The Tiger's Mate: (Book 12, Grey Wolf Pack Romance Novellas) (6 page)

Chapter Ten

Parker greeted Simone at the door to the Alpha’s house.  Under the gaze of Carrick, he gave her a friendly hug, only frowning slightly at her scent.

“Where the hell have you been?” roared the Alpha, descending on them like a giant bat.

Simone ignored Nita, who was standing a few steps behind the Alpha, smirking like five Christmases had come at once.  Surprisingly, Nita’s mate, Asher was also there.  He was standing behind his mate staring into space.  Probably pretending he was somewhere else Simone thought, jealously.  Nita was the only one who looked happy.

Her tiger quailed a little under the Alpha’s ferocious stare, but Simone kept herself composed.  “I was in a car crash… I almost died,” she added to try and get the message through that coming home late was a small matter in the scheme of things.

The expression on the Alpha’s face told her it would have been better if she had.  She quickly went through the edited story of what happened.

She tried to hold back the shudder as the Alpha stepped towards her, crowding her space.  The smell of sweat and male tiger almost made her want to vomit.  He was barely an inch from her, and she felt his breath on her as he sniffed.

The Alpha growled.  “You smell like wolf.  Male wolf.”

Don’t let him bully you, she told her tiger, instinctively trying to shy away from the brute power of the Alpha.  “From the male who saved me.”

“His scent is all over you,” he sneered.

“He pulled me out of the car… it’s destroyed, by the way,” she said, trying to change a dangerous subject.  “But his pack gave me a check to cover the cost, they left the name blank so you could put your name on it.”

She started pulling a piece of paper out of her purse.  The Alpha tore it out of her hand and ripped it into tiny pieces, letting them flutter to the ground.  I don't want any wolf’s charity.”  He moved away from her and started pacing.  “Why didn’t you call us?  Where’s your mother?”

Simone took a deep breath and tried not to sound too mocking.  “I was unconscious after the car crash.  And my mother had to stay in hospital – they wouldn’t let me bring her home.”  Which was sort of true.

“I told you to take the Beta with you,” he howled.  “Why did you go on your own?”

“I tried knocking on his door, but there was no answer.”

The Alpha narrowed his eyes; he searched her face for any deception.  Simone tried to look guileless.  Technically, it was almost true.  If she had knocked on the Beta’s door, it was doubtful he would have answered.  He was given to late nights and drinking himself into a stupor.  He rarely rose before noon unless he had to, and since Simone had left at 6 am – there was no way the Alpha could be certain she was lying.

“You should have come to me,” he said eventually.

Simone hung her head, giving him an inch of submission.  “I’m sorry, Alpha. You are right.  It won’t happen again.”

He made a few more growling, grumbling noises, but he seemed appeased that she hadn't actually tried to run away.

“I’m really tired, can I go?”

He glowered for a little while longer, but eventually he said, “Yes.”

“What?” screeched Nita.  “But she stayed out, and she…”

The Alpha gave her a sharp look, and she quieted.  “Take your mate home, son,” he said to Parker.

Simone avoided looking at Nita.  She could feel the heat of her displeasure; she didn’t need to see it.  The fact that she was annoyed was probably the only bright spot of the day.

Carrick wordlessly led the two of them out.  He nodded at Simone and his jaw ticked, which she supposed was his approximation of a smile.

Parker waited until they were in the safety of their own house before he turned to her.  “You sure you’re okay?”

She shrugged, and her tiger grumbled that she was far from okay.  “I’m fine, considering.”

“I wish you’d called.  My dad… well, he’s been going nuts.”  Parker gave her a playful tap on the shoulder.  It was the closest they ever got to affection.  “Thank fuck Carrick offered to get you, I don’t want to think about what my dad might have done.”

“How did he know where I was?”  It was something that had been niggling at her.

“I think he put a tracker in your car.”  Parker shrugged like it was an everyday, normal kind of thing to do.  Instead of creepy.

She guessed Carrick must have seen where she crashed and followed her scent.  Simone shook her head sadly.

“You know how he gets when a female tries to leave the pride.  It’s just the way he is.”

Parker said it in such an offhand way that Simone’s tiger ground her teeth.  Why was he okay with the way his father behaved?  Parker couldn’t have been happy with the situation.  He wasn’t interested in females, yet he seemed content to pretend to be mated to one.

“How can you defend him?” she snapped, and her tiger bared her fangs.

“I’m not defending him,” said Parker, wearily.

“But you’re okay with the way we live – pretending like this?!”  The house she had lived in for the last four years suddenly seemed so small, and constricting.  She didn’t feel like she could breathe there anymore.

Parker glared at her.  “I thought it suited us both.”

Yes, she supposed it did – at first.  They had been friends growing up, and everyone had assumed that they would be mated, but neither of them really wanted that.  Parker had no desire for a female mate and Simone wanted… well, she just didn’t want a tiger mate.  She wanted to be free to do what she wanted.  However, her bid for freedom at eighteen-years-old, merely involved falling head over heels for a human in town, only to have him screw her and then dump her straight away.  Freedom wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. 

She had confessed everything to Parker in a moment of teary weakness.  She was no longer a virgin, and since the Alpha insisted that all females be virgins upon mating, her indiscretion would have meant punishment.  And she feared what that meant.  Patrick, he Beta was vicious at best, and often punished parents for cubs’ errors.  Given Patrick’s desire for her mother, Simone feared the worst.  So she and Parker had come up with a plan to mate one another.  She escaped punishment and another mate who would treat her like a slave, plus it meant the Alpha would pay her mother’s medical bills.  And Parker had a mate so he didn’t have to worry about what his father would do if he knew Parker was gay.

The arrangement was satisfactory enough.  But that didn’t stop Simone trying to make plans to get away from the pride.  And now that she had met Acksel… no, she couldn’t possibly go on like this.

“Parker…” she tried in a softer tone.

He looked pained.  “My father’s a powerful Alpha; he has friends in the Supernatural Enforcers Agency.  Our life here… it is what it is, and it isn’t going to change so we should make the best of it.”

“But…”

“You really do smell like male wolf.  You should go and take a bath.”  Parker gave her a pained look before he walked away.

Simone nodded as her tiger hung her head.  She couldn't blame Parker.  He was no different to half the tigers in the pride.  He was too afraid to go against the Alpha, so he just accepted the crappy aspects of his life and got on with it.  She'd been doing the same thing for a long time - too long.

As she walked upstairs, she pulled the check from Acksel’s pack out of her purse.  Her Alpha had ripped up a leaflet she’d picked up from the hospital about symptoms of fatigue.  Her eyes wandered over the generous amount of money, and she bit her lip.

Chapter Eleven

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” snarled Acksel.  His wolf snapped his jaws together.

The four enforcers stopped and stared at him in surprise.  Mal Tanner tried to smile, sheepishly, but then thought better of it.  “I’m sorry, I…”

“Sorry?!” growled Acksel.  “You’re a fucking hour late!  It’s the third time this week.”

Mal’s eye twitched in annoyance, but he managed to contain his anger.  “My pup’s been sick this week.  He hasn’t been breathing properly, and we were worried about him.  Because he’s premature and half human we were worried about his lungs and…”

“The poor thing,” said Felicity, quickly trying to get Mal out of the line of fire.  “Is he going to be okay?”

“The doctor says so; he thinks it’s just a bad cold.  My mate has it, too now.  Terri can barely lift her head, never mind take care of our pup.”

“You go home and look after them; I can cover your shift.”

Mal’s face lit up.  “Really?”  Then he looked at Acksel’s glower, and uncertainty returned.

“You should go.  Wouldn’t you agree, Acksel?” said Felicity, pointedly.

“Whatever.”  Acksel huffed and turned away.

He could see Felicity’s furious head nodding, telling Mal to get out before Acksel changed his mind or worse.  He knew he was acting like a dick head.  But honestly, he didn’t give a fuck.  It had been over four days since Simone left and he was in a perpetual bad mood and dealing with a near-mutinous wolf.  Anyone who got in his way better watch out.

He looked at Felicity, who was maintaining a wary distance.  He looked at the other two enforcers.  Their eyes widened, and they ran out of the hut.

“You sure you don’t mind covering for Tanner?” he asked, gruffly.  He was an asshole, but he did have a duty to his pack.  His wolf didn’t seem to care about that anymore, but Acksel still had a small, lingering sense of responsibility.

“No, I got it.  You’ve practically been working non-stop these past four days, I can handle things if you want to go home.”  She held her breath to see if Mt. Acksel was going to explode or not.

He scowled – a near permanent expression these past few days.  Yes, to try and distract himself he had thrown himself into his work.  Although that might not have been a good thing.  But the other alternative was hanging around his family’s house and snapping at his sisters – and he couldn’t take Britt crying anymore.  Course, now he was tired and angry, and instead of just being an ass he had turned into a raving, lunatic of an ass.

Acksel relented and nodded at Felicity.  Which was as close as she was going to get to thanks at that moment in time.

He left the enforcers’ hut; making the two enforcers who had been hanging around outside scatter.  Yeah, they learned quickly.

Acksel looked around at the darkening woods.  He could go for a run.  His wolf would like that.  But his wolf couldn’t exactly be trusted at that moment.  He was so het up that he might go on a rampage and leave a trail of dead bunnies from here all the way to Mexico.  He could try and get some sleep.  His animal snorted.  Yeah, he was so restless there was no point in trying.

He knew the answer.  Alcohol.  A few beers would dull the pain, and maybe if he was lucky, he might actually pass out.  Problem solved.

Yeah, all his fucking problems would be solved.

*

“Beer,” Acksel growled.

Andy, the bartender, raised an eyebrow.  “Don’t you think…”

“No.”

“You’ve already had…”

“I can count.”

Andy didn’t look like he was going to budge.  Acksel sized him up.  Andy was a black bear shifter and mated to the Alpha’s sister.  Andy was pretty big, Acksel guessed about six-foot-ten.  But he was generally good-natured and not prone to violence.  Acksel considered that if he wanted to, he could take him.  And at that moment, his wolf wanted to – more than anything.  His whole life he had been a good man, a good wolf, but now it was like something had snapped.

He was glaring at the bear when someone slapped him on the back.  A growl rattled in his throat as Hans dropped onto a stool next to him.

“I don’t want company,” Acksel muttered.

“Yeah, well, I never fucking want company.  That never stopped you sticking your fucking snout into my business.  So you can fucking suck it up.”

In spite of himself, a snort of laughter escaped him.  “If this is your idea of a pep talk…”

Hans curled his upper lip.  Acksel realized that as angry and miserable as he looked, he could never do it as effortlessly as Hans did.  Acksel had to try to be a jackass.  Hans was born that way.

“I’m only here because my mate thinks that I might be able to cheer you up.”  Acksel raised his eyebrows and Hans held up his hands in protest.  “Hey, I love her, but she’s not always right.”

“I don’t want to talk; I want another beer.”  He eyed the bear again, and his wolf snarled.

“Thank fuck for that.”  Hans nodded at Andy for two beers.  Reluctantly, Andy supplied them.  Although there seemed to be an unspoken communication that Acksel was now Hans’ problem.

They drank in silence for a couple of minutes.  The silence was swollen like an overinflated balloon and begging for someone to puncture it.

Surprisingly, Hans did.  “Why don’t you just go after her instead of acting like a fuckwit?”  Hans really missed his calling as a therapist.

Acksel shook his head as his beast chuffed at him, wondering the same thing.  “She made it clear she didn’t want to be with me; she snuck off in the night.”

“And you’re letting that stop you?  Never thought you’d be a coward.”

“What?  Are you kidding me?”  His wolf barked in fury.  “When you met Melanie, you spent weeks denying she was your mate.  You had one of the sweetest women in the world falling for you and you treated her like crap.”

He expected an eruption from Hans, but his brother just shrugged.  “You think Simone’s your mate.”

Acksel stared at his beer.  “My wolf does.”

“Then what the fuck?  Haven’t you learned anything from my mistakes?”

“What?”

“You’re right, I did fuck up with Melanie, and I was just damned lucky that I didn’t lose her.  I just wish I’d had someone to tell me I was acting like a shit for brains moron.  Might have saved a lot of heartache for her.”

Acksel actually chuckled.  He’d been trying to talk sense into his brother for years.  “Like you would have listened.”

“You’re acting like a dick.  You need to go after her,” said Hans, ignoring him.  “If not for your sake, then for your enforcers.  It comes to something when they actually come to me for help.” He actually sounded offended by that.

“I don’t even know her last name.”

“You slept with her without even knowing her last name?”

“Seriously?  You used to sleep with women without even knowing their first name.  And I didn’t actually think she’d run away before I got the chance to ask.  Unlike you, women never run from me.”

Hans smiled, baring a lot of sharp teeth.  “Until now.”

Acksel punched his brother’s arm.  Hans stumbled a little, but it didn’t seem to bother him.  “Man, you must be mad.  You didn’t even do that when I was eighteen, and I wrecked our car.  Remember that?  We spent months restoring that thing, and it took me an hour to ruin it.”

“Think of the punch as a build up of all the bad things you’ve done to me over the years.”

“So you’re going to take my advice?”

“Maybe,” he muttered.

“You better.  I can’t stand having you act like me.”

“Yeah, there should only be one asshole in every family.”

“Damn straight.  Position’s already taken.”