Territory - Prequel (4 page)

The rumble in his voice lasted on
ly
a fraction of a second before his words were cut off as Dell launched himself at his brother.  “Don’t ever fucking threaten
her!”

Briggs didn’t
fight his brother, simply
wrestled with him until another spasm of pain wracked Dell’s body, forcing the Alpha to loose
n
his grip on his younger, yet larger brother. 

Shocked, Briggs looked from Dell to Cindy.  “What’s wrong with him?”

Cindy stood motionless watching the display, her face ashen. 
Oh God…the consequences!

“Cindy!” Briggs prompted when she didn’t answer.

I can’t lose another brother.  I won’t! 
Cindy blinked and swallowed hard
, “He’
s sick.  It happens to all new A
lphas.”

Briggs didn’t scent the lie, but Dell did.  Since becoming Alpha, his senses were heightened, especially where it concerned his pack.  He looked up from the forest floor, his eyes holding Cindy’s for a moment. 

He didn’t have to say anything or communicate through the pack ties, she knew he’d want answers, and he’d want them soon.  “Get him up
Briggs;
let’s get him to the road.”

Briggs tried to ease an arm around his brother, but Dell growled his dissent. 

Alphas
didn’t need help.  He’d requested
their presence as stand
bys o
n the off chance that an enemy or predator were near.  In his current state he was defenseless, and it was Cindy and Briggs
’
job as his siblings and his pack m
ate
s to watch his back when he was unwilling or unable to do the job himself.

Dell sucked in a sharp breath and forced himself forward.  It might take a while, but he’d get back to the road and Briggs’ truck by his own steam.

When Briggs pulled his truck up at the Blackbird compound he threw the shift in park and exited the vehicle crossing to assist Dell. 

Again the Alpha growled at his Beta, shoving his brother’s hands away. 

“What’s happened?”

Three heads looked up, startled to find their mother drying her hands on the hem of her apron at the back door.

“Nothing Mama,” Cindy began, “Dell’s just not feeling well.”

Mama snorted once before frowning at her daughter.  “Don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining young lady.”  Mama waited until Dell limped close
enough for her to
raise his chin with a finger forcing his eyes to meet hers.  “You may be Alpha, but I’m the mother.  Tell me what happened.”

Dell jerked his chin from his mother’s grasp, lifting his head as he strode past, “I don’t know.  I went to see Chloe
and…”

Mama cut him off, “Chloe?  The Lott girl?”  Mama’s eyes quickly scanned Dell’s massive frame, “Did she hurt you son?”

Dell
shook his head, “No she didn’t.  I
t was…something else.”

Mama looked from Dell to Cindy knowingly, her old eyes lighting with a spark.  She followed close on his heels.  “What something?  What was it?”

Cindy forced herself between Dell and Mama, “It was nothing.  He’s just sick, let it go.”

Dell ignored hi
s sister.  “It was some sort of
attack.”  He turned to eye his mother then
, “It hit me so suddenly that I wasn’t prepared.  I was…incapacitated.”

“When?
”
 
Mama demanded, “When did this
attack
hit?”

Dell shook his head, rubbing a large hand over the back of his neck.  “I was at her door.  She’d just answered.  She must think I’m some kind of…” a low growl finished the sentence. 

Mama was reaching for Dell when Cindy’s words halted her.  “It’s just as well.  They are our
enemies
Dell.  There’s no need for you to explain yourself to them.”  Cindy addressed Dell, but her eyes slid to her mothers, “Or any reason to ever see
her
again
, it could only end badly
.”

Cindy didn’t expect the angry growl that tore loose from her brother.  “They are
not
our enemies!”  Dell turned to frown at Briggs, “Call the pack.”

“But brother
…
” Cindy began.

“CALL THE PACK!”

Briggs nodded once and disappeared to do his brother’s bidding. 

***

Lying on her mother’s sofa, Chloe tried to will herself into sleep.  Instead, an endless reel of
the moment her eyes locked with Dell’s
played in a continuous loop
over and over in her mind
. 
She
huffed out a harsh breath rolling to her side, annoyed with herself that she couldn’t stop thinking of Dell. 
They killed your brother idiot!
 

It didn’t matter
and that angered her more than anything because it should have
.  But, t
he peace and serenity she found in his gaze had her yearning for a second encounter.

Sitting up, she shoved a hand through her hair. 
It has to be fatigue
. 

It was the only logical explanation.
  Her brother was dead by their hands
and she couldn’t stop thinking about how warm, relaxed,
and
safe she’d felt in Dell’s presence. 

Shoving up off the couch, she
tiptoed
upstairs to check on her still sleeping mother.  She cracked the bedroom door a mere inch and peeked in, relieved to find her mother snoring heavily.  Pushing the door open further she noted the open bottle of sleeping pills on her mother’s night stand.  She debated taking the bottle for only a moment before she decided she couldn’t fault her mother for needing the sleeping aid.  Hell, she should take a few and finally get some real sleep.

Instead, Chloe closed the door and went back downstairs to start a pot of co
ffee.  If she couldn’t sleep the
n she might as well try to be alert. 

After filling the pot with water and a quadruple dose of coffee grounds, Chloe crossed her arms over her chest and rested one hip against the counter waiting for the
maker to
percolate. 

Her lip curled in disgust as she remembered Cindy’s words,
‘
You can come willingly, or I can make you.
’
  Chloe shook her head in disgust, “I shoulda dropped that bitch on her ass.”

She’d known the Blackbird
s
forever.  W
ell kn
own
of
them.  They were a large family.  There were only four siblings, Mace, Dell, Cindy, and Briggs, but they had countless aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews that also spent a great deal of time at the Blackbird compound.
  Not to mention that they themselves had recently started procreating.  Cindy and her husband Michael had a two year old son, and it was rumored that Briggs
, in a serious relationship of his own, was on the verge of proposing to his girlfriend Jessika.
 

She’d decided years ago that the closeness of the family was one of the greatest contributing factors to the whole shape-shifter myth surrounding the Blackbirds
.  No one
ever
,
ever
encountered a Blackbird out alone.  The family always traveled in packs.  It was odd. 

Chloe’s lips curled into a smile,
Maybe they have social anxiety.  That’
d
explain Dell’s
behavior
today.

She poured herself a steaming mug of coffee and dropped into a chair at the kitchen bar, not bothering with cream or sugar. 
Dell
.
 
God, how she’d fantasized about him.
  When her family had first moved to the a
rea she’d had
the biggest crush on him.  It was her senior year of high school, but the year had come and gone so quickly she never had the chance to approach him.  Not that she would have.  It would have been humiliating.  Dell, like Mace before him and Briggs behind him, was the most handsome boy in his class.  Any Blackbird son had his pick of the school girls, and Chloe hadn’t been confident enough in neither her looks
n
or personality to even think of approaching Dell. 

Her lips quirked again, it didn’t mean she hadn’t caught him checking her out a time or two
, but an exchange of glances across the cafeteria was as far as it had ever go
ne
. 

She remembered coming home from school one spring day to find Donnie pacing on the front porch, “Hey,” he’d yelled as she approached.  “If I catch D
ell
Blackbird staring at your ass again, I’m gonna put him in the ground.”

When Donnie would have had the opportunity to catch Dell checking her out she had no idea, but the
fact
that he
r brother
had
,
meant
that
she
hadn’t
been imagining the glances from Dell.
  She
hadn’t
slep
t
for days after
the revelation
, but Dell graduated early and she hadn’t seen him again for years.  Sh
e’d gone off to college and l
ord only knew where he’d gone.  She hadn’t seen him again until he’d strode into Donnie’s funeral.
  She hated to admit it, but he had actually
grown more handsome.  His on
c
e
unruly
impossibly dark hair
that always seemed to be in his eyes, was now shorn and brushed back without a hair out of place. 
B
ut still black as pitch
, Chloe mused. 
She’d always remembered him as a lithe muscular jock, but it seemed his frame had doubled in size.  He was taller, with much broader shoulders, but cut and well defined. 
Too well defined.
  His mere presence
in the room demanded attention
and female appreciation.

God what would Donnie think? 
As if summoned up by the flash of pain that stole through her and
compressed
her heart in a painful spasm, the dark room suddenly lit with blinding light as
thunder cracked the sky and sent lightening streaking across the heavens. 

Chloe clenched a hand to her chest hoping the pain would pass even as a sob tore loose
,
and like the rain now flowing in steady rivulets down the glass windows, her tears sprang free.

God I hate him
!  I FUCKING HATE THEM!
  It was all their fault.  They had to have everything.  The Blackbirds weren’t used to being told ‘No’, so when her brother had stood firm and protected his wife
they had destroyed him for it.  Chloe squeezed her eyes tight against the pain. 

Donnie and Beverly had been married a mere two years when Beverly had gotten lost in the mountains on a weekend camping trip with the girls.  Donnie had been devastated when he’d heard.  He formed his own search party and scoured the mountain against the wishes of the local
law enforcement.  Chloe had joined his crew and they’d retraced the
parties’
path all the way back to the
campground
.  They’d searched for two days straight before the snow came and forced them back down the mountain.  Donnie had only called it quits because she’d threatened to stay too.

The next morning the police came for Donnie at his mother’s home, they’d found Beverly.  Rather, Mace Blackbird had found her.  She was dehydrated and near hypothermic, but alive.  And that’s when everything changed. 

Mace checked on Beverly in the hospital and continued to do so, even visiting her at her and Donnie’s home once she was well. 
Out of gratitude Donnie didn’
t mind at first, but
Beverly was disappearing to see Mace.  The relationship had all the signs of an affair except for the fact the Beverly swore she and Mace were just friends. 

Chloe knew differently.  She watched them together, saw the way Mace looked at Beverly the way he protected her, the way his jaw clenched when Donnie would touch her.  Chloe had confronted her, telling her that if she didn’t want her brother to let him go rather than string him along. 

‘But I love him’, Beverly had cried.
  ‘With all my soul Chloe,
I love your brother.  I’m just
confused.  I need time.  I want this to work.’

Chloe could tell then that Beverly was losing sleep over the whole ordeal. 

Donnie asked Mace to stay away and he did so begrudgingly.  At first Beverly was thankful, then resentful.  Then it was discovered that Mace hadn’t stayed away at all.  He and Beverly were meeting in secret.