The Alpha's Choice (33 page)

Kat's eyes widened in horror as she looked
down at her dress. It did look like an old fashioned nightgown.
Holy shit. "You mean they were… forced?"

"Yup, and with the whole pack there to
watch." Jo laughed again when Kat paled and swallowed visibly.

"Nobody's going to be watching us, though,
right?"

"Sure. Didn't anyone tell you you'd be
spending your wedding night under the watchful eyes of a hundred
and fifty guests?"

"No!" Tradition was all well and good but
there were some things she simply would not do.

Tilda spit her pins into her hand. "Stop your
nonsense, now," she admonished the laughing Jo, but she was
laughing, too. "There'll be no such goings-on. All of that was
hundreds of years ago. Nobody does that today. Some of the men will
follow you on the Chase, but once you're caught they'll leave you
in peace to do what needs to be done."

"Okay then." Kat nodded her head, relieved,
and then bit her lip worriedly. "Will it hurt?"

Jo cackled at that. "It's a little too late
to play the blushing virgin now, isn't it? As I recall, you even
have some experience being roped and tied."

"Jo!" Kat cried and then whispered, "Not
that. The other."

Charles had explained it to her, showed her
how it would be done, but the thought of it frightened her little.
During the ritual, while they were physically mating, he would bite
her, bite her hard enough to draw blood and at that moment, she
would become part of the pack.

The thought of becoming a true member of this
wondrous society she had discovered thrilled her. It was a
fairytale come true. The idea of running through the wild in wolf
form, side-by-side with Charles, excited her. The biting? Not so
much. She wasn't into pain. A little paddling on the ass didn't
count.

Jo shrugged. "Don't know. Never knew a Mate
well enough to ask. The Alpha from Rabbit Creek will be there with
his Mate, Elizabeth. I guess you could ask her."

"Sure," Kat sighed, "Hi, Elizabeth. Nice to
meet you. You don't know me from Adam. So how was your wedding
night? Did your most intimate moment hurt?" She looked down and
gave the grinning Jo the evil eye. "Sure," she repeated, "I can do
that."

Tilda inserted the last pin and patted Kat's
bare foot. "You'll do fine. With what you two get up to, a little
nibble on the neck shouldn't be a far stretch."

"How do you know what we get up to?" Kat eyed
the woman suspiciously.

"If you don't want folks to know, then you
shouldn't be doing it in the backyard for all and sundry to see.
You forget, darkness isn't the same for us as it is for you. We can
see just fine." Tilda gathered her scissors and loose pins and
placed the pins in the metal box before taking it from Jo and
closing it with a snap.

"Oh. My. God. Is nothing sacred in this
house?" Kat's blush had gone from red to purple.

"It's sacred. It just ain't secret."

"What? What did I miss?"

Jo looked from one woman to the other, but
neither woman was telling.

* * *

The week leading up to the mating was a
relatively peaceful one. Since the incident with River and the
resulting wolf rides, the children had settled down in the
classroom. Mrs. Martin laid down the law in the kitchen, when yet
another glass when flying off the table to shatter on the
floor.

"That's it." She slammed the dishtowel onto
the counter as if she hoped it might make a resounding crash, too.
She marched to the table and began clearing half empty plates,
going so far as to snatch the biscuit out of Ranger's hand. "I'm
done. You can eat pig slop out back of the barn and be grateful we
don't keep pigs." She put her fists on her hips and stared the boys
down. "I ain't cooking one more meal for you. No cookies, no cakes,
no pies," she said glaring at Dakota who liked his sweets. "No
fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy." That was for Ranger,
who couldn't get enough of the crisp and savory treat.

She didn't ignore the girls, either. "No
chocolate chip pancakes for you, young lady, until you hold that
fork like a fork instead of a shovel. And you." She shook her head
sadly as she pointed at Forest. "I'm so-o-o disappointed in you,
Miss Forest. You've helped me in this kitchen. You know how much
work goes into laying out a meal in this house and it don't bother
you atall when it's thrown on the floor? I thought you'd have more
respect for yourself and your hard work.

"So here it is, you ungrateful pups. You can
whittle down to nothing right here on my kitchen floor and I'll
weep when you're gone, but I ain't feeding you one more thing. And
don't go looking at Miz Kat for sympathy, because she ain't got no
say here. This is my kitchen and who I feed is
my
say."

Kat shrugged to let them know there was
nothing she could do. In addition to missing half their breakfast,
she'd give them the morning without their snack and talk to them
before lunch about how to go about changing Mrs. Martin's mind.
They should be hungry enough by then to come to their own
conclusions.

"It's not all about manners," River said from
the door. He ate with the adults now but always took time to stop
by the kitchen. "It's about Miz Kat and Mr. Charles, too. They got
their big mating party coming up and there'll be lots of folks
there looking us over. I won't have you shaming the Alpha or his
Mate with your bad manners. It's time you started acting like
children instead of beasts. You listen to Miz Kat and do what she's
already showed you and no more fussing at the table or I'll be the
one feeding you scraps out behind the barn. You hear?"

Kat pressed her lips together to keep from
laughing out loud. River, the main instigator of this uncivilized
behavior, had executed a complete about face and was now insisting
the heathens attend church.

The children, however, missed the irony as
well as their breakfast and snacks. They were ready to apologize
and promised better behavior well before lunch. Not realizing the
self-incriminating aspect of their performance, they were true to
their word and by supper were using their utensils like old pros,
evidence that they knew how all along or at least from the time
they were first shown.

They weren't the only source of surprise.
Alex returned from the city with the rest of the pack to join in
the festivities. Charles swore he could feel no animosity from any
of them and Kat was happy for him, but she questioned their
sincerity.

"Are you sure they're with you, Charles?" She
knew that some were fence sitters, but surely there were some who
resented the changes taking place. A week or two wouldn't cure
their dissatisfaction.

"I'm not a mind reader, Katarina, but as they
say in the hills where I was raised, my mama didn't raise no fool.
I don't trust any of them, but I have no reason to judge them
either. Alex did what he thought best and since I never insisted he
run decisions by me in the past, I can't really fault him, can I? I
can only tell you what I feel. They're well fed, happy and
satisfied."

"Satisfied with what?" she wanted to ask, but
didn't.

Charles was more relaxed than he'd been since
Alex left and she didn't want to cast doubt where there should be
none. She didn't like Alex, didn't trust him or his loyalty to
Charles, but she also knew her personal prejudices could color her
opinions.

Her initial reaction to Jo was a case in
point. What she thought the woman was and what she turned out to be
were two very different things. Jo had become a dear friend and it
was to Jo she voiced her concerns.

"Now that the mantle has fallen squarely on
his shoulders, could you hide your feelings from The Alpha?"

"Why would I want to?" Jo seemed genuinely
perplexed.

"I don't know," Kat hedged, "I'm trying to
figure out how it works, I guess. Okay. Suppose you were planning a
big surprise birthday party for him. Would he know?"

"Why? Are you planning one? He's coming up on
forty, you know." Jo looked ready to take up her PDA and start the
planning.

Forty? Really? She was marrying this guy and
had no clue how old he was. Was something wrong with this picture?
No! Kat shook her head to clear it of the distraction. "I don't
care how old he is and I'm not planning anything. It's just an
example. Could you hide it or would he know?"

"He'd know I was happy and excited, but he
wouldn't know why. Not unless I kept an image of balloons and a
Happy Birthday sign in my head and even then, he'd have to look for
it." Jo frowned and squinted her eyes suspiciously. "Are you hiding
something?"

"No! But what if other people are, Jo. Who
stands for Charles and who doesn't?"

"Hell, how would I know? That's the Alpha's
business, not mine. I don't want to see it happen, but if he's
challenged, there's nothing I can do to stop it."

"Who can?"

"No one. Once a challenge has been made in
earnest, that's it. There's going to be a fight. That's Pack Law.
But just because someone pisses and moans about some decision the
Alpha's made, doesn't mean they're going to stage a coup. Anyone
who issues a challenge puts their life on the line. It's a fight to
the death, Kat. You don't just wake up one morning and say 'I think
I'll challenge the Alpha today.' And if you win? You sure as hell
better have the majority on your side or you'll be the one facing a
challenge tomorrow. A simple challenge can grow into a tremendous
mess, Kat. That's why there's so few of them."

"Who in the pack is strong enough to beat
him, other than Ryker?"

"It doesn't matter," Jo didn't raise her
voice, but she was shouting in exasperation just the same. "That's
not the way it happens. At least it wouldn't if I was running the
show. I'd find the biggest, dumbest wolver I could. That's who I'd
put against the Alpha. My guy would get beat and I'd put up another
and another until the Alpha can barely stand." She nodded her head
in satisfaction. "Now I challenge him. I attack when he's at his
weakest. I told you before. It's not just physical strength. It's
cunning, too. I'm weaker physically. I'd have to find my strength
in other ways."

"You're not helping, Jo."

"I know and I'm sorry about that, but you've
got to understand, Kat. We're wolvers. We're not human. The
survival of the pack is first and foremost and we follow its Alpha.
The Alpha, not the man. In a good pack, they're one and the same
and a pack that loves their Alpha is a happy and fortunate pack. We
don't have to love the Alpha or respect him, but we are compelled
to follow him for the sake of the pack. Without the pack, there's
chaos."

"So when Charles and Ryker were counting up
those for and against, they weren't talking about one team against
the other." This was more serious than Kat first thought.

"No. They were looking at how many challenges
there would be before the Alpha wins."

"Or before he dies," she whispered to
herself.

Jo punched Kat's shoulder with her fist.
"Buck up there, lady. You're going to be the Mate. Charles doesn't
need your worry. He needs your faith. Tradition says that a true
Mate has more power over the Alpha than any other member of the
pack. Her belief in him gives him strength. That's a tradition I'm
going to believe in. You need to believe in it, too."

Chapter 32

Kat tried to follow Jo's advice. She tried to
keep her mind filled with happy thoughts, but when she had a moment
alone, the darkness of worry would creep in and fill her with such
pain she had all she could do not to buckle under the weight of
it.

She loved him. Oh, God, how she loved him and
the thought of losing what she'd so recently found tore at her
heart and brought tears to her eyes. She wanted to tell Charles how
she felt. She wanted to share this almost overwhelming emotion with
him, but Jo was right. Charles didn't need her worry or her fear,
so she smiled and went through the motions of the last few days
before her mating as cheerfully as she could.

It wasn't always hard. There was excitement
everywhere. Buddy had mown the new grass to a velvet smoothness and
the men were erecting huge tents to shelter the guests. As Jo
predicted, there would be close to a hundred and fifty wolvers most
of whom Kat didn't know. In addition to Charles' small band, his
brother Marshall would be there with his Mate and a contingent of
Rabbit Creek's finest and a few other Alphas and guests from nearby
packs.

She worried about where they'd put them all
if it rained, but no one else seemed concerned. Everyone swore the
day would dawn sunny and warm and stay that way throughout. Kat
could only trust that their animal sixth-sense was more accurate
than the weather reports.

There was no point in holding school. There
was too much going on inside and out for the children to
concentrate.

Forest could always be found in the kitchen
at Tilda's side practicing her newly learned skills. At the
housekeeper's insistence, she pulled her hair back in a ponytail
now and held herself more erect. She was still overly timid and
perhaps always would be, but she no longer quaked with fear when
the men walked by and she sometimes smiled shyly when they
flattered and fussed over her baking.

Meadow, no longer afraid of her Alpha,
followed Charles around like a puppy, and twice they'd found her
asleep tucked up in the kneehole under his desk where she quietly
played while he worked.

The younger boys were bundles of energy that
seemed capable of being in six places at once. Kat finally gave up
trying to keep track of them, satisfied that they were safe under
the eyes of so many wolvers and they always managed to show up to
be fed. Tilda assured her that this was as it should be.