Hungry Like a Wolf (12 page)

He growled at that, and the deep rumble tickled the hairs at the back of her neck. “If you think I’m going anywhere without my mate, you’re operating under some serious delusions, Honor Tate. You can’t get rid of me that easily. You can’t get rid of me at all.”

“Which brings us to answer number two.” She wanted to believe him. Hell, part of her did believe him. Her wolf knew Logan wasn’t lying when he said he was her mate. Her nose wasn’t broken. She could smell the truth for herself. What she couldn’t do was see any possible way in which the two of them could end up with a happily ever after. Some things just weren’t meant to be, and she’d given up on happy a long, long time ago.

“Two A goes like this,” she continued, shoving back a pang of grief she had no right to feel. “You decide I’m not fit to be alpha of this pack. If that happens, you undermine everything I’ve spent the last decade of my life establishing. You tell the males in my pack that you think one of them can challenge me and win, which means they will likely all challenge me. One at a time, I can defeat any male in this pack. I’ve already done it with two of the strongest, and I’m not going to back down from any of the rest. But, if they all come after me at once, there’s no way I can win. Even if they come at me one after the other in honorable challenges, eventually I’ll exhaust myself, and one of them will be able to get through my guard. Either way, I’m dead, so the White Paw Clan really would get itself a new alpha. I just wish I’d be around to tell you I told you so when that new alpha leads the pack down the road to hell within the first three months. Maybe I’ll get lucky and be able to haunt you.”

She saw the roar building up behind his expression and raised a hand. She needed to make him understand what she was saying. She didn’t have time for knee-jerk denials or macho possessive-mate bullshit. This was too important.

“Two B is the one where I don’t die, but listen for a second and then tell me if you really think it’s a better choice. Listen carefully.”

She leaned in close, so close she could see tiny pinpricks of silver in the brown of his eyes where the gold had not completely taken over. Even as she watched, they disappeared, his wolf steadily eroding his control and rising to the surface.

“This is the one where you get your wish.” She twisted the arm he still grasped until her own fingers could curl around his wrist, clasping him in return until his eyes flared an even brighter gold. “In this one, I admit you’re my mate. In fact, I proclaim it in front of my whole pack. Anyone who steps up to challenge me is forced to realize that they can’t try to harm me without my mate stepping in to defend me. Since I would only agree to call a male my mate if he supported me in everything I do, I’d still be alpha of this pack, because even though you had called me unfit, your presence at my side would keep me in the position simply because no one would be willing to challenge both of us together. Which would make you, as the mate of a female alpha, not the beta of the Silverback Clan, but the White Paw Clan’s Sol.”

She paused and watched the truth begin to dawn on this stubborn, arrogant man. Her lips quirked in a bitter half smile.

“So that’s false, Hunter. Now which one is it going to be?”

Seven

Sol.

Male mate to the female alpha.

The title had every one of Logan’s instincts rebelling in an instant. How could she ever imagine he would accept a position as any pack’s Sol? Unlike the Luna of a pack—the mate of a male alpha—the Sol lacked any power or authority. Sure, he was allowed and expected to defend his mate against a direct physical threat; he was still Lupine after all. Outside of that, though, he had no place in the clan’s hierarchy. He was not considered his mate’s beta, he wasn’t an elder, or even a storyteller or lorekeeper, since those were positions requiring age in the first case, and specialized knowledge and training in the others. He’d be the Lupine equivalent of a boy toy, with no power and no identity outside that of his mate.

He’d sooner suffer some sort of comic book–style radiation mishap and wind up a cat. At least then he could pretend to have a little dignity.

His mate’s soft snort brought him back to reality.

“Yeah. That’s what I thought you’d say.” Honor eased her wrist from his lax grip and pushed back her chair. “There’s only one easy way out of this, Hunter, and that’s to name me alpha and then get on with your life. In the city. Keep that in mind while you go around asking questions. Sometimes there aren’t any good answers.”

This time he didn’t try to interfere when she thrust to her feet and addressed the crowd.

“White Paws.” Her voice rang out in the large room, quieting the conversations and drawing all eyes her way. Their way. He saw plenty of curious glances darting toward him, but they all eventually settled on Honor. “I have an announcement to make. I’m sure some of you have already noticed that we have an unfamiliar male in our territory. His name is Logan Hunter, and he’s come here from the Silverbacks to acknowledge the passing of our old alpha and witness our transition into the future.”

Whispers and murmurs swept down the tables, but no one raised a voice or a question. Logan, though, could feel their curiosity and the tension of uncertainty. This was an isolated pack, unused to entertaining visitors. They had also been through quite an upheaval lately. And he was only here to cause more.

“I have granted Hunter permission to stay among us until Sunday and to witness our gathering on Saturday’s full moon. I expect each and every member of this pack to treat him with the courtesy due to anyone visiting under my authority. If an individual behaves otherwise, I will deal with them appropriately.”

She swept the room with a cool stare. No one said a word.

Finally, she nodded. “Good. Now enjoy your dessert. Smells like pie.”

Without another word, she strode across the hall and out the wide double doors, leaving her dinner mostly untouched and Logan still slightly stunned. What the hell was he supposed to do now?

“Here, son. Have some pie. It’s apple.”

Logan blinked down at the dessert plate that appeared in front of him, pushing aside his bowl of cold chili. Raising his eyes, he watched as an unfamiliar older male pulled a chair up opposite him and settled down with his own slice of pie.

The man raised overgrown gray eyebrows and jerked his chin. “Go on. Dig in.”

Slowly, Logan reached for his fork.

“For Pete’s sake, I didn’t poison it. I think you’d have to worry about that more if Honor had delivered it. Me, I got no grudge against you at the moment. And if I did, I’d sure find a way to show you that didn’t involve poison and the waste of a perfectly good piece of pie.”

The scowl was what finally won Logan over, perversely enough. It reminded him a little of Honor. He’d seen precious few other expressions on the woman’s face since his arrival, so he’d become something of an expert.

“I’m Logan Hunter,” he offered, extending his hand to the elder.

“Yeah, I heard.” The Lupine shook hands briefly, then went straight back to his dessert. “Name’s MacDuff. Hamish.”

“Nice to meet you.” Logan chewed a bite of flaky crust, crisp apples, and cinnamon-laced sugar. He grunted in appreciation. “Thanks for the pie. This is good.”

“Ain’t it, though? One thing about Josephine is, she’s a damn fine hand in the kitchen. Too bad she doesn’t spend more time there.”

By “Josephine,” Logan assumed MacDuff referred to Honor’s cousin Joey. She had introduced herself that way when Logan first arrived, and as far as he could tell, she seemed to spend most of her time doing domestic chores. Of course, there could be another female in the pack with the same name.

He decided to be cautious. “Josephine?”

MacDuff grunted, scraping up the last crumbs of pie with the edge of his fork. “Josephine Tate. Honor’s first cousin. Girl can cook like nobody’s business. If you ask me, she ought to spend more time at it, and less at watching what everyone else is doing. Takes after her mother that way, if you ask me.”

The old man pushed aside his plate with a sigh, and Logan observed him with renewed interest. He looked to be in his late sixties, at least—easily one of the pack elders. That could make him a valuable source of information, if he proved willing to share.

Logan finished his pie and slid the plate to the side to join the chili bowl. “Let’s say I did ask you, MacDuff. What exactly would you tell me?”

The Lupine’s hazel-blue eyes glinted with appreciation, as if he’d been waiting for just that question. “I’d tell you that Josephine isn’t half as big a problem for you as Honor is, son. And, I’d tell you that in spite of that story she just tried to spoon-feed us, I’ve been around in the world long enough to know that you didn’t just come to tell her the Silverback Clan says ‘hello.’ I know it’s not exactly Manhattan around here, but you could probably figure out we’ve got mailboxes and telephones, and Internet service, same as you, if that’s all you boys had to say.”

“We probably could.”

“Which means that you were sent here because Graham Winters isn’t exactly sure whether he approves of the White Paw Clan having a female alpha.”

MacDuff delivered his summary of the situation, then sat back in his chair, folded his arms across his stocky chest, and waited for Logan to make the next move. The younger Lupine had to admire the man’s ability to cut right to the heart of the matter.

“And let’s say that’s true. What would your reaction be?”

“Hell, say it or not, we both know it’s true, son. No need to dance around it. I’m not saying the rest of the pack see it, but you might not want to lump me in with the rest of the pack.”

“Why not? Because you’re older than the rest of them?”

“Barney Andrews is closing in on me pretty fast. He turned sixty-eight last month. This ain’t just about me being an elder. The years tell me a thing or two about how packs operate, but that’s not what tells me about how our girl is going to react if you try to hand this pack over to someone else.”

“No one said that’s what’s going to happen,” Logan explained, for what felt like the hundredth time in the past twenty-four hours.

MacDuff snorted. “You can’t fool me, son, and I don’t imagine you got away with fooling my niece, either.”

“Niece?”

“Yup. Sadie, Honor’s mama, was my little sister. That makes me ‘Uncle Hamish.’”

“And you didn’t think to mention that when you told me how Honor and Josephine are related?”

“Wasn’t talking about me back then. Josephine is Joseph Tate’s daughter. Joseph mated with one of Jim Pritcher’s daughters. The girl is no blood relation to me. Joseph and Marie died before either girl even started school, and the Pritchers brought up Josephine. Honor, of course, stayed with Ethan, not that he paid her much mind. Sadie died giving birth to Honor, and Ethan didn’t make much secret of the fact that he’d have grieved less if Honor had been born a son. When Joseph died, it was another blow. Joe was Ethan’s beta, and everyone assumed he’d take over when Ethan kicked the bucket.”

“What about you? Why weren’t you in line for the job?”

“I’m not a Tate.” Hamish’s lip curled. “My brother-in-law was big on family. Plus, I’m no submissive wolf, but I don’t have the drive it takes to lead a pack. Never have. I’m not much for politics, and most of the time, I’d rather keep to myself. Loners don’t rise too far in a pack, you know.”

Logan digested that information, trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle still made up mostly of blank space. “Honor said she became her father’s beta when she was fifteen.”

“Yup.”

“So who took over after Ethan’s brother died?”

The old man’s bushy brows pulled together. “Why? You think that might be someone you can look to as alpha instead of Honor?”

“I never said that.” But apparently, no one in this pack was ready to give him the benefit of the doubt when it came to the decision he still had to make. “Obviously, if Honor took his place, either she’s stronger than he was, he left the pack, or he’s dead. I just want to know which it is.”

“He’s dead. Got drunk and fell through the ice on the lake about fifteen years ago.”

Just when Honor had become the beta. “So Ethan appointed Honor in his place.”

MacDuff guffawed. There was just no other word for the belly laugh that surged from his mouth on a gust of breath. “Hell, no! That right there tells me you never met Ethan Tate before he died and brought you here. Might as well have written it out for me.” He dropped his hands to his knees and leaned into the table. “Ethan Tate was just about the biggest bastard the Goddess ever whelped, Hunter. He never gave anything to anybody without making sure they went through hell to get it. He tried naming three young males to the beta spot before Honor. She had to hand each and every one of them their asses, and do it while her father watched, before she could claim that position. And even then, he made her go a round with him before he gave in. Whipped the ass of his own daughter on the pack’s ceremonial ground. If she weren’t so fast, he’d have killed her, too. The fact that she survived longer than any of the boys she’d beaten is the only thing that saved her.”

Logan tried to picture the scene. He couldn’t imagine any father treating his own young that way. Even when a son unseated his own father for the alpha position, it was usually more of a show than a real battle. Graham and his father had nearly laughed themselves silly at their ceremonial challenge. The elder Winters had been more than ready to hand over his position, but most important, he had loved his son.

How had Ethan Tate felt about Honor? If that was how he demonstrated it, Logan hated to even speculate.

“So, you’re trying to tell me that Honor has already paid her dues, and I need to just rubber-stamp her turn as alpha. Is that what the pie was about? Usually when someone is trying to tell me what to do, they find threats more effective than desserts.”

“No, the pie was because you looked so sour when Honor walked out on you, I thought you could use sweetening up.” MacDuff laughed. “I’m not threatening you, Hunter, or telling you how to do your job. I don’t know you, but you strike me as the sort of man that even if I tried, you’d still go ahead and do things exactly the way you intended all along. I don’t believe in wasting my breath that way. I imagine you plan to take the next couple of days to check this pack out for yourself. You’ll probably talk to the females and the pups to see what they think of the new alpha, and then you’ll likely go check out each of our males in the prime age group and see whether you believe any of them looks like he’d make a better alpha than my niece.”