Sworn to the Wolf (19 page)

“My father was in a Pack, he just chose not to live with them. He affiliated his child with a Pack as was his responsibility, even if he should have done more. Those wolves who belong to no Pack at all are feral and if they encroach on the territory of an established Pack without permission they’re executed. We’ve existed as long as we have because we keep our numbers low. We have a system of sophisticated laws. Without order chaos breeds and that gets us killed.

“We don’t attack humans unless we’re changing them and the change is limited by our laws to those Mates of natural wolves. Those wolves who violate that must be eradicated.

“I’m the Pack Lieutenant. I’m the chief lawkeeper. It’s my job to enforce discipline should anyone step out of line. If a feral comes into our territory it’s my job to hunt and dispose of him if necessary.”

He stood and pulled her back into bed with him. “Get back to bed, woman. I miss you.”

“I’m hungry. All of this thinking is so hard!” she teased, acting dumb.

“I’ll make some popcorn. And, baby? If we have a daughter she’ll be raised to be the best she can be. Maybe she’ll be the first unmated female Lieutenant. But female children are very rare. In fact, Cherchez is very unique to have two sets of twins and four female children. Before Helene and Tomas there hadn’t been a set of twins born in any Pack for over a hundred years.” He kissed her lips quickly before jumping up to get popcorn started.

“I still think it’s ridiculous that females get such a bad deal. I think I should sit on the gender equality committee.” She followed him out into the kitchen.

“You think it’s a bad deal to be my Mate?”

She snorted. “Don’t you change the subject! If I was a wolf and hadn’t found my Mate I’d have no status at all, is that correct?”

“Well, unmated females have a special status, because they’re unmated and a part of a Pack. Unmated females are actually a hot commodity and Packs offer them incentives to get them to join.”

“Oh goodie. So they’re like air-conditioning or a sunroof. But could they decide to challenge and move up?”

“No. And you’re making it sound worse than it is.”

“No I’m not and you know it. The system is utterly dumb. Cripes, no wonder Paloma is such a bitch. I’d be a bitch too in her place.”

“It’s the way things are.”

“Oh the dreaded
way-things-are
line.” She waved her hands around animatedly. “The way things are holds no water with me, buster. Slavery was the way things were for thousands of years across many cultures. We know it’s wrong now, don’t we?”

He sighed, defeated. “Yes we do. You should be more active in shifter politics if you’d like. You won’t have to work anymore. That is, you have time to devote to painting now instead of having to work a day job just to afford to paint,” he said, making the save at the last minute.

“What? Oh I hadn’t thought of that. Painting full time? What a luxury. Really? You wouldn’t mind?”

“I love you. More than that, I’m a rich man. Making you a rich woman. And yeah, partly due to community property and all but I’m sure you’d do the same for me in your place. Plus when you become a star and you get rich with your painting you can be my sugar momma.” He pulled her to his body and wrapped his arms around her waist. “You’re incredibly talented and have two shows—just two of many in your future—to get ready for. I’m happy that I can do this, that we can do this. I admit that I love the idea of you working here at home or at least at the lodge.”

She smiled at him and kissed his shoulder. The scent of his body rolled over her and she shuddered as a soft moan broke from her lips. “Thank you. Oh!” she said brightly, hearing the bell of the microwave. “Popcorn is ready.”

He chuckled and padded over to get it. “Go on, get back in bed. I’ll be there in a sec.” Moments later he brought a bowl of popcorn and two large glasses of ice water.

“Membership has its privileges,” she said, finding her place against him as they ate the popcorn and watched a movie.

Chapter Eight

Anthony Vargas was an irritated man. An angry man. Julia had quit her job without any notice and no one knew where she’d gone. Fucking flake.

She’d arranged with her boss to give her last paycheck to Harrison Watts to cover any outstanding bills. The other roommate was a gay guy who appeared to be totally clueless. Anthony hated gays, thought they should be rounded up and sent out of the country. He shuddered.

No one had seen her with any men and Harrison said she had dated a man only once or twice that he knew of, the guy from Portland. Anthony had combed Portland from one end to the other and hadn’t heard a damned thing about Julia, or Rain, whatever the hell the bitch was going by these days. He’d had to hire some outside people to check things out.

Mile after mile of tree-lined roads lulled him. His only thoughts were vengeance and getting back what was rightfully his. The ringing phone startled him out of his reverie.

“Yeah?”

“Got a lead, boss. Seems that she was an artist or painter or whatever. She’s got an upcoming show. A place called The Holt Gallery. Do you want me to dig around there?”

“No, I’ll do it. Good job, Pete.” He hit the
off
button, wearing a cruel smile. Oh he’d find that bitch and
after
he beat her within an inch of her life he’d drag her ass back home and marry her. His place in the organization would be cemented and he’d remind her what the penalty for disobedience was every chance he got.

* * *

Rain appreciated Laurent’s wake-up calls. She smiled to herself, wearing an ear-to-ear grin as she sat drinking her coffee. Even better, his long fingers stroked the back of her neck idly. Hellie was currently ensconced on his lap and Tomas and Devon were sharing Rain, a kiddo on each thigh. Sean sat with his namesake across the table as his own children scarfed up breakfast with their mother.

“Hi, you must be Rain!” A woman threw her arms around Rain, nearly knocking her out of her chair. “I’m Ellen! Kari has told me so much about you. Welcome to Cherchez Pack.”

Oh.
Her.
“Hi, Ellen. Nice to meet you.” It wouldn’t do to take an instant dislike to the woman, who seemed pretty nice. Two adorable children ran into the room, the little girl, who looked to be about eight, jumped into Perri’s lap and the boy, who looked to be about four, headed out to the lawn with the other children who’d finished eating and scampered out to play.

Ellen indicated the gorgeous man with her. “This is James. Don’t mind the black eye, he got it at practice this morning. It’ll be gone in a few hours.”

“Practice?”

Laurent leaned over toward her. “James plays hockey for the Canucks.”

“Cool! I love hockey. Although I have to admit I’m a Maple Leafs fan,” Rain teased.

“Well, we’ll have to fix that! You know anyone who can get you perfect seats at a Maple Leafs game? ’Cause you know someone who’ll get you great seats every time you come to town to see the Canucks play,” James countered.

“That’s very generous.” Laurent draped his arm around the back of Rain’s seat and she realized he was jealous. This from the man who’d fucked the woman currently standing in front of Rain! After that, Laurent was jealous of the dude with the black eye? Men.

Ellen got to her knees and rubbed her face along Rain’s knees, followed by James.

Laurent explained when he saw Rain’s confused look. “You’re higher in rank, a part of the Inner Circle of the Pack. James and Ellen are showing their respect by greeting you this way.”

“Oh. Thank you.” She reached out and touched both of their heads and caressed their jawlines as she’d seen Kari do.

They both smiled at her and got up to grab food. Jade and Tomas came into the room and a river of children followed their grandfather who grabbed a plate of toast and bacon and scurried back out, children in his wake.

A tall, regal-looking man with hair of burnished gold came into the room. “You must be Rain. My brother has told me so much about you. Although he couldn’t have begun to describe your beauty accurately.” He dropped to his knees and rubbed her knees with his face and kissed her hands.

Laurent growled and the man laughed. Laurent pulled her tighter against him. “This is Alex, he’s Alek’s brother. He’s a general pain in the ass and for a long time I wouldn’t have trusted him as far as I could throw him but as it happens he’s a pretty decent guy. Although one who needs to move his face out of my wife’s groin or risk permanent disfigurement.” Laurent underlined that by leaning over Rain’s shoulder and smacking the top of Alex’s head, both of them laughing. What was funny about smacking the crap out of someone Rain didn’t know but they both seemed to think it was hilarious so she just rolled her eyes at Kari, who snorted.

She caught sight of Drew and Janine and they both hugged her and then showed their submission to her, which freaked her out, but she got that it was a culture she had to learn a lot more about.

A woman with long braids came in next. “I’m Lissa. Pleased to meet you,. I’ve seen your art by the way and I think it’s amazing.”

“You have? Thank you. Where did you see it?”

“I’m an intern at The Holt, I saw it there. In fact, I brought you some samples of the mailer they want to send out for your show. Diane wants you to pick one and get it back to her. She doesn’t know you’re here, she just knows that Andreas knows you,” Lissa quickly added when she saw the panicked look on Rain’s face.

“Whew! Thanks, Lissa.”

She met the rest of the Pack, so many wolves she lost track of names and faces. “Wow, full house,” Rain said, taking in the crowd.

“Another reason to be glad we live away from the lodge. It gets so chaotic in here during a Gathering,” Laurent said quietly, pulling her close. His breath on her neck sent shivers through her. He noticed his effect on her and chuckled, biting her ear lightly.

“I’m going to get you back for this later you know,” she said to him in an undertone.

“I’m counting on it.” He picked her up and placed her in his lap. “In less than ten hours you’ll transform, Rain. Are you excited?”

“Excited and scared both. Curious too.” She wriggled into his lap, stroking across his cock with her ass. She threw him a look over her shoulder and he grinned back at her.

“I can’t wait to run with you. I’d hate living in the city. Here we can walk fifty yards away from the house, change and run through miles and miles of safe wilderness. I thought I’d go insane in Tokyo last year. There aren’t words to describe what it feels like to run through the wild, wind in your fur, the loam of the forest floor under your paws. It’s wonderful to do it with friends but to experience it with you? I can barely stand the wait.”

She turned to face him, straddling his lap. “I can’t wait to share it with you.” She leaned in and nibbled on his neck and he growled with disappointment when she stood up. “I’d love to keep grinding on you like a dollar dancer but we can’t do anything now, the children are all around.”

He nodded with disappointment but brightened a moment later. “You’re right, baby. Perhaps we can meet back at our cabin in say...” he looked at his watch, “...fifteen minutes?” He looked at her but before she could answer Phillip came over and whispered in Andreas’s ear and Andreas got up and left the room. Laurent got up to follow. “I’ll be back.” He kissed the top of her head and Kari came over and sat next to her.

“Yeah, that happens. Just when you think you’re going to get lucky they go off and do some soooper sekrit guy stuff in the office.” Kari snorted. “Listen, I want to warn you that Paloma might try to present to Laurent tonight at the Gathering. Some coupling between non-mated wolves will happen, it always does. Not that you need to worry about it from Laurent. He’s in big love with you. Still, you need to guard your territory, and by that I mean Laurent. If any female gets near him tonight kick her ass. If you make the first lessons harsh enough you won’t have to make them as often later.”

“You sound like you speak from experience.”

“I do. I had to kill a female the night of my transformation. I blooded her and she wouldn’t back off. She pretended to give up and attacked me from behind. Andreas is Alpha, he’s a target for females all the time. It gets old but I guard my fenceposts, you know? Unless you don’t mind sharing it’s part of the gig. The higher ranked and more powerful the wolf, the more attractive he’ll be to others. But he’s your Mate and that’s obvious from a hundred miles away. He loves you.”

“The Mate thing is so cool. Laurent was telling me about the bond ritual thing last night and it’s beautiful. I love being a part of something so special. It makes me feel wonderful.”

“I think so too.”

“What isn’t wonderful is how shafted females get in werewolf culture. I mean, has anyone stopped to think that if unmated females weren’t in such a catch-22 with respect to lack of position that they wouldn’t cause such upheaval in the Pack? And yeah, so generally men are stronger than women but does that mean that it always has to be a male in charge, especially in the Inner Circle? Look at Hellie, she’s brilliant! How can she automatically be left without position until she finds a mate? Why not Hellie as Second or Alpha?”

“You’re preaching to the choir, sister. This is a major issue now. In fact, there’s a Supreme Council of Wolves here in North America and this is something being debated right now. You know, I’m a delegate—well, in Andreas’s name of course—but I’ll be traveling to St. Louis next month to go to a meeting there, you should come as well. Get involved.”

“Really? I’d love to go and be involved. I’ll be having my show at the end of the month but after that I’m free for a bit while I build up stock for the next one.”

Laurent walked back into the room and leaned to speak in her ear. “Rain, can you join us in the study for a bit?” She took the hand he offered and followed him into the office with Kari right behind her.

“What? What’s going on?”

“Anthony Vargas came to The Holt today asking about you. He now knows that Andreas knows you. This isn’t a registered address but we’ll need to be on the lookout for trouble. Andreas is going to call him back tomorrow afternoon after I speak with your father. I don’t want to worry you but I didn’t want to hide anything from you either.”

Rain shivered. Damn that bastard! “Okay. We’ll deal with it as it comes. I won’t let either of them ruin my life.”

“You’re my wife. No one is going to harm you.” Laurent growled and put his arm around her waist.

“They’ll all protect you with their lives,” Kari said, stroking a reassuring hand over Rain’s hair. “Plus you’ll see tonight just how kick-ass strong you are as a wolf. You can take care of your own bad self too.”

“But of course she should leave it to her husband,
the professional and highly skilled bodyguard
, to do the work,” Andreas said, looking at Kari.

“Yeah, yeah. That goes without saying. But you know, a girl has to be prepared to protect herself at all times because things can and do happen,” Kari said and Rain nodded in agreement.

“I feel good this morning, slimy ex-boyfriends notwithstanding. I’m going down to the studio to work for a while.”

Laurent got up. “I’m coming too. I love to watch you work. I promise to behave myself.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” Rain laughed and they both walked out, hand in hand.

* * *

Laurent worked on his laptop and read the paper while Rain painted. The atmosphere was perfect for her. The light was incredible and Kari had really worked to make the cabin into a very comfortable studio. It touched Rain that the Pack had gone so far out of its way to make her feel at home, to accommodate her and ease her way. It felt good to belong to something.

The growling of her stomach alerted her to a need for a break several hours later. She cleaned her hands and put her paints away. When she came into the studio from the deck she saw Laurent had fallen asleep on the couch. Kneeling next to him, she kissed his temple but he didn’t wake. The late afternoon was cool so she walked over to their cabin to grab something to cover him up with. But as she was leaving the front porch on her way back he ran toward her, panic on his face.

“Rain! Where were you?” He grabbed her into an embrace.

“I just came over to get this afghan. You were sleeping and I didn’t want to disturb you. Hey, what’s wrong?” He hugged her so tight she could barely breathe.

“I woke and you were gone. I thought... I just wanted to be sure you were all right. With Anthony sniffing around I don’t want you wandering around alone, especially not until you’ve transformed.” He kissed her face, the top of her head, each eyelid, and the sweetness of his worry ignited the lust that lay coiled inside each of them.

Somewhat urgently, Laurent reached down and pulled Rain’s shirt off, tossing it to the earth behind him.

“Inside,” she gasped out.

“Give me a second to undo my pants.” He groaned, working at his zipper.

Rain laughed. “Well that inside too, but we need to go inside, we’re on the porch.”

Laurent looked up and focused, noting where they were. Grabbing her hand, he yanked her inside and they made it as far as the couch.

* * *

An hour later they made their way back up to the lodge to grab something to eat. “Lunch has come and gone but Anna always leaves sandwiches in the refrigerator for stragglers. Sit down and I’ll get us some and bring them out.” She enjoyed the view as he went through the doors to the kitchen.

“Looks as good going as he does coming,” Emma said with a sigh and sat down next to Rain.

“Yeah. Honestly, I never in my life imagined that a man who looked like him would even give me a second look. Now I’m married to him. Life is good.” She laughed.

“I know, this place is like hot guy central. Even better, they’re all so attentive and sweet. Heck, I was this bookish doctor, very shy and restrained, and I had the major hots for this psychiatrist who came to the hospital twice a week. He and I had coffee a few times, I had major fantasies about him. When I was alone, in the dark, in my apartment. Late at night with my battery-operated boyfriend. But suddenly, out of the blue, he asked me out. I was shocked.