Sedona Sin, page 4
Was the diversity of our pack unique? I didn’t know. This was the only pack I’d ever seen. But I suspected Kaya might be the only hybrid in the shifter world. When Caldwell marked her to be bitten, he had no idea she was a skin walker. They shifted into their spirit animal at will, and it wasn’t a long painful DNA shift like a werewolf. While I was locked in the storage facility with Kaya, I’d witnessed her change into a Lynx many times. It was a magical, smooth transformation.
She was cagey about other skin walkers, but I did know she wasn’t the only one of her kind in Sedona. I also knew skin walkers didn’t have a scent like the werewolves and jaguars. Her magic connection to her lynx wasn’t a physical part of her make up. Caldwell had no way of knowing he’d converted a skin walker, making Kaya into a hybrid, able to shift into a lynx at will and a wolf during the full moon.
I tipped my head, not sure I heard Cole correctly. “You think Vance wants to join our pack?”
“I don’t know, but the Reno Pack has three jaguar shifters in it now, and Vance hasn’t joined their group. Maybe there’s a reason he keeps turning up in Sedona.” He crossed his arms. “I think all the traditional pack rules and rituals are out the window for us. We’re a new breed; we should have new traditions.”
“You think the others will go for that?”
“My parents might grumble about it a little, but their pack is gone. It died with Caldwell. As far as Dex, Deacon, and Jett, I think it’s worth talking to them. We’ve got nothing to lose.”
I leaned against the kitchen counter. “So why are you telling me all this?”
He almost smiled. “Because you are the one member of this pack that Asher trusts without reservation.” He paused, but I didn’t reply. Asher and I were friends. Nothing more. Cole sighed. “Look, I planted the seed. All I’m asking is to see if you can get it to grow. Asher could be a formidable Alpha. We just need him to believe it.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. Cole was right, but would the others be as lax about tradition as he was? “You’re going to talk to the rest of the pack?”
He nodded. “I’ll let you know what the rest of them think. For now, see if you can get Asher on board.”
I shrugged. “I think you’re overestimating my influence, but I’ll try.”
He chuckled, a gleam in his eye as if he knew some secret I hadn’t discovered yet. “I have faith in you. Keep me posted.”
Cole checked on his patient one more time, only looking up when the back door opened.
Asher came in, reeking of smoke. “Mind if I use the shower?”
“This house belongs to all of us,” I replied.
He raised a brow. “But I was asking you.”
Again, he reminded me that my feelings mattered. I hated Caldwell all over again for making me forget. I forced a smile. “Fine with me. You know where it is.”
“I’ll be back soon.” He glanced over at Cole. “Can you stick around a few more minutes? Just in case those two jaguars had friends somewhere outside?”
“He doesn’t need to stay. I can protect myself.” I wasn’t sure why I needed to get the words out, but I suspected it was more for me than for Asher.
He raised a brow. “I know you can. I’m only asking Cole to stay because we’ve got an injured newscaster on our couch and two little boys sleeping in the other room. That’s a lot of people who can’t fight at your side. I’ll feel better if you have backup while I’m in the shower.”
Oh god, he was right. I was so busy nursing my pride, I’d forgotten to consider all the ones who couldn’t fight for themselves.
“Okay.” I watched him vanish down the hall. When the bathroom door closed, I turned to Cole, a smile curving on my lips. “He’s a natural.”
Cole nodded with a grin. “Told you so. We just need to get him on board.”
Asher came out in a towel, his clothes in a tight bundle under his arm as he passed by to get to the laundry room. His flawless, tan skin called to me, making me ache to touch him. All of him. The man had no idea how dangerous he was in a towel. Damn.
The washer started in the other room, and he came back out, focused on Cole. “Thanks for sticking around.”
Cole got up and grabbed his medical bag. “No problem.” He came over to clasp Asher’s forearm in the traditional pack greeting—maybe the only tradition this pack would keep. Then his gaze cut over to me. “Talk to you soon, Naomi.”
“Thanks, Cole.”
Once he left, silence descended on the room, and I wasn’t sure where to look. Asher was my friend, and if he did become our Alpha, he’d have way too many demands on his time. I needed to focus on helping my friend, not fantasizing about what it would be like to lose myself in his arms.
I went to the cupboard and took down a glass, quickly filling it with ice and some freshly brewed tea from the fridge. “You’ve got to be thirsty.”
He took it with a distracted smile. “Thanks.” Taking a sip, he finally met my eyes. “I know it’s late, but do you have a minute to talk?”
“Sure.” I pulled out a stool and sat down. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah. I think so.” He finished off the tea while I tried not to watch his bicep lifting the glass.
Ugh. For so long after being bitten and finding out I was pregnant, I hated the entire male species, but somehow my bitterness had never been aimed at Asher. Lately, though, the little things he did, like always giving me the chance to say no, even to stupid things like if he could use the shower, were melting the iceberg around my heart.
He put the glass in the sink and came back over to sit on the stool beside me. His towel stayed firmly in place, luckily—or unluckily. I wasn’t really sure which at the moment.
He looked over at Chandler sleeping on the couch and back at me. “Having two jaguars surround you and the boys tonight, trapping you inside this house…” He shook his head. “It scared the shit out of me.” He paused and then added, “We can’t keep making mistakes like this. It’s going to cost us in blood soon, and I can’t let that happen.”
The honesty in his gaze, and his words, rattled me a little. Asher wore honor like a suit of armor, and it wasn’t diminished by any sign of pride. I wasn’t sure I knew any other shifter men who would admit to being afraid, and not only that, but Asher’s admission only seemed to add to his strength. I had no idea how he accomplished it. Maybe he had some Alpha powers already.
“Cole told me he asked you to be our new Alpha,” I said.
He nodded, breaking eye contact. “I think he’s wrong.”
“Why?” I frowned.
He rested his arm on the counter, his hand only a few inches from mine, but I didn’t risk taking it. I couldn’t trust myself right now. Maybe it was the brush with death, or the fact that Asher was naked under that towel, but parts of me that had been dormant for the past two years were stirring again.
Asher sighed. “I met Adam Sloan, fought alongside him and his pack, and there are senses he has that are almost mystical, parts of being a werewolf I don’t have.” His dark eyes met mine. “I’m a wolf now, but I haven’t always been.” He balled his hand into a fist, clearly struggling for words. “I’ll always be an outsider. Gage, Ryker, and I are the only bitten werewolf males that Adam and his pack had ever heard of. How can I lead? Other packs won’t respect us.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Who gives a shit about what they think?” I glanced over at Chandler. “There’s a bitten man on our couch right now. You’re not so rare.”
“And he walks alone, Naomi. He’s not part of the Reno Pack or any pack, and even the Nero jaguars won’t have him.”
An idea started to form in my head, a crazy idea. “Let’s invite him to join our pack.”
“What?” The confused look on Asher’s face almost made me smile. “We’ve already got bitten wolves and a skin walker in our group. Now you want to add a bitten jaguar shifter, too?”
“Why not? And while we’re at it, let’s see if Vance officially wants to join us, too. He’s a strong fighter; we’d be safer with him as part of our pack.” I raised a finger as his lips parted. “Wait, hear me out. The Reno Pack has three jaguar shifters now, so we wouldn’t even be that odd, right?”
He smiled, one of his rare unguarded-Asher smiles, the ones that gave me a glimpse of the man he’d been before we were sucked into this crazy world of shifters.
My pulse rate sped up. Knowing he could hear it pounding didn’t help.
His eyes sparkled. “You think we should be the diversity melting pot of shape-shifters?”
“Why not?” I grinned. “We live in the land of energy vortices and native mysticism. And for what it’s worth, I think you’d be the perfect leader.”
He raised a brow. “How do you figure that?”
“You’re a natural. You’re the one who patrols our territory every night. No one asks you to, but you do it. And when there’s trouble, you rally us. You’re already the hub binding all of us into a unit—a pack.” I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. “Why not make it official?”
He chuckled shaking his head. “I’m lucky to have a friend like you in my corner.”
Hearing him call me a friend shouldn’t have rubbed me the wrong way. We were friends. But being given that label out loud hurt a secret part of me, a part of me that I suddenly realized wanted to be more.
Worst timing ever.
CHAPTER 5
Asher
Naomi went to bed while I moved my clothes into the dryer. I was too wired to sleep. Between the talk of me becoming the Alpha of our pack and the terror of seeing Naomi’s text that jaguar assassins had her trapped in the house, I might never sleep again. I hadn’t been lying when I’d told her that tonight had scared the shit out of me. Until now, we’d had brushes with the rogue jaguar shifters, but this was too close to tragedy.
If anything had happened to Naomi or Bart or Ben…
Damn. My clothes were still wet in the dryer, so I tightened the towel around my waist and went out to my Jeep. The cold wind stung my bare skin, and I welcomed it, cooling the fire churning in my gut. I realized something tonight when I had gotten that text from her. I guess I’d known it for months, but until tonight I’d been able to hide from it: that woman and her boys meant everything to me. They were the real reason I hadn’t left Sedona in my rearview mirror as soon as Caldwell had drawn his last breath, and now, I wasn’t sure I could face a day without her in it.
And she wanted me to be the Alpha. If I accepted, and if the others agreed with Cole’s unlikely choice, I’d be tied to Sedona forever. But she wouldn’t be. Not really.
When Luke Reynolds was leaving to go back to Reno, I had asked him to settle here and be our Alpha. He had turned me down, but he had given me some advice. The “mates” that Caldwell had selected weren’t the wolf’s choice. Luke had warned me that if any of the wolves with children ever found their true mate and touched their skin, the wolf would claim its mate. Hearts would be broken in the process. And fuck, I didn’t want that heart to be mine.
I jammed my arm under the back seat of my Jeep and pulled my duffel free. By the time I got back in the house, my skin burned from the sudden change in temperature. Ignoring the tingling in my limbs, I sat at the bar and opened my bag. I took out two pieces of cottonwood, then all my carving tools.
My mom had been a quarter Hopi, just enough to be officially recognized as part of the tribe, but my dad was Hispanic. Although I looked like my mother, according to the US government, I was only an eighth Hopi, so I didn’t qualify to be an official member of my mother’s tribe. But that didn’t mean my mother hadn’t passed on the traditions. It was a long drive to the Hopi Reservation from Sedona, but I frequented the Mesas when I could. During my last trip out, I’d picked a couple of raw chunks of cottonwood. I hadn’t carved Katsina dolls since I was in high school, but it used to be a great way to quiet my mind. I needed that peace now.
The first Katsina given to my mother, and many Hopi infants, was the simple flat effigy of the Grandmother Katsina. She represented the mother of all the Katsinas and welcomed new children to the tribe. She was also a simple form for a carver, less intricate than some of the others. Perfect for an amateur carver like me.
During my most recent visit to the Mesas, I picked up the cottonwood with the intention I’d make Katsinas for Bart and Ben, but I hadn’t gotten around to carving them yet. Now I was grateful I hadn’t. I needed this focus right now; working with my hands helped quiet my mind. No distractions.
Cottonwood was lightweight and strong, rarely cracking under the carving blade. I made my cuts, and gradually, the Grandmother Katsina began to take shape. A few brushes of sandpaper smoothed the edges, and I blew off the fine dust and examined my work.
For the first time tonight, my mind was clear. I started on the second doll, this one coming together faster than the first. As I rubbed the rough spots with the sandpaper, the dryer buzzed in the other room, snapping me out of my active meditation. I got up to get my clothes when a small voice surprised me.
“Uncle Asher?”
I turned around and smiled at Ben. He was the younger of Naomi’s twins by a few minutes, but otherwise he looked almost identical to his older brother, Bart. Almost. Ben had a cowlick at the back of his dark hair that gave his identity away. While his brother’s hair only curled at the ends, Ben’s often had a piece sticking straight up in back. Plus, if you paid close enough attention, there was a yin and yang to the brothers. Ben was quick to smile and giggle, and Bart was a thinker with a protective streak for a little guy. I had no trouble telling them apart.
“Hey, Ben. You should be sleeping.”
He yawned and nodded. “I know, but I smelled you.” He came closer, examining my current attire. Finally, he tipped his head back, looking up at me with quizzical eyes. “Why are you in a towel?”
I chuckled and mussed his hair, the cowlick popping back up. “Long story, buddy. I’m going to get my clothes now.”
“I’ll come with you.” Ben took my hand, his small fingers squeezing my index finger. “Just so you don’t get scared.”
My heart stuttered at his innocence, and I welcomed his company. He jabbered on about Gage’s boys, coloring, and his mom while I took my clothes out and popped him up to sit on the edge of the dryer.
“You’ve got a lot to say for a boy who is supposed to be asleep.” I chuckled. “I’m going to get changed, but we’ve got a stranger on the couch so you need to wait for me right here. Understand?”
He nodded and crossed his arms. “If he comes in, I’ll jump down and get him. Mom’s been teaching us karate. I can kick real hard.”
It still shocked me to hear full sentences coming out of a toddler who wasn’t quite three years old, but Cole had explained to me that shifters matured much faster than humans. Supposedly, they’d plateau around five, just in time to head to kindergarten. Until then, we kept them away from humans. It saved us from having to answer too many questions.
“How about you call me, instead?”
He frowned, a deep wrinkle forming between his brows. “But you might not have pants on yet, Uncle Asher.”
I gently chucked his chin, trying not to smile. “I’ll put pants on first.”
When I was dressed, I tossed the towel over the shower curtain rod and went back to the dryer. Ben held his hands out, and I scooped him up, carrying him back to the kitchen. I set him on his feet with a playful pat on his backside. “Better get back to bed.”
He spun around, looking up at me with a killer pair of sad, puppy-dog eyes. “But I’m not tired.”
I was no match for the power of that pout. Some Alpha I’d be. I sighed. “Okay, you can help me paint the Katsina doll.”
A smile lit up his face as I lifted him onto a stool. I showed him where the colors went and handed him a paintbrush. Every Katsina was different, handmade and unique to the artist who crafted it, but certain aspects and color combinations remained the same no matter who crafted them. The Grandmother Katsina was mostly painted white, with coral trim and a turquoise-and-gold shawl around her shoulders.
Watching his pudgy hands grip the brush, his tongue poking through his lips as he concentrated, made it tough to remember the burdens weighing me down earlier in the night. His innocent determination gave me hope. Everything would work out. It had to.
We labored side by side in silence. The Grandmother was a simple, flat design. No feathers, no adornments. I painted Bart’s while Ben did his own. Once they were finished, I found a cooling rack in one of the kitchen cabinets and laid the dolls on it to dry. They were recognizable, and that was enough for me.
I picked him up to carry him back to bed, and the little guy snuggled into my chest, nuzzling his face up under my chin. His warm breath touched my neck as I started down the hallway. His hair smelled clean, like sunshine, and his grip on my shirt loosened. He was already asleep. Would he wake up when I put him down in the bed?
I turned around and brought him back to the living room with me. I sat in the recliner, careful not to jostle my precious cargo. He moved around a little, but once he was comfortable, he settled right back into sleep. I stroked his back with my thumb as I rested my head against the chair.
Naomi’s twins were the future. If this Pack was going to live to see it, we needed an Alpha. Staring down at his perfect face, the choice seemed clear: I’d do whatever it took to be sure they were safe. Even if it meant becoming the new Alpha of the Sedona Pack.
CHAPTER 6
Naomi
I woke up with the sun and listened for my sons’ giggles. Blessed silence. They were still sleeping. I smiled as I slid out from under the covers. I put on my slippers and wandered toward the kitchen. If I started cooking, they’d be up in a heartbeat. Young werewolves had the same sense of smell we did, and man, could they eat.
Maybe I’d start with coffee and enjoy the peace while it lasted.
At the end of the hallway, I froze. Chandler was still asleep on the couch, but I barely noticed him. Across the room, dozing in the recliner, was Asher. He was fully dressed with my sweet Ben snoozing on his chest. My flipping heart melted down to my shoes. I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced my feet to move.
