The Alpha's Choice (43 page)

"I stand for those who stand for me," he
shouted to them all and he raised his hands above his head to bring
them home.

A scream echoed through the trees and Charles
paused and waited with his arms raised and his Mate supporting his
unsteady frame.

Alex, his muzzle showing flecks of blood,
trotted to his Alpha and bowed low, his allegiance proven and
clear.

The yard was suddenly engulfed in light as
Charles brought his Wolf's Head Pack home.

"We stand with those who stand with us," his
wolvers shouted.

"I stand for my Alpha and the Wolf's Head
Pack," Alex, ever formal, declared.

Charles nodded his acknowledgement. "I never
doubted it, Second."

"If you had lost…" Alex continued but Charles
cut him off. Some things were best left unspoken.

"I know. It's why I chose you as Second. You
stand for the good of the pack."

Chapter 42

"Ow! How's a man supposed to eat when you're
stabbing him with that thing."

"From now on, it's Big Baby instead of Big
Bad. I've never seen such a whiner. This isn't easy for me either,
you know." Kat clipped off another knot of white thread and pulled
the remaining stitch out of his thigh. It wasn't true. It was much
harder putting them in than taking them out.

Meadow giggled from her perch on an end table
where she sat cross-legged with a plateful of rare steak on her
lap. She stabbed another chunk with her fork and offered it to
Charles.

"Open, Papa, eat."

"Use sentences Meadow. You're a big girl."
Since the battle, Meadow had begun to speak, mostly to Charles, and
Kat insisted she learn to do it properly.

"Big Bad, Big Girl, Big Meanie," Charles
laughed, pointing to each in turn.

Meadow giggled and Kat tried to frown, but
she only made her face look funny and Meadow giggled all the
more.

"You're spoiling her, Charles," she said as
she removed the last stitch and patted his thigh.

There would be a scar on his neck and stomach
as well as his leg, in spite of her best efforts to sew a fine
seam. The healer could not heal himself, but when it was suggested
they call his brother to do the job, Charles refused. He said he
wanted a reminder of what he could have lost. Kat needed no
reminder. It was all around her. Every day.

"We spoil each other and now that these
damned stitches are out I can spoil you, too." He wiggled his
eyebrows suggestively.

"I'm looking forward to it."

And she was. In the days since the battle
they had little time to themselves and what intimate time they had,
needed to be carefully choreographed. If Charles split more
stitches while they were in bed, they'd never hear the end of it.
It was little enough, but Kat was grateful for every moment of
it.

River needed care and not just for his wounds
though they were serious enough. The bruising and swelling over his
abdomen and side were the result of his damaged liver and
spleen.

Charles had taken care of the worst of it and
stopped the bleeding from the gunshot wound, but knowing what he
had to face, he had reluctantly agreed with Rawley and left the
rest to nature. As it was, the necessary healing had depleted his
magic, though his total exhaustion had been a ruse to fool an
overconfident Leon, something Charles' wolvers recognized and
played along with.

River still felt responsible for endangering
them all, even though he'd been assured by everyone that the plot
would have come about eventually. Stephanie would have seen to
that. She'd already attempted the kidnapping once before when
Rhonda had inadvertently told her the women and children were alone
at the house. He seemed to come around a bit when Ryker pointed out
that if it hadn't been River, who could take it like a man, it
might have been Kat or one of the cubs who wouldn't have survived
that kind of beating.

The Alpha needed caution. He tried to do too
much too soon and split his amateur stitching twice. Kat pled and
Mrs. Martin scolded and Ryker finally threatened to tie him down if
he didn't take up a post on the sofa and stay there.

Forest was the hero of the hour. She'd run
back to the house alone in the darkness of the tunnel and awakened
Mrs. Martin. Together they'd gone out and found some of the
others.

It was Rhonda, the one they all thought was
not so bright, who placed Stephanie at the center of the trouble.
Stephanie had bragged a little too much, though Rhonda never
suspected it was anything more than talk until Kat and the cubs
were taken.

Jo, along with Hyatt and Tanner, followed the
tunnel and the trail left by Kat and the boys. The two men made
short work of the guard at the back of the bunker and Jo led the
cubs home.

"The hardest part about it was keeping Dakota
and Ranger quiet. They wanted to go back and join in the fight." Jo
laughed when she told Kat about it later. "Those wolvers hurt River
and made their sister cry. Those two boys were hell bent on
revenge. It would have served the bastards right if I'd sent the
little demons back. I hope they're around to give my kid a little
bit of the beastie someday."

"Your kid? Someday?" Kat asked with a laugh
of her own. "I thought pups were a sticky fingered pain in the
ass."

"Oh, they are and they still start out too
tiny, but Ryker and I talked and, well, if I don't like them, Ryker
says I can just turn them over to you and Mrs. Martin."

Jo's mating to Ryker was only a week away and
Tanner and Rhonda would be mated the following month and Kat had a
feeling there would be more to come. Their pack would be growing,
not only through the recruitment of families, but through families
born of the newly mated pairs.

The indomitable Mrs. Martin was in her
element with her scolding and cosseting and feeding of the
revolving residents of Hell Hall. Buddy now ran with the pack and
Kat loved him as the brother she never had. She was his Kitty
Kat.

Alex would never see her as his Kitty Kat nor
would she see him as her bosom buddy, but they had learned to
respect each other's position and Kat would forever be grateful to
him for doing what must be done and relieving Charles of the burden
of doing it. She couldn't love Alex, but she would never again
question his loyalty to the Wolf's Head Pack.

* * *

Kat ran her fingers over the puckered marks
at the back of Charles' neck. Four small scars made by the rogue's
fangs, four tiny punctures that could have taken him away from her
forever.

She'd waited for him, naked and kneeling on
the carpet in the center of their room, hoping for a night of play
now that he was fully healed. Charles happily agreed with her
plan.

Now, he captured the hand and pulled it away,
carrying it to his lips where he kissed her palm. "Don't," he said
gently, "Don't think about what might have been, kitten. Think
about what is and what will be."

Kat smiled and when he released her fingers
she brought them to his chest where she began unsnapping his
western style shirt. As each button popped from its mooring, she
separated the fabric and kissed the spot beneath.

"Easy for you to say," she whispered, her
lips against the blond curls that tickled her nose. "You didn't see
that night from my perspective." She moved to the next button. "You
knew you had reserves of magic. I didn't."

Charles ran his fingers through her curls. "I
told everything would be all right." His breath hitched when her
lips found the reddened line that backslashed across his ribs and
abdomen.

She pulled the shirt up and out from the
waistband of his jeans to finish her unbuttoning. "That's what the
hero always says right before he thinks he's going to die."

The buckle came next. It was a big buckle,
oval in shape, with a wolf standing tall and howling at the sky
embossed in the silver. It fell heavily to the side as she released
the catch. The button and fly were undone and spread to continue
her kisses along the scar's full length to where it ended just
above his hip.

"But I never had any intentions of
dying."

"The hero never does."

She slid the jeans and silk boxers beneath
down over his hips and his erection sprang free. It bobbed in front
of her nose and she went to captured it between her lips, but
instead… she burst into tears.

"Well damn," Charles laughed hoarsely, "I've
never had that reaction before. I always thought it was pretty good
looking… as penises go."

Kat knew he was trying to make her laugh and
she tried but it came out a sputter that turned into a sob. She sat
back on her heels and covered her face with her hands, unable to
stop the pent up fear and terror she'd held in her heart from
pouring forth.

"Hey now, hey." Charles kicked the jeans from
his legs and cursed when the bunched denim caught on his foot. He
freed it and kicked the offending jeans to the side and then he was
on his knees in front of her. "What is it, kitten, what's wrong?"
His hand was shaking as he ran it through her curls. "Tell me."

She tried. Each time she opened her mouth to
speak, fresh sobs erupted.

"Delayed reaction?"

She nodded her head and wailed. Not once
since River disappeared had she cried, not when they were taken and
she feared for the children's safety, not when she worried about
Forest's possible return to the thing she feared most. When River
was shot she'd felt as if her heart was ripped from her chest and
when Charles faced off with that brutal rogue, with her new found
happiness crumbling beneath her feet, she'd faced it passively with
false courage. Even with a gun to her throat, she'd given no sign
of the panic she felt. Her hands never shook with her terror as she
stitched Charles' deep wounds.

But it was there, hiding inside, and this
simple act of playfully undressing her mate brought it home. In
that one night, her fairytale turned into a nightmare. She'd come
so close to losing it all.

Charles let her cry while she blubbered and
mumbled and hiccupped her way through it. When she was finished and
there were no tears left, he wiped her eyes with his shirt and made
her blow her nose. He lifted her to her feet and she slid up his
body until her head rested on his chest. She wrapped her arms
around him and clung to him, her liferaft in the storm.

He let her rest there for a moment until her
breathing slowed and then gently moved her away with his hands
beneath her arms. He kissed her eyes, her nose, her cheeks and the
corners of her mouth.

"I'm a mess" she mumbled and would have
turned away, but his hand held her head firmly in place.

"Yes, but you're a beautiful mess and you're
my mess and I'll be forever grateful for the day I found you
swimming naked in my pool."

Kat tilted her head and brought her mouth to
his in open invitation, an invitation he accepted as his tongue
plunged within. She whimpered, still not quite past her teariness.
Charles' arms tightened around her and pulled her close to press
her breasts to his chest.

His erection felt warm against her belly. She
needed him, needed that warmth inside her, reassuring her that they
were both alive and their future was bright. The Alpha's magic
coursed through her, warmer and richer than before because she now
knew how precious it was, how easily it could be extinguished.

Kat pulled away and led Charles to their bed,
the bed where they would laugh and play and snuggle and talk and
someday create children together and share the richness of their
lives until they were old and gray.

This was her fairytale and he was her Wolf
King, the Master of his Domain and the Captain of her heart. He was
her Happily Ever After. He was her Alpha and she was his Mate.

#####

About the Author

Jacqueline, known as Jackie to her friends,
lives in rural southern Ohio with one lovable husband, one spoiled
dog and one disinterested cat. She believes coffee is a food group
and always has a pot brewing. When not writing, she can usually be
found with her nose in someone else's book or working in her
garden. She also spends a great deal of time chasing deer and
rabbits who apparently also like gardening.

Jackie loves hearing from her readers and is
always willing to chat. She can be reached through her website at
http://jacquelinerhoades.com
or at
mailto:[email protected]

Thanks for reading
The Alpha's Choice
.
I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Reviews at your place of purchase are always welcome.

Paranormal Romances by Jacqueline
Rhoades

Available at
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And all other major ebook retailers

The Guardians Of The Race Series

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Guardian's Hope #2

Guardian's Joy #3

Alpha's Mate Series

The Alpha's Mate

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Book 1 of the Guardians of the Race

This was a mistake. Grace knew it when her
best friend Alice cornered her at the elevators after work and she
knew it when Alice dragged her, protesting, into the little
apartment that shared a landing with her own to dress her up in
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