Heir To The Pack (The Cursed Pack Book 1) (6 page)

“I see.” Her face closed
down, showing no emotion on her still features.

“She travels to the Gathering
each year, to accept petitioners, and take part in the negotiations. It’s lucky
that you came now, when we can see her easily.”

She focused her gaze on
his face. “All right. We’ll do this. We’ll come to the Gathering. I’ll speak to
the Oracle.” Swallowing, she continued, “I only hope she can help. At this
stage, I will do anything. I’ll pay the price.”

He couldn’t take it any
longer. He had to touch her, to acknowledge what she’d said.

Reaching out, he put his
hand on her forearm, realizing instantly he’d made a poor choice. Too close to
her hand, too close to her lap. “I’ll help. I’m not going to lie to you. This
is likely to be dangerous.”

Her gaze dropped to his
hand. “I didn’t ask you about those men in the parking lot, yet.”

Dragging his attention
back, he worked on parsing her words. He squeezed her arm gently, and let his
hand drop. “You didn’t.”

“Who were they?”

“I wish I knew.”

Her eyebrows drew
together, hard, forming a pinched V shape between her eyes. His fingers
twitched with the urge to smooth it away. Damn it, he couldn’t keep his head in
the game when he looked at her. Or touched her. Or, for that matter, smelled
her. Her scent reminded him of fresh baked waffles. How did she do that? He
didn’t know a lot about cosmetics, but he was fairly sure they didn’t have
bottles of “Fresh Waffle” behind those glass counters in expensive department
stores.

Focus.
“Sorry, I should be more specific. I can
think of a number of people who may have sent those men to kidnap Daisy and
Jack. I don’t know who specifically. But I fully intend to find out.”

Annie sat up very
straight, folding and refolding her hands in her lap. “A number of people?”

She was mad at him again. He
knew it. And they’d been doing so well. “Yes.”

“Who might want to kidnap
my family...why? And why just Daisy and Jack?”

He took the second
question first. “They're a soft target. Old lady, little kid, alone. It probably
happened because you were seen with me, or at my house, yesterday. Or someone
at the house mentioned it to someone they shouldn’t have, by accident.” He ran
through the scenarios in his head. “Those are the most likely things.”

She burst out, “Who
are
you that you have so many enemies?” She
drew back from him on the couch, and he didn’t like it one bit.

“It’s just politics.”

Annie stood up, walked
over to the fireplace, and stood staring up at the mantel. She picked up a
carved wooden duck he was rather fond of, and began playing with it. “Just
politics.”

“Yes. You become used to
this sort of thing, in my position.”

She swung around, and
actually hissed at him, like an angry cat, still clutching the duck in one
hand. “What position is that,
exactly
?”

Dash sighed. “I really
didn’t want to get into this today. But I can see it’s important to you. So. At
this particular Gathering, I’m going to be appointed Lycaon of the gathered
packs. Most likely, anyway. There aren’t any other candidates. The Lycaon heads
up the Gathering, approves trades, that sort of thing.”

Her eyes flicked upwards,
a ring of white showing around her irises. She looked pretty when she was mad. “Are
you telling me you’re about to be crowned king?”

He rather thought that if
he said “Yeah,” as he was inclined to do, that she might throw the duck at him.
He kept quiet and simply nodded.

It was worse than that.

“I see,” she said. And
then nothing.

He waited. Wolves were
patient, and he prided himself on his patience.

Apparently she was pretty
darn patient, too. They stood watching each other, at an impasse. He didn’t
move, bone still on the couch, like he was hunting a rabbit. She didn’t move
either, but her eyes glittered in the afternoon light. The longer they sat
there, the more his respect for her grew.

Their détente ended when
Elaine came back into the room. “Everyone’s asleep,” she said brightly.

Annie came back to life,
her face forming itself into a polite smile.

Dash didn’t know what she
was thinking, but he had a fair idea he was in pretty big trouble. Kidnappers
and assassins he could fight off, but the thin woman with the waffle scent and
the laser eyes scared the crap out of him.

CHAPTER FIVE

After their conversation,
Annie turned her new knowledge over and over in her mind. Werewolves. And Dash,
their King. Lycaon, rather. Which, if she wasn’t mistaken, made Jack an heir,
or at least the king’s bastard. He might even be a prince. She would find it
amusing, if not for the fact that she’d read enough history and high fantasy
novels to know what it meant. The only other thing this situation needed was an
evil uncle and she’d feel right at home.

Any political leaders were
targets. She wished Dash had mentioned this to her earlier. No, he was so
worried about what she might think of the fact that he turned into a giant
German Shepherd once a month. At least she assumed it was once a month. Who
knew? He’d breezed right past telling her he was The. Crown. Prince. Of. The.
Damn. Werewolves.

She wasn’t even sure why
she was so wound up about this. Rationally, she was probably suffering from
emotional overload. But trying to manage it rationally didn’t calm her down at
all.

During naptime, she’d
quietly stewed, and tried to take her mind off things afterwards by playing
with Jack. Daisy knew her, and wisely didn’t ask what was going on. It was rare
for Annie to be emotional. The last time had been a number of years earlier,
when a professor had incorrectly asserted that her research methodology was
flawed due to laziness or incompetence. Being furious on that occasion had
bought her precisely nothing. Strong emotions were best kept private.

Knowing that didn’t stop
her mind from churning all afternoon.

The bright spot in her day
was Jack. He bounced around the house after his nap, climbing the stairs,
pouncing on the toys that magically appeared—via the aunts, she presumed—while
he’d been asleep. She hadn’t seen him this animated in a long time, although
she did not dare to hope he felt better.

When Elaine called them to
dinner, two extra people were already seated at the table, both young, both tall
and dark like Dash. One man, introduced as Bill, and a woman, Novie.

The woman kept her eyes
down, her long tanned face surrounded by a cloud of dark hair, her lowered eyes
framed by high, curved brows. She was beautiful, but she said little, mumbling
a greeting into her lap.

For some reason Annie
found it harder to understand her words without any eye contact. Why wouldn’t
she meet her eyes?

Bill was little better. His
gaze had bounced off Annie’s and quickly slipped away to look at the table. Neither
of them would look at Jack, either, which perversely annoyed her.

Daisy asked Bill what he
did for a living, and they were soon engaged in lively conversation. Annie
didn’t know how she did it. Small talk had never been her forte.

Marjie didn’t appear at
the table. “She’s not feeling very well,” Elaine said to Annie’s inquiry, and
continued bustling about with bread and serving plates.

That left Annie with Jack
and Dash to talk to. Jack wolfed down his food, and she didn’t want to
interrupt, especially since his appetite had been so poor lately.

“He’s a good kid,” Dash
said to her, between forking giant mouthfuls of beef into his mouth.

“He is.” She sipped her
water.

“You must be proud of him.”

“Very.” Beginning to feel
guilty, her ice melted and she felt the urge to make polite conversation. “So
where is this Gathering?”

The conversation lulled,
the two quiet cousins sitting silent, Daisy glancing up at her, while Elaine
watched Dash.

He seemed unperturbed. “This
is only a city house, not enough room for visitors. This year’s Gathering will
be at the ranch. Plenty of room there for everyone.”

Given the sprawling size
of this place, she could barely imagine how big the ranch must be, but she’d
find out soon enough. “You have a family ranch?”

“That’s our business. Cattle,
mostly, in terms of the day-to-day work. We also have some resource holdings,
but those are leased to management companies.”

“Resources? What do you
mean?”

“Oil and gold.” He waved
his fork in the air. “We have a fair amount of forest land which could
theoretically be logged, but we prefer to preserve nature where possible,
especially given the environmental costs of the other parts of our business. Let’s
say we have a fondness for the woods.”

Bill snickered, but in
mid-laugh, he jumped.

Annie deduced that Novie
had kicked him under the table, but the woman kept her gaze trained on her
plate. Unconcerned, Bill put peas on his knife and licked them off, at which
point Annie looked away. He’d been raised by wolves, she supposed.

Dash had made reference to
a family business when they'd first met, but had been vague about what exactly
that was. She'd assumed something less interesting. Cattle holdings, oil, and
gold told a different story from the one she'd envisioned. More money, more
glamor.

“How far away is it?”

“A few hours by car. We
were planning on leaving tomorrow. Things don’t really get started until the
day after that, but we’ll have time to get settled. It’s our usual routine. Bit
different this year as I sent most of ’em on ahead, didn’t want a thousand
people around with you here.”

He relaxed when he talked
about this, his normal life, even though the Gathering sounded like a stressful
event. What kind of man wasn’t even a little bit nervous about being named as
the leader of his people? What
would
make him nervous?

He caught her gaze and
raised an eyebrow. “What’s up?” His strong mouth widened in a smile. “Worried
about meeting all those people?”

“A touch,” she said. “I’m
more worried about...the types of things we talked about earlier.”

His smile flattened and
his eyes darkened. She knew he’d understood what she meant. Security. If those
attackers came from among the wolves, how on earth was he planning on keeping
all of them safe in a crowd of strangers?

“I promise you,” he said,
his voice low and growling, “I will not allow anything to happen to any member
of our family.”

Each person around the
table, even Jack, stopped at his words. Annie could see he meant it. He was
enough of a man’s man that she wasn’t going to call him on it. Undermining his
ego wouldn’t help anything. That didn’t stop the current of fear from flooding
through her body.

“More milk, mama?” Jack’s
sweet tones broke the tension, and she got up to refill the sippy cup he
brandished at her, grateful for a break from the intense conversation.

She walked through to the
kitchen, waving Elaine, who had risen to help, back into her seat. The huge,
stainless steel refrigerator had one entire shelf full of gallon after gallon
of milk.

Annie mostly ate
vegetables these days, trying to keep herself healthy. Dash’s family clearly weren’t
followers of that type of diet. The fridge had fruit and vegetables in it,
sure, but it was dominated by steaks, ribs, legs of lamb, and the jugs and jugs
of milk. She took a peek in the side-by-side freezer and found at least half a
cow stored in there. Werewolves ate a lot of meat, apparently.

She refilled Jack’s cup
and closed the refrigerator door. Turning to head back to the dining room, she
faced the wall of glass that separated the kitchen from the dark garden.

On the far side of the
glass stood an enormous naked man with shaggy blond hair, his body ripped with
muscle. His iridescent yellow eyes stared right at her, and he pressed his body
against the window. He leered at her and wiggled his hips lewdly.

She screamed and backed
away, clutching the sippy cup to her chest like a shield.

*
         
*
         
*

At her scream, Dash leaped
to his feet, his chair crashing to the ground behind him. He ran toward the
kitchen, prepared to kill.

Annie stood on the far
side of the room, backed up against the kitchen bench, her open mouth moving
wordlessly. He followed her gaze. Gaelan, the bastard, rubbing himself against
the window glass.

The prick didn’t even have
the decency to stop when Dash came in. He lifted a hand to wave at him, and
grinned, obscenely.

Dash took three long
strides to the outside door, opened it, and was at Gaelan’s side in a moment.

“I ought to beat the shit
out of you for this,” he said.

“You could try,” the blond
giant said, turning to envelop him in a bear hug. “She’s hot. Doesn’t look like
one of yours. Can I have her?”

“She’s human,” Dash said
tersely.

“Never stopped me before,”
Gaelan said, continuing to leer at Annie.

“Stop looking at her, or
I’m going to have to kill you,” Dash said, fighting to keep his wolf in check. He
said it in a light tone, but his intent lay beneath, hard and deadly, like a
promise.

“All right, bro.” Gaelan
gave Annie a broad smile and turned to Dash, cuffing him lightly on the
shoulder. “You better not be keeping a human concubine. The Russians won’t be
happy with you.”

They’re
not going to be happy with me, anyway.
Dash had been working damn hard not to think about that.

“Come inside. You must be
freezing.” Dash gave Gaelan a slap on the back and followed him in to the
kitchen.

“Gaelan, this is Annie. Annie,
my old friend, Gaelan. He’s originally from the Norse pack, but he’s one of us,
now.”

“Nice to meet you,” the
blond said, and stepped forward, as if to give her a hug. Annie scooted to one
side, gave Gaelan a little wave, and folded her arms. Her face was stiff.

“What’s the— Oh. G,
mind if I lend you a pair of track pants?”

“You don’t think your
little human appreciates me?” Gaelan roared with laughter. “Little lady, others
would pay to see this body. I can tell you haven’t spent much time around Dash
or you’d know he’s naked more often than I am.”

Dash gave him a shove. “You
know where my room is, brother.”

 
The giant sauntered off toward the living
room, giving one last shake of his ass and a grin over his shoulder as he
retreated.

“Brother?” Annie asked,
sinking back against the kitchen counter.

The others hailed Gaelan in
the dining room. Dash hoped Daisy would take his nudity more in her stride than
Annie had. He didn’t hear any shrieking, just a giggle from Jack.

“Foster brother. And my
best friend,” he answered. “I don’t know why he’s here. I wasn’t expecting him,
thought we’d see him up at the ranch.”

“Does he always walk
around naked?” Her cheeks glowed pink, and she still held the sippy cup in
front of her like a talisman.

He deferred answering the
question, because the answer was
yes, as
often as he could
. “We don’t worry too much about clothes, to be honest. When
there are humans around, sure.”

Her eyes got very round. “Is
everyone up at the ranch going to be naked?”

“There’ll be a decent
amount of nudity. Is that going to be a problem?”

She set the sippy cup down
and folded her arms tightly across her chest, but her blush continued. Even her
lips were flushed, and parted, and Dash found himself seized by the urge to kiss
her. Or, better, to rip her clothes off and take her right there on the kitchen
bench. His scent all over her would keep Gaelan at bay.

He stepped in closer to
her, extending a hand to lift her chin so he could look her in the eye.

“I’ll be fine. I’m, um,
worried about Jack and Daisy.” She shifted her weight, and her breath
quickened.

“I’m sure we can protect
them from anything... inappropriate.” He swore his pulse beat in time with hers.
He could feel it in his groin.

Her tongue darted out to
run over her lips
and Dash’s restraint snapped.
He pulled her in to him and took her mouth, wanting to own
her, to mark her.
Mine.

He pushed his pelvis
against hers, and slid his tongue into her mouth, echoing what he wanted to do
to her. Some dim, human, part of his brain suggested he wait until they were
alone, but all his wolfish self wanted was to mate with her again. He
remembered what she felt like riding him, sending a shudder through his body
like the aftershock of an earthquake.

But it was okay. She
kissed him back, sucking on his tongue, pushing her angular body that was
somehow soft in all the right places against him. Gods, he nearly came right there.

The sound of someone
clearing their throat brought him back from the brink, and he turned, growling.
He must protect his mate at all costs.

Elaine stood in the
doorway. “Just wanted to check that you found the milk okay,” she said
brightly, her gaze on Annie. “And make sure that scoundrel Gaelan didn’t
frighten you too much.”

Dash looked back at his
woman, her face red as beets, her hand over her mouth, her eyes huge and not with
arousal. Damn it, he’d gone too far. Seeing how disturbed she was poured a
bucket of cold water on his libido.