Love Bites (Bitten Book 4) (21 page)

I
was frantic.
When Ricki ran out of the meeting earlier, I started to follow her, but Chloe stopped me.

I growled and tried to sidestep her. She just followed me, staying in my face. My growl became a snarl.

“Back off.”

“No,” she shot back. “If you run out of here now without resolving anything, shit is gonna go bad and it’s gonna go bad fast.” She lifted her hands. “Let me go find her and stay with her until you get back to the house. Keep the meeting short and I’ll see you later.”

I knew she was right, even though it killed me. My mate needed me, but as acting alpha the pack had to be my priority for the moment. I just hoped no one challenged Lach while he was recovering from the loss of Belinda. Physically, he was healed, but he was little more than a ghost. He rarely ate, never spoke, and left the house to wander in the woods for hours in human form. He hadn’t shifted once since the night Belinda died, which was rare. Our wolves needed to run free at least once a week to help us maintain our sanity and control.

I focused on the problem at hand. “Fine. Find her, stay with her. With the dissent in the pack, I don’t think she’ll be safe alone.”

Chloe nodded once and swiftly left the meeting hall. I watched her go, wanting desperately to call off the meeting and go with her. The entire reason for the meeting was bullshit anyway. With Lach out of commission, some of the men and women in the pack suddenly decided they had an issue with our alliance with the vampires and witches. While they wouldn’t challenge him, they weren’t afraid to give me shit.

That was about to change.

As I moved to the front of the hall, everyone took their seats. George Hayes and his daughter, Brittany, were watching me with smug smiles. I couldn’t wait to wipe those expressions off their faces. I couldn’t make my move today. I had to be patient.

I hated the stupid podium at the front of the hall. Lach did too and he never used it but we kept it because it had been made by Ewan MacIntire, the first alpha of the MacIntire pack. It was almost two hundred years old and rickety. Old Ewan hadn’t been much of a builder it seemed. Even if I had been inclined to use the podium, I wouldn’t have because I was almost certain it wouldn’t hold my weight.

Standing at the front of the room, I looked at all of the wolves there. I knew without a doubt that some of them wanted me gone, George Hayes included. After the attack on the compound by the Faction, the pack split. Before only George and a couple of others disagreed with an alliance with the other supernaturals in Dallas. Now, over half were arguing against it.

It was fear, plain and simple. Unfortunately, I didn’t have Lach’s knack for putting the pack at ease. Considering he was fifty years older than me, he’d had more practice.

I searched for the right words and finally decided that blunt was best.

“This meeting was called today at the insistence of some of you.” I put my hands on my hips. “I agreed to it because I, like Lach, think you as a pack should have a say in how things are run.”

Several pack members nodded and murmured beneath their breath.

“However, this will be the last meeting until our full moon run.” There was a collective outburst. I held up a hand until they fell silent. “Whether you agree now or not, it was decided by a majority vote two months ago that the pack would accept the vampire council’s offer of an alliance. I know you’ve all been hearing things, rumors that the accord we have with the Council is why the compound was attacked, but those are lies.”

The room fell silent.

“The Faction doesn’t just want to control the vampires. They want total control of witches, shifters, and all other members of the supernatural community in the area. Once they have that, they’ll move on to the humans. Even if we had refused to align with the vampires, the Faction still would have come here and we probably would have lost a lot more.”

“Now, unless Lachlan or I call a meeting between now and the full moon run in two weeks, we won’t be doing this again.”

George shot to his feet. “Now, wait just a damn minute! We have a right to—”

I didn’t let him finish. “No, you have no right to do anything unless approved by your alpha, which at this time, is me. Lach allows you to voice your opinions because that’s what he thinks is best for the pack. What we’re dealing with here isn’t opinion, it’s fear. You’re all afraid.” I paused, meeting the eyes of the pack members I knew were in with George on this bullshit. “Any other questions?” I asked, my voice harsh.

No one spoke or even breathed.

I lifted my chin slightly to George and walked out of the building. As soon as my boots hit the asphalt, I took off at a run. I needed to find Ricki. I sprinted to my house, hoping she was there.

I burst through the front door and tore through the house, looking for her. It quickly became clear that she wasn’t there. Worry filled my mind. Where in the hell was she? I yanked off my boots and clothes, hauling ass back downstairs. As soon as I hit the front porch, I shifted.

Then I leaped off the porch and immediately started tracking her scent. I had to wonder around in circles until I found the newest trail.

Her scent led me across the open field where the pack met for the full moon run each month and into the trees. I spent over an hour tracking her through the woods. Finally, I ended up back at the house to find Chloe waiting on the porch. She sat in one of my patio chairs, her legs crossed at the ankle and propped up on the railing.

I changed form. “Is she here?” I asked as soon as I could speak.

Chloe nodded, her eyes cool as she stared at me.

I noticed my jeans hanging on the railing. I slid them on. “Thanks for staying with her.” Anxious to check on my mate, I started up the steps and into the house.

“Calder.”

I glanced over my shoulder at her. “What?”

The look she gave me was assessing, as though she were weighing her words and trying to choose the right ones. “Your mate is feeling weak right now. That’s why she’s having so much difficulty controlling her shifts and her strength.”

Her words gave me pause. “Shifts
and
strength? She hasn’t said anything else about it.”

Chloe laughed, but the sound held little humor. “Ricki knows you’re under a lot of stress. She’s trying not to add to it and, as a result, she’s taking too much on herself.”

“Okay.” The only problem was I didn’t know what to do for her, but I wasn’t about to admit that to Chloe. It was one thing for me to recognize I had a weakness. It was another to admit it to a less dominant member of the pack aloud.

As though she knew exactly what I was thinking, Chloe smirked. “You have no idea what you should do, do you?”

I growled under my breath.

She dropped her feet from the railing. “Ricki needs to know that she’s not weak. She needs reassurance and training.” Chloe took a deep breath. “She also needs to learn how to fight.”

I went from growling to snarling. “No.”

Chloe rose to her feet and put her hands on her hips. “Look, I know you don’t like it, but she needs to be prepared. With things the way they are in the pack and with the Faction, she has to be able to protect herself and others. Now that she’s no longer human, she’ll be fair game for the bitches, and you know it.”

My anger disappeared. She was right. Brittany’s attitude toward Ricki today had revealed a lot. All the she-wolves who were siding with George would constantly snipe at her. That fucking bitch, Brittany, had the gall to put her hands on my mate today. Something she would pay for very soon.

I relented. “You’re right. She needs to know how to protect herself.”

Chloe smiled brightly and I felt my balls draw up in fear. It wasn’t a smile exactly. More like a joyful snarl, as though she were about to rip something or someone to shreds and the thought gave her a great deal of pleasure.

“Great. I’ll start her training tomorrow. Tell her to be ready at 8 a.m.”

With that, she bounded down the steps. She stopped and turned back. “I think you and Ricki will be surprised with how strong she truly is. I know a fierce fighter when I see one.” With that, she strode toward Lach’s house. I watched her, shaking my head in disbelief. If she approached Lach’s recovery with the same brass she did Ricki’s training, he was going to be fine.

Sighing, I went inside, wondering how in the hell I’d been so masterfully manipulated. Chloe’s grandmother had taught her well. Not only was she a vicious fighter, but she excelled at bloodless battles as well.

Ricki’s cat, Pepper, actually came running up to me as I shut the front door behind me.

She meowed, blinking her big green eyes, as she wound around my ankles. I leaned down and stroked her slender length and she purred.

“Hey, kitty. Where’s your mama?”

She turned and trotted into the kitchen. I followed and saw that her food and water dishes were empty. That alone told me a great deal about Ricki’s state of mind. Her little pet was one of her top priorities and she always had water out for her.

Murmuring to the cat, I put a little food in her dish and added water to her bowl. The cat looked up at me, its expression almost grateful.

With one last pat on her dark head, I straightened and went upstairs. Moving quietly, I entered my bedroom and found Ricki curled up in the center of the bed, her arms wrapped tightly around my pillow. The tightness I’d held in my chest since she ran away finally eased. She was here and she was safe.

I moved to the bed and slowly lowered myself behind her. She didn’t respond as I slid one arm beneath her head and wrapped the other around her waist in our favorite sleeping position. I pressed forward until her body was cupped by mine. Her breathing didn’t change, remaining slow and even, but I knew she was awake.

“Are you okay?” I asked. It was a stupid question but I didn’t know what else to say.

Ricki turned in my arms, facing me. “I’m fine.”

I took in the paleness of her skin and the tear tracks on her cheeks. “You don’t look fine,” I murmured, lifting my hand to touch her face. “Tell me what happened, darlin’.”

She wouldn’t meet my eyes. Her fingers danced lightly over my chest as she drew patterns in my skin. “You know what happened,” she mumbled. “I lost control and I shifted in front of everyone.”

A wash of hot red color flooded her face.

I hated that she was so upset. I also hated that there would be pack members that gave her shit about it, as if they had never had issues before. Every wolf, whether turned or born, struggled with the change. Natural born wolves began shifting during puberty. And they shifted a lot. More even than Ricki had done since she was turned. Every time they were angry, sad, hell, even horny, a pubescent werewolf would shift.

The newly turned were usually adults and gained control quickly. While it was taking Ricki longer to acclimate than most, the extreme stress of our situation easily explained that. The more tension she felt, the more difficult it would be for her to control her new abilities.

Stroking her cheek, I tried to comfort her. “Ricki, all wolves have that issue when they’re young. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Suddenly her brown eyes snapped to mine and they were piercing in their intensity. “Oh really, so no one is going to say a single word to me about it. No smartass remarks? No bitchy attitude?”

She had me there. “There will probably be one or two assholes, but that’s the way life is with any group of people, darlin’.”

She scowled at me. “Yeah, but I know how to deal with human assholes. I don’t know how to deal with werewolves.”

I pressed my lips to her forehead. “Well, we’re gonna take care of that, starting tomorrow.”

She blinked up at me. “What? What do you mean?”

I ran my fingers through her hair. “Chloe said she was coming by in the morning at eight. Dress for training.”

Ricki frowned at me. “I don’t understand.”

I grinned at her. “I’m pretty sure the MacIntire pack enforcer, one of the toughest wolves I’ve ever seen fight, is going to train you, so dress for a workout, darlin’.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh, my God, she’s gonna kill me.”

I had to laugh, I couldn’t help it. Maybe Chloe was right. Maybe Ricki needed to know how strong she truly was.

Ricki