Hunter Moon (Lupine Moon Series) (37 page)

“What others?”

“Cash and James.”

Shock flashed across his face but he still didn’t favor me with a glance. “I can’t speak for the others, but as soon as you got away from the witchcraft I could feel you loud and clear.” Finally, his eyes flitted over to my face. Pain flickered in their butterscotch depths before returning to the road. “Damn, you look like her,” hank muttered.

“Like who?” I waited for his reply until I realized he was pulling onto Highway 99 north instead of going east toward my ranch. “Where are you taking me?”

“Home,” he said without a second’s hesitation.

“Um—my home isn’t this direction. You need to get off the freeway.”

“I know where you think your home is, but you belong with us.”

Ooookay...cultish much?

“I don’t care what you say, I’m not drinking any freaking Kool-Aid!”

Hank’s mouth twisted, trying not to smile. I wasn’t sure why, but I
did
feel safe with him, even though I had never met him before. The desire to curl up and sleep at his feet was as bizarre as it was overwhelming.

“It’s perfectly natural,” he said kindly but I still flinched. “It’s a common feeling among pack when they’re with their alpha.”

I scrunched up my nose in displeasure, not wanting to grovel for anyone, regardless of who they were. “So is that why you feel so familiar to me? You’re my alpha? I’m pretty new to all of this and I don’t even know how I’m related to all of you.”

I waived my hand northwards at the rest of the dozen lupine I felt in my mind. Although I hadn’t noticed earlier, they all seemed to be more calm than they’d felt since the first time I’d noticed them.

Hank didn’t answer, he simply nodded and we continued on for several miles in silence. After the pain, fear and grief I’d gone through while captive of the drug dealer my whole body was exhausted and it seemed a herculean feat just keeping my eyes open.

“We’ve got about eight hours of driving, so if you want to sleep, go ahead.”

“No, I...”

A huge yawn cracked my jaws and pain flared briefly in my already healing cheek. My mind was fighting the fatigue, insisting I had to get home to Cash, but my body had different ideas. The bond was telling my body that it was safe with Hank and it wasn’t about to disagree.

“I have to get back to Cash. He’s going to go ape once he finds out I’m not there anymore.”

“Oh yeah? Who’s Cash?” His voice tried at casual and missed the mark by a few light years.

“He’s my fiancé. He’s a...”

 Another yawn.

“A game warden. Oh, he’s a lupine too and my mate.”

My eyelids felt like lead and my head slowly tilted until it rested against the window.

“He’s your
what?
”

I should have noticed the menace thinly veiled behind that question but my brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders anymore.

“My mate. We’re gonna get married.” Another yawn.

I was fading fast and didn’t catch it when Hank whispered, “The hell you say...” under his breath.

Shelby!

My elbow jerked, slipping from the armrest on the door and my head smacked against the freezing cold glass of the window with a thud.
–and the judges say...? Ow!
My mouth tasted like a small rodent had crawled in it and died a horrible death and my whole body ached. I took a deep breath to test my ribs and was pleasantly surprised with a dull throb, as opposed to the searing pain I was used to.

“You’re pulling from your pack and they’re helping you heal faster. You’ll be right as rain tomorrow.”
Bonus!
I thought hazily.

Hank’s rough voice was quiet in the darkness, but I could only see a brief outline of his face when the occasional car passed us on the freeway. The clock said 11:53 pm. I looked out the window, searching for a landmark or road sign that would tell me where we were but only found tall, dark shadows of pine trees and the shimmer of moonlight off a large body of water.

“Did you say my name?” I could have sworn before I woke I heard a voice calling out to me.

“Nope, I’m afraid not, sweetheart. I don’t even know your name.”

I shot him a surprised glance and was rewarded with a glint of moonlight of his white teeth. Only the sound of the truck’s tires whirring filled the cabin of the truck.

“I thought—since you found me,” I whispered, lost.

“All I know, girlie, is that you’re new and you’re part of my pack.” His eyes never left the road but I could feel his focus on me as I sat next to him. “We all thought we should know who you were, since you’re family now.”

I could almost buy that...
His voice was completely neutral, but something in the bond said there was something he wasn’t telling me.

“My name is Shelby. Shelby Flint.” The seat shifted when he flinched. Years of anger and anguish threaded through the bond before he got a handle on it. “Holy crap! You know who I am, don’t you?”

Hank clamped down so hard on the bond that I could barely feel it at all, even though he sat mere inches away from me. “I don’t know you,” he said, barely a whisper in the quiet of the cab. My heart broke. This man was in so much pain, and I only made it worse.

“I’m sorry,” I said, trying to convey all I felt in those two little words. “So, where are you taking me?”

Hank cleared his throat. “Pendleton, Oregon. That’s where my pack is, where you belong now.”

“Okay, you keep saying that, but shouldn’t the other pack have a say too?” He grunted but I persevered. “I mean, I already know Cash is absolutely furious and is about four hours behind us.”

I blinked, realizing that I did indeed feel Cash in my mind and he was close behind. I was impressed that he could use machinery while being so insanely furious. And scared. He was terrified.
Oh, poor puppy!
I mentally touched our bond and felt him react immediately. I gave the ball of nerves that was Cash in my mind a giant, warm mental bear hug and felt the anger and fear ease. I closed my eyes, blocking out the sounds of the truck, Hank’s slow steady breathing, the symphony of aches all over my body and focused on Cash.

I love you.
I thought it so hard and so fiercely, if it was possible, I was sure he could hear it wherever he was. The golden light I’d missed all the while I’d been held captive came back with a vengeance and I dove in it and wrapped it around me.
I love you
, the light said and I knew in my heart it was Cash returning my words.

“You can feel him now, can’t you?” Hank asked quietly. Still enjoying our connection, I just nodded in the darkness, my eyes shut.

 “He’ll have to go through me if he wants you.”

I grimaced. “Um, no offence, but you’re old enough to be my father. I’m not really the gold digger type either.”

His soft chuckle echoed around the cabin of the truck. “The tradition goes that if a member of another pack wants to mate one of ours, he’s gotta fight for it.” Hank looked at me and the full force of those golden brown eyes. “He’s gotta fight
me
for you. And he’d better win.” The threat floated in the air between us.

“What the
hell
is that supposed to mean?” I snapped, infinitely pissed off that this guy I just met would assume that I would sit back and let him take ownership of me. “Look,” I said, putting on my best big girl voice, “I wouldn’t even
be
pack if it weren’t for Cash, and up until a few days ago you didn’t know me from Adam!”

He seemed to puff up a little with anger and I wondered how many
pack members
dared speak to him like that. “You listen to me, sweetheart, I’m your alpha and you’ll do what I tell you!” He growled back at me.
Oh no you didn’t...
I ignored Cash’s alarm as my anger mounted.

“I don’t care if you’re an alpha, beta or zeta, you can’t tell me what to do! I only have one alpha and that’s me, so you can stick it.” The walls Hank had erected around our connection started to crack and I could sense his anger and irritation.

“You’ll do it and like it.” His voice carried promise, but if he thought he was stubborn, he hadn’t met me. My grandpa had equated me with a mule, my mother equated me with my grandpa, and Jesse often moaned that I was like a glacier, cold, unfeeling and would grind you down eventually.

“You really
don’t
know me, do you?” I said darkly, more to myself than to Hank. I had thought things would be different, considering how familiar his bond felt to me, but it seemed I was wrong.

He sighed heavily and scrubbed his face with one hand. “I’m just looking out for my pack, and you’re pack now whether you like it or not.”

“How can I be part of the pack if I don’t get all furry?”

“Since you’re not full blooded lupine, it’s your choice. You can choose to stay human and age at the natural rate, or change and slow it down.”

 I sat stunned in silence, trying to wrap my head around that.

“But until you know what you want to do, you have to stay in Oregon. There are things going on you don’t understand. You’re safer with us.”

“I can’t stay for very long, I’ve got a court date with my bastard cousins that I can’t miss.”

“You’re going to court against your cousins? What for?”

“They’re contesting my grandpa’s will, trying to take the ranch from me, but they won’t win.” I said fiercely.

“Some family you got. You’re still staying in Oregon. No arguments.”

Something childish in me made me say, “Who died and made you my father?”

I felt the seat move again when he jerked, and shock lit like electricity through the bond.
Oh. My. God...
“Please don’t tell me you’re my father,” I said in a quiet voice.

Neither of us spoke and the silence stretched on for minutes until finally I cracked. “Well?” I screeched at him. “Are you going to answer me?”

“You told me not to tell you I’m your father,” he said wryly. “How’s your mother doing?”

I sat staring at Hank, my father, with my mouth hanging open. Thoughts buzzed in my head like a chainsaw, ripping around and colliding with each other making it impossible to form a coherent sentence. One emotion blazed and I clung to it like it was a lifeboat in the chaos that was my life.

“Oh, Dad,” I hissed, anger flaming to life behind my eyes, “you’d better have one
hell
of an explanation for this.”