The Dom Protects His Puma [Unchained Love 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (9 page)

“Actually, that’s what I thought, and that’s the way life is for many women in a small pack anyway. You can choose whoever you like inside the pack. Or perhaps whoever you dislike least. So it’s still a choice. It’s not like the pack Alpha just claims all the females as his or something. Although I’m guessing that someone will have to mate with the Alpha, otherwise why would he go to all this trouble?” asked Ramona.

“Once before you said only if it’s a consensual relationship will there be children, Ramona. How does that work?” asked Javier.

Ramona smiled at him.
Trust him to go back and want the missing details filled in.
“A shifter female is only fertile for a short time each year. If there’s not enough food or not a peaceful environment, she doesn’t come into season. That’s nature’s way of not giving her a bunch of babies in the middle of a bad drought or something like that. It doesn’t mean she’ll never have a child of rape, but it does mean she’s unlikely to conceive in a bad situation, such as having been abducted. If she’s torn away from her own pack, she couldn’t raise a cub by herself, so most likely won’t come into season.”

“Which brings us back to Sam overreacting about Leticia then,” said Javier.

“Exactly. I’m beginning to think he’s lost the plot. He’s not paying attention to the needs of the pack because he’s totally focused on his daughter, and she doesn’t need him at her side 24/7. As long as she stays inside this community, with a group of people, away from the gate and the boundaries, she’s very safe indeed,” said Ramona.

“So the pack is turning to Omar to lead them. Will there be a coup?” asked Javier.

Ramona grinned. In the old days, bloodletting and fights to the death had happened. These days, they were far more civilized and fought with words and democratic elections. Nevertheless she let Omar answer.

“Anything is possible, but I’m not expecting that. I anticipate a pack meeting, with Sam being asked to step down. Then there’ll be an election, and several people may be nominated. I’m not the only one capable of leading the pack.”

“It’ll be you,” said Ramona. She knew he was the best man for the job. Likely the only man who could hold together a pack made up of panthers, cougars, pumas, and several half-humans as well. Only Omar had the strength of will and purpose and the ability to think fast enough to carry them safely into the future.

* * * *

“Nicholas, have you kept the names and addresses of the people who rode the horses for that scene we shot the other day?”

“Why?”

Ramona noticed he hadn’t answered her and wondered if he’d seen the same thing as her. “Because I’m almost certain one of the men who rode a horse was a rogue panther. A man with longish dirty-blond hair. He was in the middle of the crowd, fairly well hidden by the other riders, but as soon as I saw him through the camera, I was convinced it was the man at the gate of Carnal Connections that time you shone the lights on the rogue group. At the gate he had a knife. A big knife.”

“Yeah, it’s the same man. I thought so, too, and checked the footage from both films. But the riders were all paid cash in hand, no details taken. I have the details for the horse wrangler, but that’s mainly in case we need the horses again some time. I suppose I could ask him, but I rather thought most of the riders just heard there was a day’s work available and turned up. Some of them may have been our regular extras, but a lot weren’t. Not everyone can ride a horse well enough to race in a pack scene.”

“Like me for instance.” Ramona sighed. “Would you mind if I phoned the horse wrangler? I don’t want to alert him if he’s the blond man’s friend or something.”

Nicholas thought for a moment. “Ask Curtis to do it. Get him to ask for the man’s phone number. Tell him to say there might be several more horse scenes to be filmed in a few weeks’ time. That’s true, by the way. I’m thinking of expanding that scene somewhat. It looks really good on film.”

“Thank you so much, Nicholas.”

Nicholas just waved at her, and Ramona made her way to the tiny room Curtis had claimed as his office. Their boutique movie studio was run on a shoestring. She didn’t mind, as she was able to do a variety of jobs, and it meant the staff was small enough that everyone knew everyone else. Almost like a family.

Family was important to Ramona. The pack of pumas she’d been born into was very small. Too small, really, to be viable. First, her father had left looking for work. She was about ten at the time, and he’d returned every now and then, at longer and longer intervals, until, when she was about fifteen, he’d never come back. It wasn’t long after that the pack had completely disintegrated. One family had moved out of state to join with a much larger pack, and another family had chosen to live as humans. So her mother had decided they’d do that, too. Only for her mother, it hadn’t worked. She couldn’t deny the need to change. Finally, she’d been running in such dangerous circumstances that when she was shot by a hunter, it was just the fulfillment of the inevitable.

Ramona had been totally alone and not able to pay the rent by herself, so she’d sat in the local library and searched the Internet until she was certain a group she’d found on a farm were shifters. It’d taken all her courage to approach them, in the guise of asking for employment, but it had paid off. She’d found a pack that accepted her. And now, almost ten years later, she had a family again—two men she loved and adored with all her heart, plus a job that she enjoyed as well.

She waited patiently while Curtis talked to the horse wrangler. From the half of the conversation she could hear, it didn’t sound like he knew anything about the men. A couple had been cowboys he’d used before, but most had simply appeared at the studio and hoped to work on the day.

Curtis shook his head when he clicked off from the call. “No deal, I’m afraid,” he said.

“I rather gathered that.” Then she thought about something Oliver had said. “He’s a very good rider for a cat. Oliver suggested he might be half-human and that might be why he was trying to form his own pack, because his original pack didn’t want a half-panther. What do you think?”

“I don’t want to be racist—speciesist, whatever you call it—but I agree it’d be unusual for a big cat to be so good a horse rider. Oliver’s got a point. Being half-panther would make sense. It could also be why he’s so determined to get full-blood women. He needs to boost the percentage of shifter, or those genes will die out. If he’s half and marries a human, then his children would only be one-quarter. It’s possible they wouldn’t even be able to shift, the shifter genes would be so diluted.”

“Wow, Curtis, I never thought of that. Good point. Well, at least that means Autumn is safe. It’ll make Sam more paranoid than ever about Leticia, though.”

“You ain’t kidding about that!”

* * * *

Omar couldn’t recall ever being this nervous before. It was as if his whole future was riding on this meeting. And yet that was stupid. Yes, he wanted to be the pack leader. Yes, he believed he’d be a good, fair, capable leader. But it wasn’t like he’d be thrown out of the pack if someone else got the job. Besides, he was smart enough to cooperate with them and follow them. Well, as long as they led more efficiently than Sam, that is. He’d had no trouble following George when he’d been the leader. But despite the pep talk to himself, his insides were so knotted and tense he thought some of his tendons would snap if he turned around too fast. Everything inside him was tight with anxiety. He wanted this job. He wanted to lead the pack. He wanted Ramona. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he wanted it all. But really, he couldn’t see why he couldn’t have it all. He was a leader. It was born and bred inside him. As a Dom he cared for his people and would always look after them and keep them safe.

He forced himself to relax his muscles, one at a time, as unobtrusively as possible. Right shoulder, left shoulder, neck. All the adult males from the pack were meeting in the large barn, the one where community events were held. Calling it a barn didn’t give a listener the right impression, though. It was a barn on the outside, but inside it was a fully furnished, very large room. The pack had pulled a bunch of couches and armchairs together into a circle so everyone could see everyone else and no expression on anyone’s face would be missed. Even with the addition of a couple of cougars and pumas to the panthers, it still wasn’t a particularly large pack.

Omar knew Ramona’s story from before she’d joined the pack and had decided they shouldn’t go back to the farm. It wasn’t big enough for them, and the arrival of a rogue group had shown clearly how hard it was to defend it. They didn’t have all that much land anyway, and if they had to stay away from the boundaries they may as well run around an athletic track for all the freedom it gave them. Whereas here, there were acres and acres of undeveloped land to run in, plus with the new fences, it was as secure as they could get anywhere at all. More secure even.

Sam’s mind didn’t seem to be totally on the job of running the meeting. He seemed to be missing part of the discussion, and his eyes looked blank at times. Could he be going deaf? He wasn’t all that old, though. Early fifties at the most. Or was he just fretting about Leticia? Surely not. She’d be surrounded by the women of the pack. Omar had no doubt at all they’d be having a similar meeting to this one. He was also certain Ramona’s guesses about the decisions made would be as accurate as his.

“Sam, I think you need to make a decision about whether or not we stay here after the rogue panthers are dealt with. Obviously, Carnal Connections has to decide whether or not we are welcome, but they’ve made us welcome so far. Also, people would be free to make up their own minds as to whether or not they joined us here. But overall, I think we need to sell the farm and buy housing here for the pack. What do the rest of you think?”

“We can’t leave here now. It’s too dangerous,” said Sam.

“I agree. But we need to be thinking ahead to when it’s no longer dangerous,” said Omar.

“How can we do that? It may be months before the rogue panthers are taken,” said Sam.

“Omar is saying we don’t have to wait until then. We can talk about it now. I agree with him. We should put the farm up for sale and use the community money to buy in here. Carnal Connections has already provided us with some group housing. The unmated men can stay there, and the families should build their own houses,” said Oliver.

The discussion ranged around the group for a while, but Omar thought no one was seriously opposed to staying here. It was more that Sam just didn’t seem to be ready to make the decision. Therein lay a huge problem. A leader had to confirm the action, ratify it almost, before everyone knew it had become policy. A pack ran on well-defined lines, and people could ignore things they didn’t want to bother about. But once a leader made a pronouncement, that became the rule and everyone obeyed. Yet here was Sam not even seeming to notice he needed to make the statement.

“So, Sam, do you wish to rule that we’ll stay here? Everyone seems to be in agreement,” said Omar, looking each man in the eyes around the group. No one looked away. It was an easy decision. No one would oppose it.

“I–I–I need to go to Leticia. She’s all alone and unprotected. I can’t stay away from her like this.” Sam went to get out of his chair, but Oliver rested his hand on the older man’s arm.

“She’s not alone, Sam. You know perfectly well all the women are together in the house. They’re meeting as a group right now, just as we’re meeting here.”

Sam sank back in his chair, his gaze vacant once again.
The old man really is losing the plot. Facts don’t seem to be sticking in his mind.

One of the older men, Frank, stood up and walked behind his chair, resting his hands on the back of it as if it were a podium. “Sam, you’re not well, and leadership isn’t your best skill, despite the fact your brother was leader and you’re a pure blood, which some of us are not. However, I think the time’s come to hand the reins of running the pack over to Omar. He’s young, strong, and knows what we need. He’ll be a suitable leader. What do you think, Sam? Are you ready to retire?”

“I–I would like to retire. I need to stay with Leticia. You’re right, Frank, Omar can run the pack. Leticia’s my first priority. She’s my only child, my beautiful little princess. Since her mother died she only has me to care for her. I need to be both mother and father to her.” For a brief moment Sam seemed to be back the way he’d been before the rogue panthers appeared. He sat straighter in his chair, his eyes cleared, and he spoke firmly. “Omar shall be your Alpha. That is my will.”

All around the circle men bent their heads and nodded to Omar.

Omar felt the burden leave his shoulders. That was crazy. The burden of leadership should have just settled on his shoulders. Yet he felt the reverse was true. Now he was officially in charge, he could finally get things moving in a positive direction. The dragging waste of time was over. His world could move into the fast lane again, and things could begin to be achieved.

“Thank you, Sam. You know everyone here will protect Leticia, and Serena and Verity, and Autumn. All of them will be in our care. You’re not alone. I promise to do my utmost to keep the entire pack safe and healthy, to make our lives peaceful and harmonious,” said Omar. And he would. He really would. He wanted to do that with every breath he drew. “Are we agreed we request permission to stay here permanently then? We sell our farm and use the money to buy and build homes here?”