Defying Pack Law (14 page)

“
Smart wolf,” Dana sassed. She
patted him on the cheek and, with a smirk, sauntered out the front
door.

Nathan stared after her, stunned, while John
just laughed again.

She’s just what we need to keep us
in line.

Chapter Eleven

Once outside, Dana found herself caught between
John and Nathan, a place she didn’t want to flee. Although, she did
want to strip in an attempt to cool down. With an alpha on one side
and a man who could have been alpha but ended up beta on the other,
they formed an impressive wall of male flesh. As they strode with
her through the vastly changed compound, their bodies brushed
hers—a hard thigh against her hip, a hand to guide in the middle of
her back or on her waist, the occasional whisper in her ear that
tickled. Talk about a smorgasbord of sensations. Within an hour,
her body aroused, her nerves shot, she seesawed between an urge to
scream and ripping off her clothes in an open invitation to claim
her. Her mind leaned toward the second scenario, which wetted her
panties even further.

She controlled herself—barely. She tried to
focus on what they showed her, from the solar panels and wind
turbines that provided all their electrical needs, to the
composting and garden areas. But, while she noted all the
eco-friendly changes and increased number of homes, she just
couldn’t concentrate. Every so often familiar faces would come up
to say hello, and she’d snap out of her self-imposed torture to
exchange hellos and hugs. But, all too soon, they’d pass on, and
she’d return to her coiled state of sexual readiness. After a
while, even her state of mind couldn’t hide the fact that she
noticed more new faces than old. Needing distraction, she asked
Nathan about it.

“
Is it me, or is there a lot of new
blood here now?”

“
You’d be correct,” Nathan replied,
stopping to sit on a bench in a common park area. John sat beside
him, and Dana eyed the few inches left between them and knew she
wouldn’t fit—although she did, for one hot moment, wonder how it
would feel to squash herself between them, naked of
course.

She took a step back, and as if realizing her
dilemma, Nathan snagged her around the waist and settled her on his
lap, where her bottom rubbed against a hardness that left no doubt
about his happiness about having her sitting on him. Dana glanced
over to John, uncomfortable at this familiar and intimate gesture
in front of another man who interested her, but John met her
worried look with a gentle smile and nod.

Dana relaxed at his acceptance and barely
noticed another brick coming down in her wall of resistance toward
the whole multimate thing.

“
The new people are the Lycan
council’s doing. They noticed an increase in birth defects and
mental instability. They blamed it on too much pack inbreeding.
They requested packs join an exchange program.”

“
And the packs went for it?” That
surprised her. Packs tended to live isolated lives. While ruled by
a Lycan council who dealt with keeping them out of the public eye
and disputes between packs, outside of that, packs ruled
themselves.

“
At first, there was some chafing,
mostly by the alphas and the old-timers. The young ones, though,
saw it as an opportunity for change and jumped on it.”

“
I’m surprised your dad allowed it.”
After her dad, Nathan’s dad was the biggest prick she’d ever
met.

“
He didn’t. After you left, things
went downhill in the pack,” Nathan started. “My dad went from bully
to complete asshole. I escaped a lot of his abuse and excesses
going to college, but when I returned for visits, I couldn’t ignore
how everyone was living in a state of fear. We ended up losing some
of the good families during that time. They snuck out and went to
the council for pack reassignment. This went on for a few years,
with my dad getting more and more paranoid. He was convinced the
humans were on to us and would end up killing us all.”

“
Why the hell would he think that?”
It sounded bad of her, but humans of this generation were
oblivious.

“
He had reason for his madness.
Males from the pack were disappearing.”

That got her attention. “What? They ran
away?”

“
Nope. Some we found, torn to
pieces. Others ended up resurfacing as part of rogue
packs.”

“
I thought rogue packs were rare?”
Anybody who refused to follow council law was declared rogue and
hunted to the death. The council protected the Lycans ruthlessly,
and any wolves who didn’t toe the line were destroyed for the
greater good of the packs.

“
They used to be rare, but not
anymore. The Lycan council has been looking into it, and while we
know the number of rogues has increased, we have yet to figure out
the reason why. Some of those who defected were married, and
seemingly happy.”

“
Has anyone talked to them?” Dana’s
brow creased.

Nathan’s eyes stared off into the distance, the
sorrow in them all too clear. “We’ve caught several, one from this
pack even.”

“
And?” she pressed when he went
silent.

“
They’re mad,” John replied softly
when Nathan didn’t.

“
Mad at what?”

“
Not mad as in angry,” John
corrected. “I mean their minds are warped. Their reasoning
skewed.”

“
But how? Did they catch some
sickness?”

Nathan shrugged. “That’s what the council wants
to find out. It’s also why we increased the security around this
place. Along with the electrical and barbed fence around the
compound, we have motion sensors, cameras, and guards patrolling
the perimeter in groups of two. Folks go out in groups after dusk
or not at all.”

“
That’s nuts.”

“
Maybe,” Nathan replied with a sigh,
“but since our new preventative measures, we’ve managed to halt the
disappearances.”

She suddenly thought of Kody. “Hold on a
second. You let Kody leave by himself. How do you know he’ll be
safe?”

“
Oddly enough, they only strike at
night. Once nightfall hits, no one leaves the compound
alone.”

Dana suddenly had a vivid image of her
pockmarked abductor and shivered. “Those wolves who caught me, they
were rogues, weren’t they?”

“
Yes. The Lycan council received
numerous reports about their misdemeanors and put out a decree for
their elimination. They contacted me about taking care of the
problem around the same time we got the report on your
location.”

She ignored the first part to latch on to the
second. “You were spying on me?” she asked.

“
Searching for,” Nathan corrected.
“It wasn’t the first time we’d gone to get you only to end up
empty-handed.”

Dana smiled smugly. “That’s because I was good
at hiding.”

Nathan squeezed his arms around her. “I caught
you in the end.”

“
And thank God we arrived when we
did,” John added.

The somber reminder killed her humor. “Did you
kill all the bastards who took me?” She’d avoided thinking about
that since her recovery, but now had a burning need to
know.

“
Most. Don’t worry, they can’t get
to you here.”

Nathan left unsaid,
You’re safe with us
, but
she heard it in his voice and saw it in John’s eyes.
Safety, just one more reason to stay. If I let
them mark me, I wouldn’t have to worry about other wolves trying to
claim me anymore. No more setting booby traps and looking over my
shoulder. No more starting over. No more sleeping alone.
That, more than
anything, appealed to her. Another brick of resolve crumbled. In
truth, the wall she’d erected around her emotions and reasons had a
hole big enough to drive a truck full of wolves through, three in
particular.
I think I want to do this. No, I know I want to do
this.
She
kept her decision to herself. Now, whilst discussing somber things,
wasn’t the time. She’d wait until later, when she got Nathan alone.
He should be the first she marked and claimed because, after all,
she’d loved him the longest.

“
Penny
for your thoughts?” Nathan prodded.

Startled, she blurted out the first thing that
came to mind other than stripping him and seeing the joy on his
face when she told him to take her. “So you never finished telling
me what happened to your

dad.”

Nathan sighed. “It’s not pretty. He kidnapped a
human from town, then tortured and killed him. When the pack found
out, I had no choice. I challenged him for control of the
pack.”

“
You killed your father?” The news
shocked her, mostly because of the devastation to Nathan. Hating
one’s parent was one thing, having to end their life
another.

Nathan’s eyes clouded over. “No, but I might as
well have. I fought him and won. But because of what he’d done, I
had to hand him over to the council as my first act as alpha. The
council executed him for his crimes.”

“
Oh, Nathan, I’m so sorry,” she
exclaimed, and on impulse, she threw her arms around his neck. She
hugged him tight, horrified at what he’d done, but at the same time
recognizing the need. When a wolf went bad, especially an alpha in
a position of power, he needed removal. It just sucked the bad
apple happened to be his father.

She turned her head sideways on Nathan’s
shoulder and saw John watching them. For a moment guilt filled her.
How could it not when she was plastered to one man she wanted while
the other she longed for watched? But she saw no jealousy in John’s
eyes, just a calm acceptance and approval.

Nathan might end up first, but
you’ll be a close second.
She found herself
giddy at the thought of making both these men hers.

A feminine “There you are,” had her
straightening and hopping off Nathan’s lap. She flushed at the
intimate position she’d gotten caught in. Lycans were open about
such things, but she’d spent many years among the humans with their
more prudish natures.

A voluptuous beauty strolled toward them, sex
appeal oozing from her hourglass figure encased in skintight jeans
and a skimpy tank top.

“
John and Nathan, just the big,
strong men I was looking for.”

Dana gnashed her teeth at the syrupy
sweetness in her voice.
Slut.

“
What’s up, Melinda?” Nathan
asked.

“
I need to borrow you both for a
little bit. My men are out of town, and I need some stuff
moved.”

The redhead’s smile made Dana’s jaw
tighten.
Is this bitch seriously hitting
on my men? In front of me?

“
Can’t you find someone else to help
you?” Nathan asked, getting up to stand behind Dana.

“
It’ll just take a
moment.”

Dana had heard enough. “I don’t think
so.”

“
Excuse me?” Melinda looked her up
and down with a haughty sneer. “And who are you to speak for
them?”

“
I am their promised mate, and I say
you won’t be borrowing them. If you need furniture moved, plumbing
fixed, or anything else, open the Yellow Pages and find a
professional.”

“
You can’t speak to me like that,”
Melinda snarled, narrowing her eyes and taking an aggressive step
forward.

Dana growled back and let her wolf rise as she
met the woman, toe to toe, glare for glare. “Consider this your
last warning.”

“
Bitch,” spat Melinda. “I’ll show
you to speak to me like that.”

Melinda went to grab Dana’s hair, and Dana gave
a low chuckle as she avoided the redhead’s flailing hands and, in a
quick move, swept her feet from under her, sending the slut to the
ground. Dana knelt on her chest.

“
Submit,” Dana warned, cocking and
pulling her fist back.

“
Nathan, you’re not going to let
this outsider talk to me like that, are you?”

“
As my future wife, she can and will
talk to you any way she likes. Especially if you’re going to act
like a bitch in heat. Now I suggest you call your mates and tell
them to come home if you’re that lonely,” Nathan ordered. “And if I
hear of you harassing any of the other husbands in the compound,
you’ll be asked to leave. We don’t condone cheating.”

Dana smirked as she got up off the redhead.
Melinda’s face turned a blotchy red, and she staggered to her feet
and stalked away.

Dana resisted an urge to stick her tongue out
at her.

“
Future mates, eh?” Nathan sounded
pleased.

But now embarrassed over her very jealous
reaction, Dana snapped, “Maybe. I haven’t completely decided. I
like the way you both sat back and let her try to attack me. What
happened to protecting me?” She placed her hands on her hips and
glared at them.

Nathan grinned. “What and miss you putting her
in her place?”

“
Please. Anybody with half a brain
could see you’d kick her ass,” John added.

Mollified, Dana’s lips twitched. “True. I guess
you’re forgiven for now.”