Just a Taste of Me [Wolf Creek Pack 2] (15 page)

“And what if I don’t want to give Keeley up?” Reece questioned.

“You have to understand, Alpha, this entire thing balances on your mating Adrianna and providing cubs. If you’re mated to
him
, you can’t mate with her. You can’t provide cubs. If that happens, this deal falls through.”

“There are other ways to provide cubs, Douglas. Surely you know that. Why can’t I keep Keeley and have Adrianna by my side at the same time? There are cubs without families, and there is certainly modern technology that can assist us if need be.”

“Alpha—”

Reece stood up, cutting Douglas off. He walked over to the liquor cabinet and poured himself a drink, taking a small sip before turning back to stare at Douglas. “I’m getting rather tired of this conversation, Douglas. I have no plans to give Keeley up, ever.”

“But—but—” Douglas sputtered.

“I want to know who’s involved with this little scheme of yours and I want to know now,” Reece said as he nodded towards Nate. “My friend, Nate, here is going to make sure that you don’t lie to me.”

Keeley held his breath as he watched Joe and Nate walk over to stand behind Douglas. Nate took a deep breath, reached for Joe’s hand then laid his other hand on Douglas’s shoulder. Keeley saw him wince, his body sagging a little before Joe’s arms encircled him, holding him up.

“Now, who’s involved in this?” Reece asked as soon as Joe nodded to him.

“I don’t know,” Douglas replied.

“Lie,” Nate stated simply, getting a frightened look from Douglas.

“No, I’m not lying, I swear,” Douglas said quickly in a strangled little voice.

“Lie,” Nate said again.

Reece raised an eyebrow. “I want the truth, Douglas, and I want it now.”

“Alpha, I—”

“Look, Douglas,” Reece said as he walked back over to sit down. He rested his hand with the glass of whiskey on one arm of the chair. The other softly stroked through Keeley’s hair. “I like Keeley. I think he’s cute. He also makes a nice little—pet, don’t you think?”

“Pet?” Douglas asked in surprise.

Yeah, pet?
Keeley thought. It was all he could do not to glare up at Reece. Instead, he pinched Reece’s leg, hiding it by wiggling around.
Pet, my ass! I’ll show you pet.

* * * *

“You certainly don’t think I could see him as anything else, do you? He’s a human,” Reece smirked, hoping against hope that Keeley knew he didn’t mean a word of what he was spewing. The pinch to his leg from Keeley didn’t bode well for him.

He could see Joe’s eyes widen with surprise, and Nate’s face was in shock as well. Yeah, he knew it. He was digging a mighty big hole. He just hoped his shovel was big enough to dig himself out.

“But—but, he’s your mate,” Douglas exclaimed in disbelief.

“Yes, he is, but as I said, he’s a human. I am not. I’m a werewolf, the alpha of my own pack. He may be my mate, and I have claimed him, but he will never be a werewolf. You know that as well as I do,” Reece replied carefully.

It was all Reece could do not to roll his eyes as Douglas sat back in his chair, looking somewhat more comfortable. “My friend Joe, here understands, don’t you Joe? Nate is his mate, but since he is also a human…” Reece said, smirking at Joe’s sudden look of panic.

“Certainly, I understand. A mate is a mate. We crave them like we do air. I wasn’t stupid enough to pass up on my mate when I found him. However, he is also a human. My father, the alpha of my pack, would never accept a human in our pack anymore than I would. So, I claimed Nate and made him my pet,” Joe replied.

Reece could see Joe giving Nate’s shoulder a tight squeeze as he spoke, Nate’s lips twisting as he tried to keep from speaking. He turned his attention back to Douglas, surprised by the satisfied look that had come over his face.

“This happens more often than you think, Douglas. I know of several werewolves that have taken their human mates as pets. It stops the constant craving we have to find our mates and lets us get on with the business of running our packs,” Reece said.

“Accepting them as full mates in the pack is something altogether different, though,” Joe added. “That’s why we make them our pets. Since we are stronger and smarter than they are, they soon learn to do what they are told.”

“And you just want to keep him as your pet?” Douglas asked hesitantly.

“Keeley, stand up,” Reece ordered, hiding the grin that tried to break out by biting his lip. Keeley leveraged himself up then gave Reece’s skin
 
a small pinch in retaliation. “You tell me, Douglas? Does he look like someone that could rule by my side?” Reece asked even though he thought Keeley was the perfect mate to rule with him.

Douglas was quiet for a moment as he stared at Keeley. “No, I guess not.”

“Truth,” Nate said, getting another strange look from Douglas.

Reece grabbed Keeley’s hand and pulled him down to sit in his lap, wrapping one arm around him. He softly caressed his hip with his fingers as he took a drink of his whiskey. Setting the glass on the small table beside him, he looked back at Douglas.

“He’s cute. I like him and he does what he’s told—unlike you, Douglas.” Reece pointed to Douglas, shaking his finger at him. “I’ve asked you who made these plans and you’ve done nothing but lie to me. Are you going to let some human be more honorable than you, a werewolf
and
upstanding member of my pack?”

Even though his words were a load of crap, Reece had the satisfaction of seeing Douglas’s face pale. “I had thought better of you, Douglas.”

“Oh, Alpha Reece, my sincerest apologies. I just didn’t understand how things were. If I had known how you truly felt, I certainly would not have withheld any information from you,” Douglas replied quickly.

“Truth,” Nate stated again.

“Does he have to keep doing that?” Douglas asked. “It’s very strange. I promise I won’t lie to you again, Alpha.”

“Truth.”

Reece nodded at Nate, who released Douglas and stepped back. “While I accept your apology, Douglas, I do have to let you know how disappointed I am in you and the others involved in this plan to mate me to Adrianna. Not because of the plan, but because you didn’t discuss it with me. How am I supposed to effectively lead this pack when those around me make plans without my knowledge?”

“That wasn’t our intention, Alpha, I swear. These plans were in effect long before you became alpha here. We were just waiting to see what kind of man you were before we discussed them with you.”

“And now?”

“Well, I don’t think I can speak for the others, but if you’re serious about considering Adrianna ruling by your side, I believe it would be better to have your support of these plans,” Douglas said.

“Then tell me, what exactly are these plans and how do they involve me?” Reece asked, trying not to let on how much he already knew. It wouldn’t do to show his hand to Douglas before it was time.

He watched Douglas look around the room at the other men and back at him. “Are you sure it’s okay to speak in front of them?”

“I trust these men with my life, Douglas. If they don’t hear it now, they will once you leave and I discuss it with them. Might as well cut out the middle man and have it all out now.”

“Very well,” Douglas replied. Reece could tell that he didn’t like the idea. “We made these plans before you became alpha, with our old alpha. He was originally supposed to mate with Adrianna, not you.”

“Was she his mate?”

“Oh, no, but we needed him to mate with her. Everything hinges on that.”

I’ll just bet it does
, Reece thought. “So, what exactly is this plan?”

“Our alpha, you in this case, is supposed to mate with Adrianna and they will rule our pack together. This deal will only be cemented once she has given birth to the first of your cubs.”

“And the deal?” Reece asked. It was hard to keep from gritting his teeth. He had asked what the plan was so many times he felt like a spinning top. He just wished that Douglas would get on with it and explain the damn plan.

“Adrianna is part bloodsucker.”
Duh!

“Oh? And part werewolf, I assume. Unless—she’s not human, is she?” Reece asked, sounding very disgusted.

“Oh no, no. She’s half bloodsucker and half werewolf. We made a deal with her coven to provide werewolf blood in exchange for money and territory for our pack,” Douglas said quickly.

“Werewolf blood?” Reece asked, trying to sound curious rather than nauseated.

“It’s a bloodsucker aphrodisiac. They love the stuff, even more than human blood. If we provide them with a steady supply of werewolf blood, they’ll pay us in gold, enough gold to buy up all of the surrounding areas to add to our hunting grounds.”

“And just how do we go about supplying them with werewolf blood?”

“A breeding program.”

This time Reece was surprised. “A what?”

“A breeding program. It’s simple, really. One full-grown werewolf can supply five bloodsuckers with blood for up to a year if used correctly. If we start a breeding program, add members here and there to the pack then we can average about five to ten blood donors every year. That will feed up to fifty of them a year.”

“That’s a lot of blood donors, but how are we supposed to supply them while we wait for the breeding program to mature? It’s not like we can grow donors overnight,” Reece remarked, trying not to show his distaste with the whole idea.

“That’s where our former alpha messed up. He was trying to find humans to supply them while we tried to get the breeding program under way. Barring that, he was using our own members, but we went through them too fast.”

“That’s why we no longer have three hundred members,” Devlin
 
said in a low voice.

Douglas turned to look at him, nodding his head. “Yes, that’s true, but he never touched the core members, you understand. Our families are off limits to the bloodsuckers. That was part of our deal with them.”

“The core members?”

“Those of us that came up with the plan. We do not have to participate in the plan nor do any of our family members. Originally, it was the alpha’s plan, but he needed our help. It wasn’t something he could do on his own, you see,” Douglas explained.

“Who are the core members then? If I’m to support this plan, I can’t have just anyone in my inner circle, Douglas,” Reece said quietly, hoping to finally learn the identity of the pack members who had devised this sickening idea.

“Well, most of them you’ve met in the three months that you’ve been alpha here. Others wanted to get a feel for you before meeting you. There’s my family, of course, and my brother’s family. Basically, besides us, it’s the five founding families of this pack.”

“But that’s half the pack, Douglas,” Reece replied, quickly doing the math in his head.

“Actually, it’s nearly twenty members altogether, which is why we need this breeding program so badly. Our families are off limits. We’ve almost run out of donors,” Douglas replied, turning to look at Joe, who was still standing behind him. “Unless, of course, you would like to get in on this. How many members do you have in your pack?”

“Enough to get things started until you get the breeding program under way, but I’d have to discuss this with my alpha before I could give you the go ahead. He’d want to know what’s in it for him. In the meantime I could give you a few names to get you started. There are a few members of our pack I wouldn’t mind seeing disappear,” Joe replied.

“And the remaining members of the pack? What about them?” Devlin asked.

“They don’t know anything about this, and we’d prefer to keep it that way. The less people that know, the less we have to share,” Douglas replied as he turned to look at Devlin.

“So, how does this work exactly? You invite them over for dinner and they just never go home or what?”

“Something like that,” Douglas snorted. “Actually, our old alpha had a plan. He was just starting to get it going when he was challenged. Each family had to submit their child to a
secret ritual
to be fully accepted into the pack on their eighteenth birthday. If their blood was good enough, they got taken and their families are told that they were not accepted into the pack so they were banished.”

“And if their blood wasn’t good enough?”

“They got sent back to their families to provide cubs in the breeding program. The alpha also lowered the mating age so that we could get to the breeding program started as fast as possible.”

“And you’re sure that no one else knows except the core families? If I agree to this plan, I don’t want to share,” Reece said. Then there was that pesky little thing about being totally disgusted by the whole idea.

Reece couldn’t believe the gall of these people. Did they actually think they could sell off the members of an entire pack and no one would be the wiser?

“Oh, no, Alpha, I’m positive that no one else except the core members know. It had to remain a secret. If this got out we would never have any blood donors.”

Reece nodded as if he understood, which he didn’t. The whole plan was an absolute nightmare. He couldn’t believe that in this day and age anyone, even werewolves, would come up with a plan as vile as this one.

“I do have one last question, Douglas. What does this plan have to do with my mating Adrianna? Why is it so important for her to lead by my side? Can’t we just implement the breeding program without her?”

“You know, I wondered that too, but Timmins told me that Adrianna’s brother is the leader of their coven. He insisted that Adrianna be included in the deal. He wants someone he trusts in charge of things here.”

Reece was quiet for several moments while he digested Douglas’s words. Finally, he nodded his head as he lifted Keeley to his feet and stood up. “I need to discuss this with my friends here, Douglas. I’d like you to stay here with Devlin while we step outside for a moment.”

Douglas nodded. Reece could tell from the eager expression on his face that he truly thought he had brought his alpha over to his way of thinking. Reece shook his head as he grabbed Keeley by the arm and pulled him out of the study.

Everyone except Douglas and Devlin walked out. Reece shut the door and pulled Keeley into his arms, burying his face in his hair. He just stood there for several silent moments while he held Keeley.