight. He knew better than to piss her off more. Instead he crossed his arms and planted his feet wide. She’d have to get around him to leave. “Want to explain why?”
“You act as though you are the only alpha in this equation.”
“Are you talking about the decision to have an investigation? You agreed with me.”
“I’m talking about every single unilateral decision you’ve made since our mating. Consulting me first hasn’t even crossed your mind, has it?”