With Her Capture (31 page)

She didn’t realize she’d squeezed Ayden’s
hand until he tightened his grip on her. Here they were. This was
the Malta werewolf pack she’d fought so hard to join. She and Ayden
were simply guests at the moment. But nonetheless, looking at the
males and females staring back at her sent a rush of excitement
over her. The future she had wanted, had needed to believe would
return happiness to her life, now seemed like it might really
happen.

She took a quick glance around the cozy,
spacious den, not settling her attention on any of the werewolves
studying her and Ayden. It was a nice cabin with a large fireplace
and a burning fire crackling peacefully. For a long moment, that
was the only sound in the room. Magda picked up on a variety of
smells, some of them the calm emotions coming from the Malta
werewolves in the room. There was also the rich aroma of fresh kill
and her tummy rumbled softly.

Ayden cleared his throat at the same time her
belly announced she was hungry. There was no end to how this male
lived to protect her. If she lived to be a ripe, old age, she vowed
to do her best to always protect him in turn.

Before Ayden spoke, a male pushed away from
the wall where he’d been leaning alongside a long, well stuffed
couch.

He spoke to the room in general. “She can
move things with her mind. So far it appears she’s focused on
trees. Recently, she’s taught herself to move boulders and large
rocks as well.”

Magda’s mouth opened. Suddenly it was dry.
She white knuckled Ayden’s hand.

“How do you know that?” she gasped.

The male who had howled personal information
that he shouldn’t know about her didn’t answer but looked at
another male who sat on the couch. The female sitting next to the
male glanced up at the male. They made eye contact and held it for
a moment. The female then placed her hand on the male’s knee
sitting next to her. It was a strange exchange.

“Anything else?” the male sitting asked,
looking up at the male who’d just spoken.

“They are here to join our pack.”

Another female sat in an upright chair next
to the couch. A male sat next to her. The female pushed her
straight black hair back behind her neck with both hands and leaned
forward. She sighed loudly then looked at Magda.

“You aren’t used to being around other Malta
werewolves.” She looked up at the male who had announced what Magda
could do with her gift and made a face. Then she returned her
smiling expression to Magda. “Which Josie knows. Granted we are
curious about you two as you are us. We look forward to hearing
your story and how you sniffed us out. But forgive Josie for his
lack of tact. I’m Moira and this is my mate, Dante Aldo.”

“She can’t read minds?” the male on the couch
asked, ignoring Moira’s introduction.

“No,” Josie, Moira and the female sitting
next to him all answered at the same time.

“Damn good thing,” the male answered. “I’m
not sure I can take anyone else crawling around in my fucking mind.
Now stay out of theirs. If they lie when they answer my questions,
I’ll be able to smell it.”

Ayden tightened his grip on her. Magda
understood his concern. Were all these Malta werewolves able to
read her and Ayden’s mind? Was that another aspect of the gift? It
had never crossed her mind to ask her sire if some Malta werewolves
were able to do different things with their gift. She didn’t want
anyone crawling around in her mind. Her business was her own.

The male, Dante Aldo, sitting next to Moira,
let out a low growl and glared at the group. He shook his head
before speaking. “This is our pack leader”—he nodded at the male
and female on the couch—“Dimitri Spalto. And his mate Rosa—our
queen bitch. Although some of us can hear each other’s thoughts,
among other things, we have enough honor not to howl someone else’s
thoughts out loud.” He shot Josie a scathing look.

A small, female
lunewulf
, stepped from
from the kitchen. She held a large wooden spoon in her hand and
Magda swore she saw the enticing aroma rising off the spoon along
with steam. The
lunewulf
walked up to the large male
standing by the couch and pressed her free hand on his chest. Josie
looked down at her and his expression relaxed instantly.

“She’s a
lunewulf
,” Ayden said,
voicing and smelling of his surprise at the same time.

“This is my mate, Maura,” Josie introduced,
and wrapped his arm around the petite, pretty female. Josie towered
over her but when Maura cuddled into him and offered Magda a small
smile, the two of them looked like a perfect fit together.

“We endure enough prejudice and hatred from
other werewolves and humans on this planet. There is no room for it
among our pack,” Dimitri said, drawing the attention back to
him.

Magda thought she saw Josie raise an eyebrow,
as if surprised to hear the words from his pack leader. He sobered
fast enough, his expression turning neutral, so that Magda wasn’t
sure she saw the look, or not.

Ayden let go of her hand and wrapped his arm
around Magda’s. “Then we have run to the right pack. That is, if
you’ll have us.”

“Where are you from? Is that a Canadian
accent?” Dimitri asked.

“Yes. I’m Ayden Toubec. I’m from a pack north
of Banff, which isn’t too far from the American border. My mate,
Magda, lived with her litter high in the Canadian Rockies. When her
den was burnt out by humans, she and her littermates were forced to
run.”

“Why didn’t your littermates run with you to
our pack?” Dimitri asked, looking at Magda.

She glanced from Dante and Moira to Josie and
Maura, remembering the comment Dimitri had said about being
grateful that she didn’t read minds. But as Dimitri had howled, if
she lied, he’d smell it. Magda looked at the pack leader. He had
eyes as black as onyx. The similarities she’d seen between this
male and her sire in their fur had disappeared now that the male
was in his flesh. He had harder lines on his face, and his lips
were pressed in a thin line as he waited for her answer. Her sire
had always looked and smelled happy, or sometimes mischievous. In
spite of being in a pack filled with his own kind, for some reason,
this male’s expression remained haunted.

“My sire came from Malta, and fled to Canada
when the island pack was burned. There he met my mother, who was
Cariboo
lunewulf
, and they had three cubs. My two
littermates are still in the Canadian Rockies. One has found a good
mate and my other littermate is with her. They are happy and
safe.”

“What was your sire’s name?” Dante asked.

“On the mountain he was known as Mig but his
name was Miguel—Miguel Keller.”

She watched the small group exchange looks
and shifted her weight. Nerves tightened in her gut and she forced
herself to relax. Magda didn’t want these werewolves smelling her
squirm.

“We are all glad to learn that another one of
us made it out of Malta,” Moira offered, again offering Magda a
friendly smile.

“Not many of our pack survived,” Dimitri
said, his hard lines on his face deepening. “Once the world learned
of the gift some of the Malta werewolves had, all of our lives
became hell.”

Magda decided their pack leader was a grouch
by nature. She looked away from him and at their queen bitch when
she smiled. Rosa gave her mate’s leg a pat when she stood.

“We have fresh kill that Heidi has prepared
for us. We are ready to share our meal with you.” Rosa left her
mate’s side and walked up to Magda. She extended her hands. “I’m
glad the two of you made it to us, if for nothing else, then
letting us know another of our original pack lived a happy life and
raised a good litter.”

Magda noticed nothing was said about
accepting them into the pack. She would have to be patient.
Although now that they were in the states, and in unknown
territory, she and Ayden would have to do serious sniffing out if
they needed to come up with an alternate plan as to where they
would build their den.

A large, long wooden table was set and Magda
sat with Ayden at the end of the table. Dimitri sat at the head of
the table. Dante and Moira took their places to the right of
Dimitri. Josie and Maura brought large serving dishes filled with
meat to the table until more food than Magda had seen in months sat
before her. Rosa jumped in to help bring the food from the kitchen.
Josie and Maura then took their seats opposite Dante and Moira.

Magda caught Josie curl his lip slightly at
Dante. It was an act that not everyone at the table noticed. She
wouldn’t have seen it if she hadn’t been watching all of them
curiously, trying to know them by scents she caught when one of
them moved, or shifted. Just because arriving here seemed an answer
to their problems, it shouldn’t surprise her that this pack would
have drama. No werewolf was perfect.

Instead of sitting by her mate, Rosa moved to
the end of the table and took one of the remaining chairs and slid
it in next to Magda.

“Maura is an excellent cook. Thanks you two,”
she said to Maura and Josie. “We appreciate you opening your den to
all of us on such short notice. The kill is fresh. I can smell it
and I’m starving. Everyone eat.”

The first platter of meat was gone before it
reached Magda and Ayden. Maura didn’t make eye contact but slid the
second platter of meat toward Ayden. He took the hint and filled
his plate. Then he put am ample portion on Magda’s plate.

“I hope you’re hungry,” Rosa began, her smile
lighting up her almost tan eyes. “Please eat your fill.”

Magda hadn’t grown up in a pack, but that
didn’t mean she didn’t know pack etiquette. This female might not
be her queen bitch yet, but hopefully she would be soon. She
scrambled for something to say, sure that the female had taken her
seat by Magda to sniff her out.

“We’re honored to share this kill with you,”
she murmured, then made eye contact with the female and smiled.

Rosa bit into her meat, then while chewing
she reached for the empty meat platter. Instead of picking it up,
her fingers lingered close to the plate. Meat juice slid on the
platter when it rose into the air. Magda ducked when it floated
over her head. She turned in her chair and watched the platter make
its way out of the room and into the kitchen.

“Wow,” Magda whispered, suddenly feeling as
if the gift she’d relied on to survive was nothing compared to what
these Malta werewolves were able to do.

“I wasn’t showing off,” Rosa said, her voice
low when the conversation picked up around the table. No one else
smelled impressed over a platter flying through the air. Rosa
focused on Magda. “But your reaction was necessary. And don’t
worry,” she offered, lowering her tone to a whisper. “With a bit of
guidance your gift will blossom nicely.”

Magda wasn’t sure if Ayden overheard. She
dared glance away from Rosa but Ayden wasn’t looking at them. He
had just stabbed a decent sized slice of meat with a fork before
tearing a bite of it into his mouth. Magda wanted his attention.
Rosa had said with a bit of time. That meant they were being
accepted into this pack.

“Fucking tail,” Rosa grumbled.

The profanity seemed odd coming out of the
mouth of such a proper looking female.

“Forgive my mate. He is a grumbly male on his
best days.” Rosa looked in Dimitri’s direction with an expression
that could only be described as love. “We accept you and your mate
into our pack. First you will share our kill. Then we will focus on
where your new den will be.”

Magda wanted to jump out of her chair and
howl in joy. Her happiness was strong enough to garner glances from
those around her, who only smiled before returning to their
conversation. This time, though, Ayden had overheard and once again
reached for Magda’s hand.

“You honor both of us,” he told Rosa, then
looked in Dimitri’s direction and nodded when the male made eye
contact. “We hope to hunt and fight many years by your side.”

“But you must tell me,” Rosa continued,
speaking to Magda at the same time that Dimitri said something to
Ayden. “The American pack gave you grief before you ran up the
mountain?”

More like escaped, Magda thought, but didn’t
want to have her new queen bitch thinking the mated couple she’d
just allowed into their pack would bring trouble.

“No,” Rosa was saying, shaking her head as if
Magda had just spoken. “The American pack gives our pack and the
lunewulf
pack nothing but grief. It doesn’t matter who it
is. If werewolves aren’t mutts like them, those American werewolves
treat them the way, honestly, they themselves should be treated,”
she added, laughing and shaking her head by the time she finished
speaking.

Apparently, in spite of conversation being
howled around the table, when Rosa finished speaking, everyone
sounded their agreement.

“A member of the
lunewulf
pack was in
Valle and saw the two of you enter that American werewolf motel,”
Dimitri offered. “He called his pack leader, who called me. We were
already headed down the mountain when the two of you came charging
up.”

“And loudly, too,” Josie added, causing
everyone at the table to laugh.

“My mate has a fondness for trees,” Ayden
announced, causing the laughter to continue.

Then the conversation resumed, this time
Ayden howling his opinion when the topic moved toward general
behavior in a pack. He offered situations that had occurred in his
pack. The other males asked questions and he answered. Magda
watched him, thrilled how easily he fit in with werewolves he had
just met. Not only had he accepted her, when it was the nature of
his breed to kill her on sight, but he howled to the males around
him like he’d known them forever. She was the luckiest female on
the planet.

Rosa scooped up the last piece of meat on her
plate and plopped it in her mouth. “How did you and a Cariboo
lunewulf
meet?” she asked between bites.