Hell's Wolves MC: Complete Series Six Book Box Set

by J. L. Wilder

  They stood in silence for a while, each of them feeding a baby, occasionally settling the child back down in his or her bassinet and moving on to the next one. Vince thought that Amy would probably be relieved to wake up and find this first parenting chore accomplished. He worried, just slightly, that she would be sad she had missed it, but there would be hundreds of feedings over these first few months. And with eight babies, he knew she would never be short of an opportunity.

  “So how is Amy?” Dax asked.

  “Oh, worn out,” Vince said. The birth had been hard. Not as hard as it would have been for a woman who wasn’t an omega, he was sure, but considerably harder than it would have been for a shifter who had been born for such things. She was capable of giving birth to a big litter, but that didn’t mean it came naturally.

  “I’ll bet,” Dax said. “She was in labor for what, ten hours?”

  “Eleven.”

  “I bet she sleeps until tomorrow.”

  “Maybe. I kind of hope so. She deserves it, after that.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t want her here at first,” Dax said quietly.

  “You didn’t know,” Vince pointed out. “None of us did. You had no idea she was an omega. I didn’t even know something like that was possible.”

  “Yeah,” Dax agreed. “But I shouldn’t have let that get in the way. She was carrying your child regardless, and it was pretty clear how you felt about her.”

  “You were thinking of what was best for the pack,” Vince said. “I get it. Honestly, I appreciate it. It’s good to know that you’re not just going to defer to whatever I say because I’m the alpha. I need pack mates who aren’t afraid to question me, because I don’t always know what I’m doing.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about that,” Dax said, smirking. “Between me and Ace, you’ll always have someone around who’s willing to call you out if we think you’re making stupid decisions.”

  “Thanks, Dax,” Vince said. “I mean that.”

  “Don’t get all sappy.” Dax put down the baby he was holding. “I know you’re a new father, but I don’t want to start hugging and braiding each other’s hair here.”

  “All right, okay.” Vince settled his baby back into the bassinet. “Let’s go get some beers and the rest of the guys, then, and we’ll go out on the porch and drink a toast to our growing family. How does that sound?”

  “Pretty perfect,” Dax said. “I was right about you, Vince. You are the perfect alpha for the Hell’s Wolves.”

  “I seem to remember you saying you didn’t think I would be the one to take power.”

  “Oh my God, okay, so I was right and I was wrong. How about ruling with a little benevolence?” Dax cuffed Vince’s shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go and get those beers before one of these babies wakes up and starts hollering for you. Now that you’re a father of eight, it’s going to be hard for you to sneak in any free time for yourself.”

  Vince knew Dax was right. But as he looked around at his sleeping family, he found that he didn’t mind a bit.

  THAT EVENING, HE CRAWLED into bed beside Amy and wrapped his arms tenderly around her, kissing her shoulder, her neck, the line of her jaw.

  Her eyes blinked open. “Hey,” she said sleepily.

  “Hey, beautiful.”

  “How are the babies?”

  “Perfect. They’re perfect. Tommy’s sitting up with them right now. We’re going to take shifts, so they’re never alone and so you and I can actually get some sleep.”

  “I’m going to bake the guys a cake,” she murmured. “In about ten years when I have free time again.”

  “They’re happy to do it,” Vince said. “I know they come across as a bunch of tough guys, but they’re softies at heart. You should have seen Tommy when he sat down in there. It’s maybe the happiest I’ve ever seen him.”

  “I’m really in the family now, huh?” she said.

  “Amy.” Vince smoothed a lock of her hair. “You’ve been a part of this family since the day you came back to Oregon with me. I know it took some of the others a while to get used to it. But I’m the alpha here. I all the shots. I say what this family is and isn’t. And what it is is a group of people brought together—glued together—by love.”

  “Yeah?”

  “And I love you.” He heard the husk in his voice and felt embarrassed. He wasn’t used to communicating such intense emotions. But then, before Amy, he had never felt such intense emotions. The biggest thing he had ever felt before he had known her had been anger, which seemed to sweep through him sometimes with such power and intensity that Vince had often thought the wolf came to the surface specifically to cope with it.

  But the intensity of his love for Amy, and for his newborn babies, dwarfed anything he had ever felt. It was too big to be contained within his body. It seemed to fill up the room, to fill up the whole house. He could feel it wrapping around Amy as she lay in his arms, shielding her from harm. He could feel it in the nursery where the babies lay sleeping, touching each one of them, getting to know them. Anticipating the lives they would have as they grew up, as he watched them become distinct and wonderful little people.

  It wasn’t human, his love for his family, and it wasn’t wolf either. Instead, somehow, it was the best parts of both.

  It was logical, sensible, well reasoned. They were his family. He loved them and wanted to protect them, and he was able to think about how he would do that. He was able to plan for their futures and ponder all the things he would give to them as mate, father, and alpha.

  But it was also primal. Animal. It came from a place deep within him that didn’t demand to be understood or even to make sense. And it fundamentally changed who he was as a person. He was no longer just an angry shifter trying to break free of the rules of a dysfunctional pack.

  He was a family man.

  He was an alpha.

  Amy hummed a little, slipping back toward sleep, and Vince let her go. She had had such a tiring day. He couldn’t believe how proud he was of her. No human woman could have done what she had done—carried eight healthy babies to term, delivered them successfully, and gone on to recover so well from it. He was overwhelmed with pride.

  She’s my omega, he thought. She’s the one I found. Something about me brought out something in her that didn’t exist before we met.

  Maybe it had just been the bite. Maybe the same thing would have happened to any woman who had been bitten by a shifter.

  But Vince didn’t think so. Because surely bites must be more common than human omegas. Shifters claimed by biting, after all, which meant that most shifters who claimed human women would issue a bite at some point.

  Maybe it was because he was an alpha.

  Or maybe it was because the bite had been given in wolf form. It hadn’t been deliberate, the way a claiming bite was. It hadn’t even been planned. He had been frantic, in pain, afraid, and she had been afraid too. He knew that. But for whatever reason, the two of them had reached out to each other that night in the woods.

  Even before we met in the bar. Even before she became pregnant. Even then, some part of me recognized something.

  Maybe.

  Maybe it had all been chance.

  He would never know. Not with complete confidence.

  And at the end of the day, it didn’t really matter.

  He had her here. His omega, after all this time, after all the searching and the acceptance that an omega could never be found. Here she was, in his arms, in his home. The mother of his children.

  She stirred slightly, eyelids fluttering, and Vince realized that she was dreaming. He kissed her neck again, gently, careful not to wake her, and wondered what visions were playing out behind her eyelids. Something nice, he hoped. Something about the children she had just brought into the world.

  “We’ll raise them together,” he whispered softly in her ear. “I’ll teach them everything about my world, and you’ll teach them everything about yours. We’ll watch them grow up. You and me.�
�

  Then, snuggling closer to Amy and wrapping his arms more tightly around her, Vince closed his eyes and allowed himself to sink into dreams alongside her.

  She-Alpha

  Chapter One

  FIONA

  Fiona sat on the roof of the house her father had built, watching the sun set.

  It was the one childish impulse she still permitted herself. Now that she was in charge of the Hell’s Wolves, her responsibilities were too important for her to waste time indulging in the things she used to enjoy. But this one thing...maybe she could still have this.

  Besides, she needed time away from the rest of them.

  “Fi?”

  Damn. She closed her eyes and exhaled, composing herself before turning around. “Yeah?”

  Carla climbed out through the attic window and sat down beside Fiona. “Everyone’s looking for you,” she said.

  “What for?”

  “I think a fight’s about to break out.”

  “Good God. Again?” How many times did she have to put a stop to the same fight? And she knew, without having to ask, that it would be the same one. It had been the same fight for months now, over and over, ever since she had taken her place as alpha.

  As she-alpha. She was sure someone was down there waiting to remind her. As if the position was different somehow just because she happened to be a woman. As if it was less of a responsibility.

  I can’t help that I’m a woman, she thought, not for the first time. And I can’t help that I’m the alpha, either. They need to move on to something else. But female alphas were so rare that she knew she couldn’t realistically expect that. It would be debated, probably for years to come.

  She was just lucky nobody had actively challenged her authority yet.

  Then again, they had to know she was the best fighter among the Hell’s Wolves, and that they wouldn’t stand a chance if they tried to take her on.

  “Okay,” she said, getting to her feet and throwing one last yearning glance back at the setting sun. “I guess I’d better get down there.”

  She crawled back in through the window with Carla on her heels. “What happened?” she asked the younger woman as they made their way downstairs.

  “Percy started shooting off his mouth,” Carla said. “What else?”

  “Of course.” Percy had been second in command before Fiona had taken over. Fiona thought he probably would have left the Hell’s Wolves along with Tank, their old alpha, except that Fiona had ordered him to stay.

  It had felt good to see that order followed, even though it meant she had to deal with people who doubted her ability to lead all the time.

  When she reached the backyard, the argument had already hit fever pitch, and she could see that it was about to come to blows. Percy was standing about an inch away from Wes and screaming in his face. For his part, Wes was standing up to the attack reasonably well, but Fiona saw that his hands were clenched at his sides and knew he was moments away from escalating things.

  “Everyone’s laughing at us!” Percy shouted. “Every other pack in the region has heard that we all submitted to a she-alpha. We’re being led around by a girl!”

  “She’s the best fighter we’ve got,” Wes said, his voice low and dangerous. “She’s the smartest we’ve got. Are you so blindingly insecure that you can’t see your way clear to following her just because she’s a woman? I mean, are you really that pathetic?”

  “Don’t you dare—!”

  “Hey,” Fiona interrupted, speaking sharply and putting the full weight of her alpha bloodline behind her tone, the way her father had done when he was alive. “Stand down, both of you.”

  Wes fell into a relaxed stance immediately and looked to her for instructions, but Percy fought the command for a few moments before complying. Finally, she was pleased to see, he was forced to give in. He looked at her, teeth clenched.

  “We can talk about this stuff,” she said. “I get it. It’s weird. But can we not kill each other over it, please?”

  Percy took a deep breath. She could tell he was trying to compose himself, to arrange his arguments. “We moved too quickly,” he said. “Tank was—”

  “Tank was corrupt,” Wes said. “We had to overthrow him, Percy, and you know it. He was stealing from the pack. He was spending our money on drugs and gambling. He was getting into barfights.”

  “I know that,” Percy said. “This isn’t about Tank. And you know that.”

  “It’s about me,” Fiona said. “We know.”

  “It’s not about you personally, Fi,” Percy said. “It’s not like we don’t like you.” And she believed him. She had gotten along with Percy just fine before. Before she had taken over. Before, in his view, she had made their chapter of the Hell’s Wolves a laughingstock.

  “You’re just bitter because you think you should have been made alpha when Tank left,” Wes said.

  “I’m not bitter,” Percy said. “But yes, okay, maybe I do think that. And I’m not the only one. Leo agrees with me.”

  “Leo?” Fiona asked.

  Leo, who had been standing to the side and looking uncomfortable, shrugged. “I don’t know, Fi,” he said. “It’s like Percy said, isn’t it? I like you. I think you’re a great girl. But a she-alpha...”

  “You can just call her alpha,” Carla said. “You don’t have to say she-alpha every time.”

  “It’s what she is, Carla,” Percy said. “There’s no point in acting like it isn’t true. I’m not saying you’re not strong, Fi, and I’m not saying you’re not a good fighter, or a good leader, or a good decision maker. But there are other responsibilities alphas have. Things you can’t do.”

  “What are you talking about?” Fiona knew what he was talking about, but she was going to make him say it.

  He hesitated. “Reproductive responsibilities.”

  “You’re talking about continuing the alpha line,” she said. “Passing along the gene to the next alpha.”

  “Yeah. That’s what I’m talking about.”

  “And do you have any reason to think I can’t do that?”

  “Just, you know. Women can’t have as many babies in their lives as men can,” Percy said. “You don’t have that many chances to get it right.”

  “Yeah,” Fiona said. “Well, in case it escaped your notice, my father only had one child. And that was me. And that’s why I’m the one who carries the alpha gene. That’s why you ended up with a she-alpha in the first place. So don’t act like guys are perfect at continuing the bloodline.”

  Percy sighed. “I’m really not saying that.”

  “Well, what I’m saying is that I don’t want to see the two of you fighting about this again,” Fiona said. “And if I do, I’m going to give an order that’ll have you on opposite ends of the house for the next three weeks. I’m tired of breaking this up.” She turned and walked into the house, leaving them behind.

  Once inside, she exhaled heavily, leaning against the wall and closing her eyes, trying to recover her composure. So often, discussions with her packmates felt tenuous, and Fiona often worried they could see right through her. She was doing her best to lead the pack with confidence, without letting anyone see that she constantly questioned herself and doubted her decisions. The last thing she needed was for them to see how uncertain she felt all the time.

  Carla had followed her in. “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” Fiona said wearily, grateful for her friend’s presence. She and Carla had been close since childhood, the best of friends, doing everything together. One of the strangest things about her new role as alpha was the fact that she was technically in charge of Carla now. They were no longer, strictly speaking, equals.

  Dad should have prepared me for this, she thought, with a surge of anger. It wasn’t the first time the thought had occurred to her, and it always made her feel frustrated and resentful. She didn’t like feeling that way toward her father, especially now that he was gone. She wanted to remember him only with f
ondness.

  But why hadn’t he ever prepared her for the possibility that she might have to take command?

  If I had been a boy, I would have been trained, she thought. I would have been guided all my life, taught how to lead. I would have been ready. And the others would have been ready to accept me. But because my father’s only child was a girl, the pack decided the wisest thing to do was to find an alpha somewhere else.

  Tank hadn’t even been with the Hell’s Wolves that long. He had joined up when Fiona was sixteen, and had taken control when she was nineteen. Now, four years later, he had all but run their pack into the ground.

  Their financial resources had been decimated. Before, they had had a copious savings account, handed down from one alpha to the next over the years. Fiona had nightmares about how little money was in that account right now.

  And, perhaps even worse, a wedge had been driven between the members of the pack.

  Their ideological differences would get the better of them, Fiona knew, if they didn’t find a way to overcome them. Packs had been driven apart over lesser things. They had just managed to rid themselves of a damaging alpha, one who had been harmful and dangerous to their Hell’s Wolves chapter as a unit.

  What if her own leadership was just as damaging?

  What if Percy couldn’t manage to get on board with the idea of being led by a woman? He already had Leo on his side—Leo, who was young and idealistic and impressionable. How many more members of the pack would he be able to persuade that Fiona wasn’t what was best for them?

  And what would happen then?

  Would there be a coup? Would Percy try to take over?

  She would never willingly cede control of the Wolves to someone else. Not after what had happened with Tank. She knew Percy well, and she liked him, but she couldn’t allow someone else to take the responsibility that had been born into her. She simply couldn’t. It was her pack, and she was the one who would make sure they prospered.