First Moon (New Moon Wolves) BBW Werewolf Romance (17 page)

“I’ll get us something to eat.” Feeling like a bad hostess, Audrey went into the kitchen and quickly gathered everything needed to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It wasn’t fancy, but she’d been way too busy of late to do much grocery shopping. She put everything on the table. “Here, help yourself.”

He began to make a sandwich. “Thanks. You want one?”

“Yeah, thanks.” She raised her injured hand. “Pancakes I can do one handed, but smearing jam and peanut butter on bread is a bit beyond me.”

She watched him make sandwiches, struck once again by how handsome he was. Amazingly, she managed to forget sometimes. His hair, so dark she wouldn’t be surprised to see natural blue highlights, kept tumbling into his eyes and he batted it away with an impatient sigh. It reminded Audrey of her own battle with her wayward hair.

Tao’s face held sculpted cheekbones and a nose a bit on the hawkish side. His mouth was wide and generous and she shifted in her seat remembering the way he’d kissed her just that morning. As for his body, he was a God made of pure muscle and testosterone. Primitive people would’ve built temples in his honor. Audrey imagined sinking to her own knees and the things she would do to worship the man who’d practically obliterated her with pleasure. She pictured wrapping her mouth around his cock, sucking in his length and tasting the salt on his skin.

Her body began to overheat right along with her imagination.

Whoa girl. This is not the time to act like a nympho in heat. Focus.

“What are we going to do about Nick?” she asked. There, that was more on topic, albeit an unpleasant one.

Tao offered her a sandwich. She took it and set it on a napkin that she snagged from the napkin holder on the table. She should’ve brought plates, but with the way Tao ate, he’d be done by the time she could bring them over. So she settled for picnic style. No harm in that, if a little informal. It was just a sandwich not High Tea at the palace.

“I’ve got to call my alpha,” Tao said with an unhappy frown. “I haven’t talked to him since I borrowed your phone.”

“What’s an alpha exactly?” she asked. Audrey knew the academic terms for pack structure, but not how it all worked with werewolves. When he’d mentioned it earlier, she’d inferred it was some kind of leadership position, but what kind of leadership exactly?

“He’s our pack leader. The strongest wolf always leads the pack.” Tao licked peanut butter off his finger.

“So it’s his way all the time?” She took a bite of her sandwich while she waited for his answer.

“Pretty much. We do have a council of elders so he doesn’t necessarily act on his own, but only the big things go before the council.”

“Like what?”

“Well, Nick, for one. Or if we’re going to build a new house for the pack or add to a property.”

“Huh,” she said thoughtfully. “Sounds like a werewolf commune.”

That made him chuckle. “Yeah. A little bit, but wolves are less lovey-dovey, let’s sing kumbaya and more my-way-or-the-highway.”

“Oh, like you were in the bedroom?” She gave him an arch look.

“Yeah.” A laugh rumbled in h
is chest. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about your spanking.” The smoldering look he gave her, went right to her core and started a fire there.

She swallowed nervously. “What if I don’t want to be spanked?” In the heat of the moment, it had actually sounded like a grand idea. Now she wasn’t so sure. Sure, she’d liked the roughness of their love making, couldn’t deny the primal thrill she’d felt when he had his way with her, but did she really want to be hit?

Tao reached out and laid his hand on her arm. “We’ll worry about it later. Don’t stress about it now, okay?”

She nodded.

“Besides, the way I spank, you’ll be begging me not to stop.” A slow, wicked smile spread across his face. “But first you have to get better.” He looked to her hand. “And we have to deal with the mess Nick has made. Then I’ll show you the pleasure of discipline.” He lowered his voice on the last few words, the tone going so deep it shivered through the air to stroke her skin.

Audrey’s mouth went dry while her core practically flooded its banks. Tao finished his sandwich, while she struggled to keep her libido in check. He smirked at her as he made another one, seeming to know the effect he had on her.

To her relief, he changed the subject. “So once we’re done eating, I’m going to call Dan.”

“Dan? He’s your pack alpha?” she asked, not recognizing the name.

Tao gave a curt nod, his expression somber.

“Why so glum about it?” She ate more of her sandwich while she waited for his answer.

“We have a difference of opinion on how to handle Nick.” Tao ate his pb&j in two quick bites and started to make another one.

“He wanted you to kill Nick,” she guessed. Given the alpha had wanted to kill her, it made sense that Nick wasn’t any safer. If she was in charge with a psycho like Nick on the loose, she’d want to kill him to limit the damage to the pack. Of course, she would never go after innocents, though. That was just sick. Nick had made a choice, his victims hadn’t.

Tao gave a curt nod and stared at his sandwich, his gaze intense.

Audrey knew his feelings for his brother had been mixed from the beginning. She imagined, given the threat that Nick posed, there’d been some friction around Tao’s waffling. Not that she blamed him. Audrey didn’t envy Tao’s situation at all, but a choice had to be made. Delaying things wouldn’t make him like what had to happen any better.

“But you can’t kill him, can you?”

Tao took in a deep breath, his eyes full of anguish. “No. I tried.”

“I can do it,” she volunteered. Putting down an animal was never fun, but at least she knew how to do it humanely. “Enough sedative and he’ll never wake up.”

“Yeah, that might be a possibility.” His words agreed with her, but the way he stiffened in his seat implied he wasn’t happy about the idea.

Not wanting to argue, she let it go. “What are you going to tell your alpha?”

He dropped his sandwich on his napkin. “I don’t know.” Pushing his chair back, he stood up. “I need some fresh air. I need to think.”

Not waiting for her response, he crossed over to the sliding glass doors that made up the dining room’s back wall and went outside.

Audrey finished her coffee and tried not to feel guilty. She had to protect herself and the public. If Tao wasn’t able to do it, she would have to step up or Nick would make hundreds of werewolves who all had to obey his every word.

With a sigh, she cleared the table. Normally she was fastidious about doing the dishes right after a meal, but between her injured hand and her mood, she decided to skip it. Besides, it was time to give Nick another dose of sedative.

The thought crossed her mind to overdose him right then and there, but she held off because of Tao. She wouldn’t betray him, couldn’t destroy him like that or his feelings for her.

Because, whatever happened, she wanted Tao in her life. If letting Nick live a little longer was what it took, so be it.

***

Outside, Tao kicked at the grass in an effort to shake off his foul mood. Calling his alpha would only make it worse. He’d thought capturing Nick would improve the situation. Instead, it just meant he had to confront the choice that had been hanging over his head the last few days. Kill Nick or kill a bunch of humans, including Audrey, and turn Nick over to his pack to be killed. Either way, people died.

He ran a hand through his hair and swore under his breath. What an absolutely shitty situation.

For the first time in his life, being a werewolf sucked. He’d always loved it; the smells, the freedom, the power, but now he would give it all up if he could. Tao would rather never shift again than deal with the mess he was in, no thanks to his scheming brother.

How can I face my brothers after this?

Leo and Kai would never forgive him. They’d bonded into a small pack of their own in utero. It was a bond that drew them tighter together than even the family they were. They’d always stood together against the world. Hell, it wasn’t like the pack just took them in. They were wolf born, the stuff of legends and that had made the other wolves uneasy. When it became apparent they all had their own unique strengths, that had put even more distance between them and the rest of the pack. They’d had to fight for their places since before they were born, which probably half explained Nick’s total disregard for Dan.

Tao and his brothers handled the pack’s wariness in different ways. Leo kept to himself and would meet the definition of a hermit if not for the fact he spent time with his siblings. He was such a loner, the pack hadn’t seen him as a wolf since he was a pup. The gossip mill thought he turned into a lion because of his name and tawny good looks.

Kai had gone the medicine wolf route, which, on one hand, made the pack fear him even more because of his magic, and, on the other, granted him more respect. Either way, becoming the medicine wolf had given him his own role to fill in the pack, one that imparted a grudging acceptance of his existence.

Tao, for his part, stepped up and took the position as pack enforcer, which had granted him a certain amount of entre into the pack hierarchy. At the very least, people weren’t afraid of him anymore.

But Nick, well, he’d always tested the limits, never been one to follow any orders. His specialty was arguing with other wolves. Maybe that’s why he wanted to make his own pack. With the way his bite worked, no one could oppose him.

The memory of their mother, Myra, rose in his mind. She hadn’t meant to get pregnant in wolf form. When she talked about their father, she always said he had the charm of a god and could talk her into anything. She met him in the woods, and, for a few weeks, they frolicked together. Then he disappeared and she found her belly full of unintended consequences. He’d seemed like a normal werewolf, but her pregnancy and the children she birthed were anything but.

Being wolf-born, Tao and his brothers had spent the first thirteen years of their lives as wolves. She could have killed them or walked away, refusing to care for them, but she hadn’t. She’d loved her boys. All of them. Even Nick. “You remind me of your father. Loving you is how I keep him close,” she’d said once when Tao had asked her about her feelings.

Tao’s heart twisted. He missed his mom every minute of every day. Her quiet kindness, the way she’d ruffled his hair when she approved of something he did, the shine in her eyes when her boys were all gathered around her. She’d been his anchor and compass, and not for the first time, he felt her loss acutely.

What would she do in his shoes? He closed his eyes and contemplated the question. An answer came to him so fast, it made his head spin.

She would stand for what was right and protect those who needed protecting.

His phone rang and Tao growled when he saw Dan’s number come up on the caller ID. Of course it would be his alpha. He sighed. Oh well, might as well get it over with. He’d been planning to call anyway, right?

He put the phone to his ear. “Hi Dan.”

“What the fuck is going on up there?” Dan’s voice was a deep snarl.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I follow the news and I know how many people he’s bit. He’s building a pack. A god damn pack that has to do whatever he says. You name it, they’ll do it by the fucking dozens. I thought you had this under control, Tao. What the fuck have you been doing up there? Getting a tan at the beach?”

“No, sir,” Tao said stiffly.

“Then why isn’t Nick dead? Why isn’t that girl dead? Last I heard she was discharged from the hospital alive and well.”

“I’m not killing the girl,” Tao said flatly. It was not wise to openly disagree with his alpha, but he hadn’t known he was going to say the words. They just came out. There was nothing to do now but keep going and hope he could change Dan’s mind. “She’s innocent. They’re all innocent.”

“They’re innocents controlled by a psychopath, Tao.”

“Then you come up here and kill them. You look them in the eye and see if you can do it.”

“Yep. Already on it. I’ll be there in an hour. We drove overnight.” Dan sounded satisfied with himself. “I’m going to hunt that brother of yours into the fucking ground and then I’m going to clean up his mess. After that, I’m taking you home and you can stand before the council for your disobedience.”

“I’m not going back,” Tao said. “The pack I run with doesn’t murder people and call it a clean-up.”

“There’s no other way.” Dan sounded exasperated.

“Yes, there is. There has to be.”

“We don’t have time to be bleeding hearts about this. Nick’s still out there. Who knows how many more he’ll turn before we get to him?”

“Nick’s contained for now,” Tao said. “I’ve bought us time to find a better way than killing people.”

Dan was silent for a long moment. “Contained, eh? And he’s still breathing? I didn’t peg you for a weakling, Tao. I’m disappointed.”

“Yeah, well, so am I.” Tao hung up then. His heart began to race and blood pounded in his ears. He’d never defied his pack alpha before, never said no. Now he was disobeying orders, saying he was leaving. Was he crazy?

He shook his head. No. He wasn’t crazy. Just because Nick was wrong, didn’t make Dan right. They were both making bad choices, but for different reasons. Part of his pack enforcer oath was that he would never betray the pack, never put them in peril. He’d always thought that meant following his alpha’s orders, but now Dan was going down a path Tao refused to walk. As far as he knew, the pack didn’t want members committing murder. In fact, they were careful to stay away from humans. The human world meant danger and they’d shunned it long ago. But one thing was the same, werewolves and humans alike frowned on murder. It was a crime, one Tao would not commit. Not against complete innocents.