Ben froze; he could feel his muscles swelling under his skin at the challenge to his authority. He’d known that Derek would eventually cause trouble, but he hadn’t realized that all he was looking for was a single incident to face off against his alpha.
“What did you say?” Ben’s words were dark as he turned toward Derek. The wolves looking on froze where they were, as if afraid to move a single muscle for fear of incurring their alpha’s wrath. It should have been enough to get Derek to back down, but he was too full of his own bravado to know what was good for him.
“I said no.” Derek took another step closer as his upper lip curled slightly. “You always do this. You let him get away with shit that you would put any one of us in the ground for. I get it, he’s your brother. But he’s also your second-in-command, and he needs to learn to put the pack first!”
“I do put the pack first!” Josh stepped closer, and Ben had enough of his brother for one day. Sometimes he didn’t think before he opened his mouth.
“Just shut the fuck up, Josh.” And for once, Josh did what he was told. Ben turned toward Derek with all the strength and authority that were his rights as alpha. “I will deal with my second as I see fit.”
“Bullshit. You’ll give him a slap on the wrist behind closed doors, just like always. You’ve gone soft.” Derek didn’t seem to realize the dangerous ground he was treading on. Or perhaps he did and just didn’t care. “It’s time for some real punishment.”
Derek took a step toward Josh with deadly intent, but he only got one step forward before Ben was on him. Anger flashed through him as his hand whipped out and Ben’s fingers curled around the other wolf’s throat. Derek’s eyes widened as he finally realized his mistake in challenging his alpha’s authority in front of the group.
Ben’s much bigger body plowed him toward the wall and held him there. Ben brought his face close and snarled as a growl rumbled from his chest.
“Unless you are ready to challenge me for supremacy over this pack, I suggest you quit before I bury you. Are you going to challenge me?” There was lethal violence in Ben’s voice, and he hoped for a moment that Derek would challenge him. At least that would end this once and for all.
But it appeared that Derek knew he didn’t have a chance against him, at least not in the emotional state he was in now. He held very still and his eyes darted away in a show of submission.
“No, Alpha.” Derek’s voice rasped out, and Ben let him go. He sagged against the wall, furiously rubbing the skin of his neck.
“Get out of my fucking sight before I decide to punish you, too.”
Derek slunk away, giving his alpha a wide berth. The rest of the pack melted away, careful not to meet their alpha’s eyes.
Ben closed the door to his office softly after Josh walked inside behind him. His brother had lost his bravado after the scene that had just taken place. He stood with his eyes cast to the floor as he ran his fingers along the hem of his T-shirt. Josh was well aware that he was not standing in the company of his brother now, but in the presence of the leader of his pack.
Ben refrained from speaking as he walked around his desk and sat down in his chair. He sighed as he looked at his brother.
“I’m not going to punish you.” Ben could see some of the tension ease out of his brother’s shoulders as he lifted his head. “You know that’s not how I do things. Derek did have a point, though. You need to put the pack first and your own curiosity second.”
Ever since they were pups, Josh had held a kind of Little Mermaid-like fascination for humans. It had earned him the nickname ‘Ariel’ from the others, and Ben hoped that was all it would earn him. The humans in town were aware of what they were and seemed willing to keep their secret for the sake of harmony. But Lana had been a stranger, one ignorant of the true nature of the inhabitants of Shadowbrook, and if she had come there it could have spelt disaster. His brother needed to realize that he couldn't just extend the hand of friendship to every human he met.
Josh mumbled under his breath as he moved to sit in the chair across from Ben’s desk.
“What was that?” Ben leaned forward and stared at his little brother. Surely what had happened in the other room had been a lesson to him on the dangers of his curiosity.
Josh sighed and looked up. He didn’t look nearly as repentant as he should have, considering what had almost happened. “I said, I beg to differ.”
“And why is that?” Ben sometimes wondered if Josh was a changeling, since his attitude toward the humans was so different from his own.
“She was lost and in trouble. I was only being neighborly by offering her shelter in the event that she had nowhere else to go.”
“We are not her fucking neighbors.” Ben raked his hands through his hair. “We’re wolves who share a town with humans. We move among them; we have become a vital part of their community in order to buy our own survival. But we don’t invite strangers to come and live with us. We mind our own business.”
Josh rolled his eyes and gave his head a shake. “And where has that gotten us? We’re isolated here, stuck doing things the same way we’ve been doing them for centuries. It’s a wonder we have Wi-Fi, for Christ’s sake.”
Ben rubbed his hand over his stubble-roughed chin. He’d been up all night, and the only thing he wanted to do right now was shower the grime off his body and go to bed. He didn’t want to have this conversation with Josh. But, unfortunately, the Universe had saddled him with a brother who was too drawn to the humans for his own good.
“She’s not one of us. She’s a stranger in the town. I cannot risk exposing the pack to her. We know nothing about her.”
“Well, maybe if you hadn’t been trying to antagonize her so much, you might have learned something about her. Why couldn't you have tried to be nicer to her? She just lost everything.”
Ben didn’t want to answer that question. His brother didn’t know that when she’d looked up at him with her devastated blue eyes, he hadn't liked the feeling that it stirred up within him. His reaction to her was well out of his experience with any of the humans he’d dealt with before, so he’d put up a wall inside himself. But he couldn’t tell Josh that since he’d be all over it like a dirty shirt.
“She could be dangerous.” It was a lame excuse, and Ben knew it. Of all the vibes he’d gotten from Lana when they’d interacted, there had been no feeling of danger.
Josh looked at him in disbelief. “Oh, please. She owns a bookstore!”
Ben could feel his defensiveness rising up inside him. He had to hide from his brother the true reason he found the woman so disturbing. “She could be a hunter.”
“Seriously?” Josh looked at him like he’d grown another head. He sighed and leaned forward so his elbows rested on his knees. “It’s been over a hundred years since the Canergies nearly slaughtered our pack. It was a long time ago, and no one has had to deal with any hunters since. And I sincerely doubt that a bookstore owner is here to spearhead a wolf hunt.”
Ben was well aware that there was small likelihood that Lana was here to hunt them. But being near her did something to him that scared the shit out of him. She was a stranger to him, he knew nothing about her beyond her name, and yet he had wanted to soothe her when he’d seen how devastated she was by the fire. And the restlessness that had been plaguing him for days had calmed as soon as he walked up to her. It was back now, and the urge to go to her just to get it to stop again was so strong that he curled his hand into a fist on top of his desk.
Josh stared at him, and a look of understanding came on his face.
“I get it. You have to look out for the pack, and you need to treat every strange human you meet as a potential threat. But I don’t see the danger in her. All I see is an attractive woman.”
Ben felt a sharp twinge of what could only be jealousy rip through him at his brother’s notice of Lana’s attractiveness. And he felt completely ridiculous for feeling the need to guard her like a dog with a bone it didn’t want to lose
. But it didn’t stop the biting words inside him from coming out of his mouth.
“You stay away from her!” Josh’s eyebrows climbed up his forehead as Ben snapped at him. Ben took a deep breath and tried to find some remnant of calm inside him. When he spoke again, it was in a more moderate tone of voice. “You don’t befriend her. You don’t invite her to Shadowbrook. If you have to talk to her, be courteous but keep the friendliness to a minimum. That’s an order.”
Josh opened his mouth to protest, and Ben gave him a hard look. “Fine.”
“Say you hear me.”
“I hear you, Alpha.”
“Good.” He couldn't be sure that Josh had gotten the message to stay away from Lana, but there was little he could say about it now. Time would tell if his brother was prepared to listen to him. “Get out of here and take a shower. You stink.”
Josh flashed him a grin as he got to his feet. “You don’t exactly smell like a bed of roses yourself.”
Josh left the door open as he exited the office, and Ben sighed as he watched him go. He got to his feet and walked through the fire hall toward the door. He knew he needed a shower, but right now, what he needed more was a run. There were so many thoughts swirling around in his head, all centered on Lana, and he needed the clarity that only his wolf form could bring him.
Once he got outside, he swiftly stripped and changed into his wolf. As he ran, far from achieving the clarity he was after, all the wolf wanted was to seek her out. There was something about her that called to the wolf inside him. He deliberately ran away from the town she was staying in and did his best to drive all thought of her from his head while he raced against the strange feelings inside of him.
5
Lana
Three days after the fire and Lana had not seen Ben Stokes since he’d tersely given her the fire report as promised. They had little to say to each other, and while Lana told herself that she was grateful not to have to see him again, her thoughts had been centered on him for days.
It would take time for the insurance company to provide enough money to repair the upstairs, but she’d gotten the ball rolling on the apartment by contacting a couple of local contractors in order to get bids for the job. She’d kept herself busy by getting to know the town she now called home, and the people here were much friendlier than the fire chief had been. There had been sympathy in the eyes of the owner of the local cleaning company she’d hired to clean up the bookstore after the fire, and she’d gladly paid extra for the overtime needed to get the store ready for her to start repainting the walls.
She stood in the center of her store and realized she now had a clean slate to work from in order to make it everything she’d been daydreaming about.
She was humming along to the music playing softly on the radio as she stood on an old ladder, applying the first coat of new paint to the walls, when Ben walked in. His face was impassive when she glanced over at him standing in the center of the room.
Her eyes drifted over his tall, muscular frame. He looked good in his uniform, and she tried to ignore the way her pulse picked up when his eyes met hers. Her hand clenched around the handle of the roller she was holding as a jolt of electricity went through her when his eyes roamed her face.
“The marshal's gone home for the day. He should have a report for you soon.” He moved over to her, and Lana fought to keep her eyes from devouring his body and the way it moved with pure animal grace as he came to stand by the ladder. “This thing doesn’t seem too sturdy.”
“It does the job.” Lana put the roller back in the tray and wiped her arm across her forehead.
Ben didn’t seem to be convinced, but at least he refrained from testing the ladder while she was still perched on it.
“He’s making progress, but hasn’t figured out the cause of the fire yet. There is a lot of damage to sift through.”
“Thanks for pointing that out. I never would have guessed otherwise.” She looked at him, trying to see if he was deliberately trying to antagonize her again. She wanted to ask him what his problem with her was, but that might give him the idea that his opinion of her mattered, which she told herself emphatically that it did not.
“I didn’t mean it like that.” His voice was quiet as he looked up at her, and she thought for a moment that she could see something approaching sympathy in his eyes.
“I was about to take a break.” While not quite true, she felt that perhaps her attitude toward him was not doing her any favors. “I can make some tea if you want to join me.”
“I thought you city people were all about coffee.”
She opened her mouth to object but cut herself off. There was some truth in what he said. She was a city person who’d spent her life in Boston. She’d gone to work at her corporate job with heels on and a latte in her hand. But now she was about something different. “I’m not a city person anymore.”
He looked at her for a long moment, his eyes catching and holding hers. Then, as if whatever spell had been cast over him was broken, a shadow shifted in his eyes and he looked away.
“No tea for me.” He looked like he wanted to turn around and walk out of the store, but stood there anyway.
A break still sounded good to her and she moved carefully to climb down the ladder. The steps creaked and he rushed forward to hold it steady. His strong hands held onto the wood of the ladder, and she moved down slowly until her feet were touching the floor.
“You don’t like me much, do you?”
He looked startled for a second before putting on an impassive expression. “Lady, I don’t even know you.”
“And you don’t want to, right?” She had no idea why she was pushing this. What did it matter to her what he thought of her? But she couldn’t stop herself from saying what was on her mind. “I’m a city person, the same as any other, right?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to. It’s written all over your face.”
He muttered something inaudible under his breath and raked his hand through his messy dark hair. He leveled his gray eyes at her and sighed. “Don’t take it personally. I don’t trust anyone I don’t know. For all I know, you are here on a whim and will be blowing out of town just as fast as you blew in. Hell, you might have set the fire yourself for all I know.”
Lana’s mouth dropped open for a second. “You honestly think that I’m some sort of arsonist?”
He looked at her seriously. “No, I don’t. It’d be pretty stupid for you to try to set yourself up like that. But I’ve seen all sorts of people come in and out of this town, and like I said, I don’t trust people I don’t know.”
Lana tried to see things from his perspective. She’d turned up in town just as the building she owned went on fire. Anyone would be suspicious. Something inside her prodded her to take a step closer to him, and she put her hand on his arm. He stiffened for a moment but didn’t pull away from her.
She looked up into his eyes and could see that his pupils had swallowed a good portion of his irises, making his eyes dark.
“Look, I understand. You’re right, you don’t know me. This is your town and you’re looking out for it. You probably get your fair share of tourists here acting like they own the place.” Without her intending to, she moved closer to him. “But I’m not here to cause any trouble. I’m here because I was lucky enough to get a chance to start my life over, and I want to make the best of it. Can you at least give me the benefit of the doubt?”
He leaned toward her slightly, and Lana’s eyes darted down to his mouth. The bell above the door rang out as someone walked in. It was Harper, and she looked pleased to be there. “I know this is sudden, but what kind of best friend would I be if I left you to handle this mess alone?”
Ben sprang away from her. “I need to go.”
He turned and walked away from her like his ass was on fire, and passed Harper, who stood just inside the doorway, without a word.
Once he was gone, Harper looked back at her. �
�I’ve come to help! Who was that? What’s his problem?”
Lana swallowed, and her throat felt tight as she wondered what would have happened if Harper hadn’t come in at just that moment. “I wish I knew.”
6
Ben
What the hell was wrong with him? Ben sat in his office at the fire station, staring at the wall and trying to comprehend his own folly. He’d just gotten done telling Lana that he didn’t know her or trust her, and then turned around and had been about to kiss her when someone thankfully walked in. He needed to get his head on straight. She was a stranger, a human, and he had no business giving into the spell that she seemed to cast on him.
The door opened, and he turned his eyes toward Josh as he sauntered into the office and plunked a paper bag down on his desk. He could smell smoked ham and Swiss cheese coming from the bag, and despite the emotions churning inside him, his stomach rumbled.
Josh took a good look at him as he sat in the chair across from him. “What bug crawled up your ass?”
“Nothing.” Ben did his best to smooth out his features. Josh knew him way too well, and he didn’t want to give him any chance to ask about Lana. Josh pulled a large sandwich out of the bag, unwrapped it, and took a huge bite. Ben rolled his eyes. “Must you eat in here?”
Josh grinned as he chewed and swallowed the bite in his mouth. “Yep. Got you one, too. There’s beer in there as well.”
He shoved the bag forward over the papers scattered on top of the desk. Ben grabbed it and pulled out a sandwich and a bottle of beer. Maybe hunger was what was making him feel out of sorts. He took a bite of the sandwich, and even as he ate, he knew that it was a hunger of a different sort that was driving him crazy. He focused on his food with a single mindedness that he hoped would shove aside any thoughts of the woman who had occupied way too much of his time lately.
Firefighter Wolves Shifters (A Paranormal Romance Series Boxset) Page 3