Bite Back Box Set 2

by Mark Henwick

“If you want an association with Felix, why not ask him? Why involve me?”

  She laughed, a short, angry laugh.

  “He wouldn’t read a letter, wouldn’t even answer a phone call from me. Any one of my wolves gets within a half-mile of Coykuti, and that hillbilly nephew of Felix’s starts blasting away with his shotgun.”

  She had a point. Duane took his job seriously, as he should; there’d been assassination attempts from alphas too cowardly to challenge.

  So my job was to get her to Coykuti without being shot.

  Why would she think that’d put Felix off balance?

  And why was she getting so worked up? She was like an athlete psyching herself up before the big race. Heart rate up again. Breathing deeper. Fidgeting.

  No, not a racetrack athlete, more like a boxer. As if she were going to challenge him.

  She saw that I saw and she stopped—sat as still as an Egyptian carving, staring at me.

  “Besides,” she said, “it’s not association I want.”

  “Huh?”

  “Gods! Zane said you had a brain. Use it!” She slapped her hand on the table, making me jump. “You’re a female alpha. What did you have to do to talk to the LA packs? Put that brain of yours to work, woman,” she snapped. “Connect the frigging dots.”

  I frowned.

  Oh, my God!

  “No!” I spluttered as it dawned on me where she was headed. I stood up, knocking the chair over. “No! No freaking way! You are not getting me to do that.”

  Chapter 41

  An hour later, I stood in the yard in front of Coykuti ranch. I’d never felt so alone. So exposed.

  I’d rather perform another ritual in the middle of Denver, stark naked and without Nick to lead the dance, than be standing here.

  I’d called ahead. That much I’d insisted on, and Cameron had allowed it. Felix knew I was bringing Cameron here. Knew it was formal—two lieutenants would attend from each side. But as soon as Felix had started questioning what it was all about, Cameron had reached across and ended the call.

  “I know what I’m doing,” she’d said.

  She might, but I was freaking lost in the complexities of Were behavior. Did she really think it would turn out better if she surprised him? How the hell had she convinced me to help her?

  We’d come in the Hill Bitch. I’d had to leave Yelena with Cameron’s truck. Formal Were meetings of this type were restrictive on who could come. The two alphas, each with two lieutenants. And one intermediary, only one, ‘in good standing with both parties’. Whether I would remain in good standing with Felix after this, I wasn’t sure. In fact, I thought I’d expended all my good standing with him today, between Yelena telling him to fuck off and Cameron making me end my call to him before I could warn him what was happening.

  I’d slammed the truck door behind me after I got out, and it stayed closed, just as the door to the ranch stayed closed.

  I stood halfway between the truck and the ranch, as I’d been told to.

  I felt eyes burning into me from both sides.

  A cold wind came sliding down the mountain, sighing out beneath the dark shadows of the pine, slipping over the maroon roof of the ranch house and chilling the sweat on my forehead as I waited.

  There was a werewolf etiquette to these meetings. The first to move had to be from the guest. The delay was all about showing balls.

  I snorted.

  At least, that’s what Felix would think it was about until he saw Cameron. Like everyone else, he’d be thinking Cameron was a male alpha until she got out of the truck.

  I heard the truck’s doors open behind me, and I sensed rather than heard Cameron’s lieutenants pour themselves out onto the yard.

  Rita, in cougar form. Zane in wolf.

  The front door of Coykuti opened.

  For a second, Ursula stood there, staring at me. Not happy.

  She’s not going to change. Felix isn’t going to accept a meeting. She’s just going to tell us to get the hell out of here.

  But she was only making a point, making them wait. She shucked her clothes in a few practiced steps and changed.

  Bear!

  Alphas would normally have two lieutenants in wolf form to meet another alpha.

  Cameron had declared her difference. I have a cougar lieutenant.

  Felix was playing this like a poker game. I’ll see your cougar and raise you a bear.

  Score one for Felix.

  I bit my lip.

  Ricky followed Ursula onto the porch, frowned at me, shed his clothes and changed.

  The four lieutenants placed themselves at the corners of a square, about ten paces a side, centered on me. This was Were super-formal.

  Next, after another delay, Cameron would step out of the truck. Guest first.

  But she didn’t get the chance.

  Felix walked onto the porch, down the steps and into the yard, coming to a stop at the invisible boundary of the square.

  You are unconventional, he was saying. So what? I can throw convention aside.

  I heard the truck door open behind me, and an immediate, sharp intake of breath from Felix as he caught sight of Cameron.

  Sorry, Felix, but you’ve been massively outdone on the unconventional aspect.

  Score one for Cameron, just for being a female alpha of a group of packs.

  If it hadn’t been so damned serious, I would risk the hysteria and start laughing anyway.

  I couldn’t turn around yet. I had to strain my ears to hear the soft sound of her boots on the drive.

  Once she reached the square, I could begin the formal introduction.

  Where it went from there…

  The noise behind me stopped, giving me my cue.

  “I am Amber Farrell, House Farrell, sub-House of House Altau and co-alpha of Pack Deauville, sub-Pack of the Denver pack and associate of the New Mexico group of packs.”

  I cringed at the last part, but Felix didn’t so much as twitch.

  “I’m here to present my associates in good faith to my alpha.”

  I was the alpha of a sub-pack. That got me the right to stand here and make my little speech. The right to get him to come out and stand there. That far and no further. This was where he could tell me to go screw myself.

  He didn’t tell either of us to get screwed, but his dominance began to ramp up. It was like the wind coming down the mountain: cool, assured, depthless.

  I’d been warned to expect a display.

  “Felix Larimer,” I went on, when it was obvious he wasn’t going to speak yet. “Alpha of the Denver pack, territory of Colorado, my alpha. I ask you to welcome my associate, Cameron Zerenegus, alpha of Santa Fe and the New Mexico group of packs, territory of New Mexico and adjacent lands.”

  I’d done as Cameron had asked and introduced them as equals: kept it short and not listed the ‘adjacent’ territories. Not called her leader of the Southern League or anything like that.

  Still no reaction from Felix, except for the steady push of dominance.

  As I understood it, if he’d allowed the meeting to go this far, then Were rules of a civil exchange and safety applied, but he was under no obligation to entertain a proposal. Of any kind.

  I still could not believe that Cameron had roped me into this. It was going to go so, so wrong.

  The whole point of this play-acting was this damned proposal.

  In the meantime, since Felix had started it, Cameron was allowed to let her dominance off the leash, and she did. It felt darker and deeper than Felix’s dominance, but they matched each other in strength.

  Neither of them was really trying at the moment, but I was right in the middle of it, buffeted backwards and forwards.

  Felix finally spoke. “Welcome.”

  It sounded like he was chewing dirt.

  Next up, I had to receive Cameron’s permission to open the discussion for her in Felix’s hearing, so I turned around, my legs clumsy in the two-way blast of dominance.

  I swallowe
d.

  Cameron had left the bulky coat in the car. She was now wearing a sort of chainmail crop-top that looked to be made of oiled gold. It gleamed and moved with her body. Her dark skin was alluringly covered, and yet not covered, beneath the top.

  Hellfire!

  Really all out to create an impression.

  Score two for Cameron, for style.

  Was it working on Felix? He was the only one that mattered here.

  “Cameron,” I forced the formal words out, “may I introduce the matter you requested?”

  Damn, I was supposed to use her full name and pack title.

  I sucked at this formal diplomacy stuff.

  She didn’t take any notice. She was staring past me at Felix, chest heaving with the effort of fighting off Felix’s dominance as he ramped it up again.

  “Yes.” Sounded like she had the same mouthful of dirt he had.

  Back to Felix. I was feeling dizzy now from the competing flows of dominance. There was a weight on my chest and it was an effort to keep standing up.

  He hadn’t moved. His legs were locked and he was staring back at Cameron.

  Wonderful. Stick a couple of alphas near each other and the only thing they’re interested in is testing their dominance out, regardless of what they came to do. I wanted to shout at them there’s more important stuff here, but even the demon in my throat was starved of air.

  Heaven help me.

  Everything hinged on this—Felix’s reaction to Cameron’s proposal. Everything. Skylur’s demands on me for Altau’s association with Were packs in New Mexico. A single Were group to oppose the Confederation. A group capable of serious representation in the Assembly.

  Felix is never going to go for it.

  Here goes nothing.

  Deep breath. “On behalf of the alpha of Santa Fe, I’m asking you to consider—”

  “What adjacent lands?” Felix cut across me, addressing Cameron directly. “You’re claiming territory in adjacent states?”

  “I am,” Cameron replied. “Tucson, Mesa and Holbrook in Arizona. Amarillo and San Antonio in Texas.”

  “By association?”

  “No, those are full sub-packs,” she said. “You want associations? Phoenix, Austin and Dallas. Alliances? Sixteen more in Arizona and Texas.”

  “Some empire you’re building there, Zerenegus. Will Phoenix become a sub-pack next? Austin? Will you start putting your own alphas in place?”

  “We’re not the Confederation. We’re a league. I don’t ask alphas to submit to me. What about your empire, Larimer?”

  “I have no—”

  “Alphas are throwing themselves at you,” she said.

  Felix snorted. It took effort. Sweat stood out on his brow and his head had lowered—not submissively, more like a bull ready to charge. “You mean packs are allying themselves with me for mutual interest.”

  “Oh, yeah. And that’s what Stillman over in Cimarron will tell himself every day in the mirror. It’s just for his pack’s protection. You’re a good neighbor. Never that you’re more dominant than him. Oh, no, never that.”

  “We’ve never contested—”

  “Because deep down he knows,” Cameron said, voice raised. “He knew you were stronger before. Now that all the Wyoming and Utah and Kansas packs are cozying up to you, building up your dominance, you’re so far out of his league he may as well roll over.”

  Shit. That last comment was one of those ambiguous, sort-of-sexual insults that got Were fighting.

  I tried to haul back the conversation before it fell off a cliff. “I think what the Santa Fe alpha meant—”

  “I heard what she said.” Felix cut me off. “What else would I expect from her? She has no idea about the concept of civil behavior between neighbors.”

  “I get neighborliness just fine. I don’t have a nephew that speaks through his shotgun at anyone who shows up at Coykuti to talk.”

  “No, you just kill anyone who shows up in your territory.” Felix started to pace on the invisible edge of the square.

  His dominance took a harsher edge. Less for show. The real power was coming through now.

  Not good.

  “And you welcome them? We maintain the same territorial—” Cameron began.

  “And it’s not as if you even run your own territory well,” Felix bulldozed on. “You encouraged rogues to form packs on our borders.”

  “I didn’t set that border. My territory used to end at Taos. Gold Hill and Ute Mountain were your problem until you fixed it by deciding your territory ended at the state border,” Cameron shot back. “So, then we had to take them on. We had to fix it.”

  “You fixed it?” Felix was incredulous.

  “We were handling it. We got them to fight each other—”

  “Which pushed Gold Hill into making an association with the Confederation!”

  “The Confederation did that to come in behind you,” Cameron yelled, “not because of anything we—”

  “And if you’re saying now that’s your territory, where the hell were you while we were fighting the Confederation there?” Felix matched her, decibel for decibel.

  “Keeping the rest of them from kicking your badly prepared ass all the way back to Denver. The bulk of the Wind River pack never made it into the mountains, thanks to us. And where were you when it came to clean up? Guns, bodies and trucks all over Carson Park just left for humans to find!”

  Cameron was not giving an inch. Her dominance stepped right up to counter Felix’s. There was no hint from either of them that they were near their limits. The tumult of dominance just built and built, smooth and relentless as gravity.

  However much I thought I could stand up to one of them, on a good day, with Alex to support me, the power unleashed by the pair of them was battering me down. My knees were buckling. The four lieutenants weren’t doing any better; their heads were down almost on the dirt.

  Last attempt. I sucked in air and shouted, “I think we ought to restart the conversation—”

  “Enough!” Felix’s voice thundered. My world seemed to wobble and tilt. I found myself down on one knee, looking at the ground and trying to prop myself up with one arm.

  “Go!”

  The dominance fight switched off, swift and clean as a blade. Both sides.

  Shit! Failed. Didn’t even get to speak my piece. Cameron’s proposal. Nothing.

  I’d ruined my standing with Felix, by the look of it. And I’d failed to deliver for Cameron. Would she refuse to make a deal with Bian or Skylur now? Had I damaged the Denver pack’s association with Altau as well?

  Shit again.

  I staggered up. The best I could do was get Cameron and the others out of Felix’s sight before he blew all his gaskets.

  Cameron was already cat-walking back to the truck, rolling her hips and giving the impression everything was fine.

  Rita and Zane had changed back and looked as fragile as I felt. On the other hand, they were naked and I was at least dressed.

  I was too dazed to notice how…impressive Zane was, naked. Far too dazed.

  We collapsed into the Hill Bitch, Cameron and me in front, the others in the rear.

  “Fifteen seconds,” said Zane, his voice hoarse with exertion, as if he’d run a marathon.

  Huh?

  I pushed it away. The whole world felt strange, somehow sideways, after being battered and sandblasted by dominance displays. Maybe Zane was having a reality disconnect himself.

  Maybe we all were—Cameron’s lips stretched in a grin. Or a grimace. The sight shocked me.

  What the hell?

  I started the engine, and she put a hand on my arm.

  “No. No. Do not leave yet,” she said.

  More posturing? Proving we’re not running away?

  Felix, Ursula and Ricky had gone inside the ranch. Rita and Zane were getting dressed in the back. The truck engine ticked over. I shook my head, trying to clear the fog.

  “Thirty seconds,” said Zane.

&n
bsp; He was grinning. They were all grinning.

  Are they really freaking insane?

  More important, could I retrieve the situation with Cameron and still get her to agree to association with Bian?

  “Ah. Sorry,” I croaked. “I screwed up. Diplomacy is not my strong suit.”

  Rita handed me an open hip flask that she’d just swigged from. The sting of the Albuquerque pack’s homemade moonshine tickled my nose. I took a swallow, coughed, and tried to concentrate on breathing.

  “Sorry? Really? For what?” Cameron was saying as I recovered.

  I waved the flask at the yard where we’d stood, forced the words out of my abused throat. “That. That disaster. Should have spoken quicker. Messed up. Failed.”

  She laughed.

  “Amber, that old silver fur has near melted my g-string, and I’ve put enough wood in his pants to bust his zipper.”

  “Huh?”

  “Oh, come on. Didn't you see? He didn't respond to my aggression. He agreed to our borders. Little presents, big meaning.”

  I blinked. I was not getting this. Maybe I was more dazed than I realized. “He argued with every single thing you put forward. You were shouting at each other!”

  “Yeah. Mmmm. He is so fucking alpha. So confident, so...double coffee ice cream, banana and syrup waffle.” She wriggled in her seat.

  “Forty-five seconds,” Zane said. “He’s never going to make sixty.”

  “What? That's...” I said, completely confused.

  “That was alpha courtship and seduction 101,” Rita said.

  “God, did you see his eyes?” Cameron grabbed Rita’s flask from me and upended it.

  “No. Not specifically,” I said. “He was looking at you.”

  “’Zactly,” she gasped. Even she couldn’t speak clearly after drinking the moonshine. “Never batted an eyelid. Signed, sealed and delivered.”

  Rita retrieved her flask and looked sadly into the empty depths.

  I was trying to get my head around this. “So, even though I didn’t actually get to make your proposal of marriage to him, it worked?”

  Cameron laughed again, too loud and bright, her eyes burning.

  “Fuck, yeah. You didn’t need to say anything. He knew why we were there as soon as he saw me. You think I get painted up like this to go down the store?”