The Alpha's Daughter (38 page)

Griz left the motor running in his hurry to
get to Jazz. His shoulders were hunched, his head lowered, his
powerful hands clenched into fists. Power rolled off him in waves.
Her grizzly was on the attack.

Jazz held out her hands to both the Alpha and
her soon-to-be mate. "Mr. Seaward was just leaving."

"You called," Griz growled.

"No," Seaward said, "I want to see my
son."

"You heard?" They weren't even mates yet and
he'd heard her!

"We don't want any trouble," the Alpha was
saying.

"I just want to see my son. I want to hear
the truth from him." He looked at Jazz and nodded.

She nodded back and smiled. "He's good," she
said to the Alpha, "Go for it, Tiger," she said to the man who was
willing to listen to the truth.

"I thought I was going to have to pull you
out of another fight," Griz said, letting go of his breath.

"See? I'm improving," she laughed.

Seaward shook his head. "Her father's still
trying to auction her off. God help the Alpha who gets her."

"No Alpha is going to get me," she said.

Griz laughed in relief and put his arm around
her. "Too late. She's already mine."

Seaward looked at the couple and then at the
Alpha. He shook his head again. "I hope you know what you're doing,
old wolf."

"Body's shot to hell," the old Alpha told
him. "Head still works."

"Glad to hear it. Come on, you sly old wolf,
tell them to open the door. I want to see my son."

"Alpha?" Jazz called.

"What is it?"

"Tell Brad he needs to tell his father the
truth." Then she turned to Seaward. "Tell your cub you love him. He
needs to hear that, too. And for God's sake, call him Brad. He's a
wolver, not a thing."

Seaward looked like a different man when he
came from the meeting with his son. He looked older and drawn. Jazz
offer him the chair the Alpha had recently vacated, the Mate
hauling him off home.

"You got a mating to see to tomorrow. You
need your rest."

Tonight's excitement had turned him gray.
Jazz made up her mind to remain human tomorrow even though
tradition said she should run as a wolf with her mate. The old
Alpha needed to conserve his power and what little strength he had
left.

Though he only squeezed her arm and nodded
solemnly, it was as if Griz read her thoughts.

"Here." Jazz handed her beer to Seaward.
"It's cold. I just popped the top. You look like you need it more
than I do. If I had something stronger, I'd offer it."

She waited until he was seated and had taken
a long draw of his beer before she asked, "So? How did it go?"

"You know damn well how it went," he
said.

"I was trying to be polite!"

Seaward laughed and shook his head much like
Griz did. "I didn't think you knew the word." He turned to Griz.
"Do you know the kind of mouth she's got, Doc?"

Griz gave a what-can-you-do kind of shrug and
shook his head. "I know."

She done it intentionally, to get his
attention, but Seaward didn't need to know that.

"What is this, a bobble head convention? I'm
trying, okay? I'm learning," Jazz laughed instead and then she
sobered. "Just like you."

Seaward took another draw of beer. "I wasn't
outcast, you know. I went rogue by choice. I couldn't stand the
rules, the confinement. I felt closed in. My mate, she's a Mary,
too, came with me." He looked at Jazz. "By choice and she pregnant
with Brad. Cho, I mean Jeremy, was six." He sighed. "I never wanted
to be an Alpha, never saw the need. I wasn't looking for a pack. I
only wanted to live free. We set up on that ridge and other rogues
started coming by. If they lived like we lived, I let them stay.
Others, I ran off and yeah, sometimes I wasn't nice about it." He
smiled at Jazz. "I know. The way we earn our keep isn't what you
folks consider honest, but we do have a code and we do honor Pack
Law." He hung his head and seemed to fade away. "At least I thought
we did."

Jazz laid her hand on Seaward's arm. The
comfort appeared to rouse him. He took a deep breath and looked
Griz in the eye. "I had forty-two wolvers up at that camp.
Seventeen of them are women and twelve of those are mated. They
live rough, but they're good with it. The other five are…" He
looked at Griz and then at Jazz. He shrugged and said pointedly,
"By choice."

Jazz nodded that she understood.

"This past year, Cho, I mean Jeremy, brought
in a few others. He started making runs on his own, with his own
crew. I was happy he was taking on some responsibility. Mary, she
tried to warn me, she tried to tell me, but I wouldn't hear it. I
didn't know about Opal." He said the last firmly, looking only at
Griz, who nodded his belief.

"I believe you. You're not the first she's
hid it from. Brad's the one who gave her the courage to leave. He's
a good man, a good wolver," Jazz told him with sincerity, "And I
think he got it from his father."

Seaward downed the last of his beer and set
it firmly on the arm of the chair. "This ends tonight," he said
with conviction and then he said to Griz, "My son, Brad," he
clarified, "Wants a different life. He wants this one. He's got his
own tow truck. It's honest work."

"I'll talk to the Alpha," Griz told him, "I'm
sure he'll agree and we need the young blood. I hear there might be
a few others," he said in is typical offhanded manner.

Seaward nodded, hearing the message. "I'll
let them know. We chose our lives. They should have the same
opportunity." He stood and stretched. "Thanks for the beer."

"You're very welcome and you come back and
visit now," Jazz told him. "Bring that little mate of yours and
I'll make you some supper. I'd love to meet your Mary."

Seaward laughed at what he thought was her
exaggerated politeness and turned to Griz. "You need to teach her
that you don't invite the bad guys into your home."

"She already knows that Seaward. You're
welcome here any time."

Boss Seaward, bad guy rogue, gave them both a
salute before he hoisted a leg over the Harley.

"Crime pays," Griz muttered as Seaward drove
away.

"Only in money," Jazz said as she laced her
arm around his waist. "I wonder if he'd let me take his bike out
for a spin."

"I knew you had an ulterior motive for
inviting him to dinner," her grizzly laughed. "What am I going to
do with you, Hellcat?"

"Hey! Give a little, get a little. It's how
the world works."

"Have I told you today how much I love you?"
Griz asked as they stood together on the porch.

"You've never told me at all," she said
quietly.

"I haven't?"

Jazz shook her head.

"Then it's time I did," he said, turning her
in for a kiss. "I love you, Jazz Phillips."

"I know," she whispered as she met his
lips.

Just as she'd daydreamed, Jazz and her
grizzly sat silently together enjoying the quiet of the night on
the porch. It wasn't exactly the same. They weren't side by side in
their respective chairs. Griz filled the larger of the two rockers
and Jazz filled his lap. Her legs hung over the arm and her head
rested on his shoulder. She liked this version better.

"Griz?" she called to him, her voice just
above a whisper.

"Hmm?"

"I've been thinking."

"Oh, oh." She could hear his laughter rumble
in his chest. "My father always told us to beware of thinking
women."

Jazz looked up at him and frowned. "I thought
your mother was a thinking woman."

"She was. Hence the warning." He smiled down
at her and kissed her nose. "What about?"

"My father never cared about mating me off
before. Why now? I'm no spring chicken, you know."

"No spring chicken?" he chuckled, "How old
are you? Twenty-five, twenty-six?"

"Almost twenty-eight," she said.

"Ah, almost over the hill. I'm glad you told
me before I took my bite." He touched the spot on her neck where he
would seal their mating. "I've still got time to find a younger
model."

"You could find a younger model, but you'd
better tell her she'll never have pups." She wiggled into his
crotch to emphasize her meaning. "I only meant that he could have
mated me off ten years ago, so why wait this long?"

"And the answer is?" he asked in a game show
host voice.

"I think he's sick. I think he wants the
future of his pack settled before he dies. Actually, I think he
wants to control it after he dies. How does the Alpha and Mate
thing work?" she asked, seemingly changing the subject. "With
breeding, I mean."

"Wolver Bio 101. Alpha plus Mate equals pups
for the pack. Want me to demonstrate how that happens?" His hand
crept to her breast and she slapped it away.

"I'm serious, Griz. Everyone talks about how
the Alpha needs a Mate for the pack to breed, but doesn't it make
more sense for it to be the two of them together?"

"What's this about?" he asked, suddenly
serious.

"I think my father's sick. I think he's been
sick for a long time only he just figured it out. I think that's
what brought all this on. He had no need for an heir before. He
does now."

A comforting hand moved over her shoulder.
"Aw, Jazz…"

"No, Griz. My father never gave a shit for me
until he could use me. His death will be no great loss. It's the
pups, Griz. I remember him smacking Margie around because she
couldn't give him a son. I didn't get it then, but she was
screaming back at him that she wasn't the only one. I thought she
meant my mother, but now I think maybe she meant other woman in the
pack weren't breeding either. I never paid much attention to pups,
Griz, but I think the birth rate was off there, too." When He
didn't speak, she went on.

"It was my wolf. She got me thinking. She
wasn't impressed with the Alpha." Jazz was glad it was dark. Even
with his night sight, he wouldn't see her blush. It was
embarrassing that her wolf would even have such thoughts. "She said
she wouldn't mate someone like him. Weak sire, weak pups. That was
her unasked for opinion. How long has the Alpha been sick?"

"I need to call Marshall," Griz said,
sounding excited. "He was there. My mother lived for a few years
after my father passed and Marshall had no Mate. There were births.
I know there were, but how many? Marshall never said anything about
miscarriages, but why would he? It's not something guys talk about
and I wasn't a doctor yet. I need to call Marshall," he repeated
and started to rise.

She put her hand on his chest. "No you don't.
It's the middle of the night in Rabbit Creek and I know you. You'll
talk to your brother and then you'll have to talk to your other
brother and they'll give you the names of other Alphas who might be
able to help and you'll have to call them and they'll give you
other names and before you know it, you'll be on the phone
scribbling your illegible notes all tonight and tomorrow.

"Tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night are
mine, Griz. We're going to be mated and I'm not sharing you with
anyone until we are. I'm only going to do this once, Papa Bear, and
I want it to be perfect." She wrapped her arms around his neck and
pressed herself into him.

Griz laughed and pulled her back into his
arms where he rested his chin on the top of her head. "You're
awfully bossy, baby bunny."

"I learned from the best."

"Oh, God, Griz. Please!"

Jazz thrust her hips up and back searching
for the release she so desperately wanted. It was a futile search.
What she wanted was just behind her, pressing into her backside in
a tantalizing tease; so close and yet so far from where she needed
it to be. She buried her face in the satiny cover of the down
comforter Griz had left for them at the Point.

This was their mating night and her damn bear
was drawing it out beyond all reason. He loved doing this to her,
bringing her to the climactic edge over and over, using his
talented hands and mouth, plunging into her with that enormous
erection, driving her up and up… and then easing her back down
until she was left panting, but without release.

"Please!"

Griz ran his hands up the center of her back,
spreading them out over her shoulders in what should have been a
soothing massage. Jazz was too far gone for that. With his last
playful foray into the kingdom of her body his army of lustful
tricks had pushed her beyond the edge of orgasm and into the land
of insanity. She wanted him now!

Her wolf, the smug bitch, was enjoying the
torment. She would gladly suffer anything to have the great beast
as her mate.

Jazz was in estrus, ripe for impregnation and
horny as hell. In sync with the full moon, it was a devastating
combination. She knew it last night and so did Griz. The subtle
scent of it had to have driven him crazy, but he'd refused to touch
her.

She'd tried to entice him, using every
inducement she could think of. She'd even knelt before him on the
bed and brought herself to orgasm while he watched. He loved it
when she did that for him and normally it would have resulted in a
roar and his pouncing on her, eagerly driving her to another orgasm
as he reached his own. Last night, he'd only watched and enjoyed
and left her wanting more.

"I want to save my energy for my mating,"
he'd laughed when she'd made her frustration abundantly clear.

Well, he'd certainly done what he set out to
do. His energy was driving her to distraction.

This time when Griz's hands slid up her back,
they traveled down the length of her arms until his hands covered
hers. His mouth played over the spot on her neck where he would
make his mark and make her his.

"Are you ready?" he whispered.

"Yes, damn you!"

"Then tell me what you want. Use my
name."