While the Wolf's Away, page 22
Kintail and four other males, who looked like they were bouncers in a nightclub, walked into the lobby. At least there were no clients in the building at the time.
“So we meet again,” David said, and if his hair could stand on end like a ridge down the top of his head, it would have. Everything about him screamed protective. Dangerously protective.
“I’m their pack leader, and neither of them told us they were leaving. Sheri’s parents are worried sick about her,” Kintail said.
“Leaving was their choice to make.” They should be able to go where they pleased, and the pack couldn’t hold them hostage any more than they could have held Owen and David against their will. “They came down here of their own free will. They’re happy here. Let them be.”
“I know better,” Bentley said, stepping forward. “Sheri, I know you wouldn’t have left if it wasn’t for Elizabeth”—he sneered at Elizabeth—“and the others forcing you to hide that she was leaving us.”
“That’s Sheri’s boyfriend,” Kintail explained. “Bentley.”
“She’s happy to be working with us,” David said. “And from what she has told us, the two of them are no longer seeing each other.”
“That’s a damn lie,” Bentley said.
“She belongs with us,” another man said. “I’m her brother, Hans, for your information. And we’re taking her home.”
Every single one of the pack members bristled. On both sides.
And Elizabeth knew the showdown she’d dreaded had just begun.
***
David smelled Sheri’s nervousness. Elizabeth’s too. But the Yellowknife pack, thankfully, seemed to be resigned to Elizabeth’s new life.
Not so much Sheri’s.
Kintail stood with his arms folded across his chest, a scowl on his face, trying to make himself as tall and as intimidating as possible. Hans, Bentley, and the others took their cues from him and maintained the same stance, each of them with a look of determination on their face.
David almost didn’t blame them. If he’d had a sister and she’d left without a word, he might have been upset too, wanting to understand why she felt she couldn’t come to him and talk before she just took off. But that was their fault, not Sheri’s. Kintail had created such a toxic pack dynamic that Sheri really had no other choice.
But it was the boyfriend David was trying to get a read on most of all. Did he really believe Sheri was meant to be his mate? Speaking from experience, David understood how powerful that feeling could be. It made some men do things they wouldn’t normally do. Desperate things. Kintail himself had been known to commit horrific acts of desperation—David knew that from experience too—just to hold on to power, so it wouldn’t surprise David one bit if members of his pack followed his lead.
The Yellowknife pack stood their ground, as if they were ready to strip off their clothes and fight to the death.
Finally Sheri said, “If I had wanted to mate you, Bentley, I would have stayed. I know all of you, know how you are, and none of you would have let me go, not easily anyway. And until now, I was still wondering if this place, these pack members, would truly be my new home. I love Yellowknife. It was…you were…my pack.” They could all see her fight back tears, but David smelled something new now. It wasn’t nerves or fear or regret. It was resolve. “But now I know what it means to be part of a pack that values me as more than a breeder. A pack who sees me for me, and not for what pups I can have. I’m sorry for the way I left, I am. But I’m staying here, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
***
Elizabeth knew why it took Sheri so long to speak up. It wasn’t because she wanted to leave; it was because she didn’t want to put the pack members here in danger, should Kintail take this further.
“You have her answer,” Elizabeth said, her voice strong. “She wants to stay here. And, Bentley, she broke up with you before she left. You need to let it go.”
“That’s the problem,” Bentley said, looking growly. “She has always been too spontaneous. Only this time when she changes her mind and wants to come home, like I know she will, she might not have a home to come back to.”
“She has a home with us,” Cameron said. He’d been letting it play out, but stepped into the fray now. “She doesn’t have to worry about that. Even if she left us to live somewhere else for a time, she would always be welcome back here.”
That was what Elizabeth loved about Cameron and Faith’s pack.
Hans’s stance shifted a bit, his shoulders dropping just a little. “You are sure you want to do this? Dad is ready to cut you off from the family permanently if you don’t return.”
Elizabeth rubbed Sheri’s arm with reassurance. She knew Sheri would feel bad about the rift with her family, but if she stayed with the Canadian Arctic pack, then what? She could be close to family and unhappy with the pack and not willing to mate Bentley, and possibly have no other potential mates up there. Or stay here, miss her family and enjoy her life, her new job, her new friends who felt no animosity toward her whatsoever.
“If that’s what they want to do, that’s their call. I would hope we could still see each other, even if they have to travel down here to do it, but this is where I want to live,” Sheri said with assurance.
The door opened, and Elizabeth figured they had a client, but instead Slade walked in through the door, wearing his leather jacket and boots and looking like a hotshot WWII aviator, all smiles. “Hey, Sheri, I was going to—” He saw the newcomers and abruptly stopped speaking, his nose elevating slightly as he took in the aggressive scent spread throughout the room. “Sorry,” he said, obviously guessing what was going on. Elizabeth knew, as did the rest of the pack, that Slade’s presence—as an unmated wolf—would only make things worse. “Looks like I’m interrupting a meeting. Should I go?” He deferred to Cameron. If a fight were inevitable, he would clearly be an asset.
A low snarl came from Bentley. No matter how much Slade had tried to appear unthreatening, wolves always knew. Sheri couldn’t help her reaction to him, and Bentley sensed it.
He took a step in the direction of Slade, and the entire room felt as if it were waiting for holy hell to be unleashed, but Kintail held up a hand, freezing the moment in time.
“We won’t make the offer again,” he said.
“You won’t need to,” Sheri said, her voice determined.
A potential client came into the office, breaking the tension, and Owen said, “I’ll take it.” He led the client into his office, shut the door, and that seemed to be the end of the discussion with the other wolves. Kintail bent his head in the direction of the door, and Bentley and Hans and the other two men left the building, Bentley’s shoulders stiff in anger. Kintail stayed back.
“They need you more than you need them,” Kintail said to both Elizabeth and Sheri. “They’re using you because they can’t control their shifting.”
“We’re happy here. And I’m mated to David. We have the freedom to do as we want, and the pack is much more democratic. No bullying people about what they have to do,” Elizabeth said.
“I expected it of you, Elizabeth, because of some misplaced loyalty to a newly turned wolf. But Sheri—” Kintail said.
“Because of my friendship with Elizabeth, I’ve been on the outs with the pack too. So don’t act like you didn’t know how I’ve been treated. I’m sure you were all for it. You’ve always punished those who don’t see things your way,” Sheri said.
Kintail shook his head. “Be forewarned, neither of you are welcome back. You’re dead to me, you’re dead to the pack”—he stared hard at Sheri—“and you will be dead to your parents.” Then he stalked out of the building.
It was quiet except for the low conversation coming from Owen’s office. Sheri took a deep breath, then another, and then dissolved into tears. Elizabeth quickly took her into David’s office and hugged her. “This is a choice you had to make, unfortunately. Even though you shouldn’t have had to make it. You should have been allowed to come here to live with us and return when you wanted to see your family. That’s the problem with Kintail’s rule.”
“I agree.” Sheri sniffled and wiped her tears with a tissue from a box on David’s desk.
“Are you going to be okay?”
“Yeah.” Sheri hugged her back. “I’m sorry I put everyone in a bind like this. If my parents really feel that way about me, then I guess cutting ties would be the best thing for us anyway.” She sounded saddened by the prospect.
“Well, if the pack had different leadership, maybe things would change, and then you could see your family again. Especially if your family comes around to seeing this is what makes you happy.”
David came into the office and without preamble said, “We’re going to split the two of you up tonight. Sheri, you’ll stay with one of the other families. Elizabeth, you’ll stay with me. We want to ensure these men don’t try to grab one or both of you, now that they know where you are and they’re here. They could try taking Elizabeth, knowing you would try to go after her, just to have them release her.” He gave Sheri a reassuring smile. “Just know we won’t let anything happen to you. To either of you. As long as you want to be here with us, you have our backing.”
Cameron and Gavin came into the office and added their voices to David’s pledge.
Cameron said, “I’m going to alert our mates about the trouble we could be in for.”
Elizabeth realized that Kintail might resort to grabbing one of the PIs’ mates instead of either Elizabeth or Sheri, figuring they might be too well protected. What if they grabbed one of the kids?
***
That night, they all got together at Cameron’s house. Even Slade was there, looking like he was eager to show Sheri he was glad she was staying with the pack.
Slade had always been a wild card, reckless, carefree, a fighter, and damn fun to be around. It probably stemmed from a life of growing up in the family business. Slade and Amelia’s parents had their own seaplanes and sightseeing and canoe excursion service. Slade and Amelia had always been a part of that, and their parents were good people. Family-first wolves, which made them great pack members. Their children were no different.
And no matter how busy their parents were at any given time, or even Amelia and Slade, they were there for moral support whenever the pack needed it.
Slade said to Sheri, “I’m glad you stood up to Kintail and the others. Are we all running in the woods tonight?”
“We are,” David said.
Cameron said, “We need to stick together. Sheri can stay with any of the families she wants to.”
“I’ve got an early morning flight, but if you need anyone on guard duty, put me on first watch,” Slade said.
“Will do.”
His sister gave him a look that said he’d better get some sleep tonight.
“I’ll be fine,” he said, answering her unspoken question. “I don’t crash planes like you do.”
“I only did it twice and there were extenuating circumstances.”
Gavin smiled, since he’d been in both planes that Amelia had crashed, not due to her own fault in either case. Luckily, they both had survived each of the crashes.
“So what do we do about the security of the homes tonight? Maybe it would be better to stay in just two of the houses instead,” Faith said. “Better security that way. I worry about the little ones. They would be the easiest to grab and hold for ransom. The ransom being Sheri.”
David didn’t want this to dissolve into a wolf battle. He worried about his friends, his family, getting seriously injured or killed if this ended up going sideways.
“Maybe they just went home,” Sheri said.
“Do you really believe that?” Cameron sounded skeptical.
“I’m hopeful. You have the numbers,” Sheri said.
“But we also have the kids to worry about, and the women,” Cameron said.
Sheri took a deep breath, looking downcast. “Maybe I should have just gone back with them.” Her comment seemed to take everyone by surprise as they stared at her in disbelief.
“No,” Elizabeth said. “They can’t bully you into returning with them. We will stick with you through all of this and beyond.”
“But if anyone gets hurt because of me—”
“It wouldn’t be because of you,” David said, “but because of them. Because of Kintail.”
Sheri smiled, but it lacked conviction.
“If this is something you seriously want to do, then we’re backing you all the way,” Owen said.
Cameron agreed. So did Faith.
“I don’t want you to go,” Faith said. “I just want to make contingency plans for the children.”
“We’ll do that.” Cameron ran his hand over Faith’s back.
Once they finished dinner, they all stripped, ready to run as a pack.
They tore off through the woods, enjoying the night sounds, an owl hooting to another, loons calling out to others, cicadas and crickets singing. The fresh scent of water in the air hinted at rain, but David still couldn’t shake the feeling they needed to find Kintail and his men and set up surveillance on them.
Elizabeth bumped into him in playful fun, momentarily taking his mind off Kintail. Even Sheri and Slade seemed to be living in the moment, enjoying each other’s company as they ran through the trees ahead of them. Everyone was watching the little ones, too, shortening their strides to make sure they stayed together as a pack.
They ran along the shore of the lake for some time until the wolf pups kept falling behind, tired—except for Corey, who kept moving off to chase night critters, forcing Cameron to nip at him to return to the pack.
Someday, David could see Corey running his own pack. Then he would learn what a job it was to keep the little ones in line. He smiled.
When they were afraid they would have to carry the worn-out wolf pups home, they all headed back. At Cameron’s house, they ushered the slowpoke wolf pups up the steps. Even Corey was ready to call it a night. Then they got together to figure out a strategy for securing the houses against any possible attack by Kintail.
“Since you have the biggest family, I think we need to have more of our people stay here, for security purposes,” David said to Cameron and Faith.
“I agree,” Faith said.
“I’ll help with the kids.” Sheri sounded eager to make up for causing trouble for the pack, even though it wasn’t her fault.
“Perfect, thanks. Cameron usually does reading time, so you and I can get their baths going,” Faith said.
Before long, they heard water running in the tub, and then kids splashing in it.
“Okay, so who all is staying with whom?” David asked the others.
“Maybe we should all just stay here,” Elizabeth suggested. “I know you thought it might be better if we were split up, but there’s power in numbers.”
“Slumber party,” Amelia called out, and the kids all shouted with glee from down the hall.
Even David agreed they’d be better off staying together. He would have liked some alone time with Elizabeth, but they had years for that. Tonight, it was more important they were safe.
“We’ve got the couches that fold out as futons, an extra bedroom, sleeping bags, and comfortable blow-up mattresses. We can make this work,” Cameron said.
In the old days, they wouldn’t have had any trouble with sleeping arrangements like that. But today, with mates, it was a whole different story.
“We’ve got about everything you might need, but if there’s anything else you need, go in pairs and get them. Toiletries, snacks, if we don’t have them,” Cameron said.
“We’ll go in fours and pick up from each house,” David said, wanting to make sure that everyone stayed safe.
David, Elizabeth, Gavin, and Amelia headed out while the others stayed at Faith and Cameron’s house, David’s head on a constant swivel.
“Are you okay?” Elizabeth asked, rubbing his arm as they headed back to his house first.
“Yeah, I am. I was just wondering if there are more of them.”
“Just the thought I had,” Gavin said behind them as he and Amelia walked a few paces back. Seemed they were all worried about the same thing.
“We should have tailed them when they left,” Elizabeth said. “I’d feel less like a sitting duck if we had some sense of where they were, what they were up to. I think we need to be more proactive.”
David remembered Elizabeth helping them when they were desperate to join their friends and how she was a woman of action even then. Even returning to care for her grandmother showed that call to action was in her blood. Then coming down here to see him. Now dealing with her old pack leader.
“You’re right,” Gavin said. “I don’t like feeling on the defensive like this.”
“I’ve been thinking the same,” David said.
Amelia cleared her throat. “I think we’ll be all right for tonight anyway. I had to cancel my flights because of thunderstorms rolling in. I doubt they’ll do anything in the middle of a storm.”
“Oh, good.” David breathed a sigh of relief. “Hopefully that gives us time to come up with a plan to go after them.” Although he knew a little rain wouldn’t have stopped him if someone had Elizabeth.
He just hoped Kintail didn’t feel the same way.
Chapter 24
Kintail paced across the room of his rental cabin, furious things hadn’t gone his way. Once Sheri had seen Kintail, that should have been enough to make her change her mind about not returning to the pack. And her brother, damn Hans, he should have spoken up and said more than he did. Even her boyfriend, Bentley, had been a lost cause. But what really bothered him was Sheri’s lack of respect for him. He’d told her to come, and she refused.
