Shifters of Grrr 2 (61 page)

Then the Alpha rolled Snake Eyes, and any hope for engagement was off.

Carly sighed.

"Well, you win again," she said.
 
She started walking toward her car. "I'll meet you back at the casino.
 
I already had my things brought over there from my apartment.
 
I'm not taking much to Palm Springs."

Jason slowly walked back to his Jag, watching as Carly drove off, her tires kicking up dust as she disappeared out of sight.

He felt like a shit.

He began to leave, when instinct told him not to just yet. He looked back at Carly's mother's trailer.
 
He walked up the steps and knocked on the door.

"Whoever you are, go away!"

The scratchy, scathing voice belonged to a woman.

Jason tried to open the door and found it to be unlocked.

When he stepped inside, he found Carly's mother still on the couch in her wretched state.

"Who the hell are you?" she demanded, eyeballing him.

"I'm a friend of Carly's," he said.

She glared at him suspiciously.

Jason immediately sized up the situation.
 
He noticed several empty bottles of vodka strewn around her.
 
He pulled out his cellphone and called one of his assistants.

"Where are you?" he asked.
 

The assistant told him he was still at the casino, tying up loose ends from their stay. Jason told him to finish up as soon as he could, and drive out to Reno, giving him the address of the trailer park. He explained the situation and gave him instructions to get there as soon as he could. The assistant was instructed to ensure that Carly's mother sobered up, and then to get her out of there.

He ended the call.

"Ma'am, I'm the Alpha of the Palm Springs Pack.
 
I actually used to be
your
Alpha a few years back."

"That so?" Carly's mother spat. "Why should I care?"

"Your daughter is very important to me," he said. "And so my assistant will be coming here soon, and he will be taking you to rehab."

"The hell he will!"

"I'm not asking," Jason practically growled. "You will be set up at a place just outside of Palm Springs. It has a very good reputation. You
will
go and you
will
get sober. As far as the expense, you don't have to worry about that."

"And if I refuse?"

"If you refuse, I will have you thrown out of this trailer park onto the street.
 
I'm not playing here, ma'am."

Carly's mother sat upright.

"Well, then, I guess you're not.
 
You must be 'some friend' to my daughter. I can only imagine what
that
means."

Jason immediately knew he did not like this woman at all. But he could only imagine what a ball-and-chain she was to her daughter, and so he felt obliged to step in and start shouldering that weight.

"Are we going to have problems?" he asked.

Carly's mother weighed her options.

"No," she sneered. "I guess I really don't have much of a choice."

"No, you don't," he agreed. "Start packing.
 
My assistant should be here first thing in the morning.
 
If you refuse to go with him, you will regret it. And if you try to run, I will hunt you down and drag you off to rehab, if that's what I have to do."

And with that, he left.

Chapter 15

Jason had Carly's belongings sent off to Palm Springs separately, and he told her to leave her clunker behind at the casino.
 
He would buy her a new car once they settled her in at her new home.

They hadn't spoken much since their game of craps – the only words they exchanged involved a brief discussion on when they would actually be leaving Diamond's Oasis.

Carly said goodbye to Max, Debbie and Sheila, hugging them each as if she would never see them again.
 
Even though she probably would see them again within a couple of weeks, when the Alpha returned.

"Meet me out at the car," Jason told her.
 
Then he pulled Max aside, when Carly was out of earshot.

"I don't think she really wants this," Jason told Max. "I'm not sure I'm very happy with this either.
 
Something just doesn't feel right."

"Wait a minute," Max said. "You're in it up to your neck now – you signed a contract, and you can't leave her in the lurch. She may not like it, but you
have
promised to take care of her."

"I know that," Jason said. "I'm not leaving her in the lurch.
 
But I'm going to release her from the contract.
 
She doesn't want to be just a concubine."

Max nodded.
 
Then he felt a panic.

"Wait – are you saying you want your $10 million now?"

Jason looked at him.

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

Max gave the Alpha a hard look.

"I know I'm just a Beta," he said carefully, "and this may be totally out of line.
 
But you're kind of a bastard."

Jason grinned.

"I was thinking more along the lines of not taking the cash, but using it to buy into the casino."

Max thought about this.

"I don't know.
 
It might be a tough sell."

"I don't want to buy into the casino for myself.
 
I'm buying in for Carly."

Max's eyes grew wide.

"You really want to give Carly partial ownership in Diamond's Oasis in exchange for your $10 million in winnings?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I want."

"Well, I have to admit," Max said. "That's very generous for an Alpha who feels like he's being spurned by a she-wolf."

"She hasn't spurned me.
 
I can just tell that she's not really happy. So, can you make it happen?"

Max thought for a moment.
 
Then he nodded.

"I can make it happen," he said.

"Good."

The Alpha turned on his heel and headed out.

He found Carly sitting in the passenger side of the Jag.
 
The sun was starting to set, and she was gazing out at the horizon, shielding her eyes from the sun, trying to capture the view for one last time.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"Yes," she said.

He was right.
 
She didn't sound very happy.

As they drove, Carly thought about her situation.
 
She had landed an Alpha.
 
A rich Alpha who liked her well enough to make her his concubine and treat her well.
 
She never thought that any decent man would want her for anything long-term, never mind a man as amazing as Jason. But it made her sad to think that although she'd be well taken care of, she might never get to be married.
 
She might never be actually loved enough for that.

Carly was lost in thought, and so she didn't notice that Jason wasn't heading toward Palm Springs just yet.
 

Instead, he was headed to Red Rock Canyon.

Eventually, Carly realized where they were, when she saw the canyon's orange and sand-striped stony ridges rising out of the Mojave Desert. Jason pulled off the road and parked.
 
He shut off the engine, stepped out of the car, and then walked around to open Carly's door.

She stepped out, curious as to why they were making a pit stop.
 
The sun was setting now, and the sky was aflame.

"What are we doing?" she asked.

"I wanted to go for a run," Jason said.
 
"Usually, I like to head off on my own, but I think maybe having company is nice.
 
Besides, you owe me for the last time you ditched me here."

Carly grinned slightly.
 
Looking around to make sure no one else was driving by, the two of them stripped down to nothing, leaving their clothes in the car.
 

Then they set out, heading past the cacti, across the sandy flats, until they entered the canyon itself.

"If somebody sees us, they're going to think we're a couple of hippie nudists," Jason said.

"Maybe not," Carly said. "And definitely not if they see us shift. Folks are starting to get used to the idea of werewolves around here."

"Sometimes I think I liked it better when people didn't really know about us."

"There's no going back now," Carly said.

"That's part of why I got out of Reno," Jason said.

"Really?
 
I thought it was just bad blood over money."

"Partially," he told her. "But as you know, our pack – our
original
pack – was the first to expose themselves. But when the Reno Pack said they wanted to go public, I just couldn't allow it."

"They should have obeyed you as the Alpha and kept quiet then."

"They would have," he said.
 
"But that's not what folks wanted anymore.
 
And I didn't want to be the Alpha of an unruly, foolish pack."

They were now hiking up a fairly steep hill and still had not shifted yet.

"It's worked out fairly well, though, hasn't it?"

"It's only been, what, five years?
 
We have no idea how it's going to work out.
 
Ask me 10 years from now."

Carly fell silent. She wondered silently what they would be to each other 10 years from now.
 
Would they have children?
 
Would she still belong to him?
 
Would they go their separate ways, as allowed by the contract, if he released her and made good on his financial promises.

"Here's a good spot," Jason said. He fell to the ground on all fours, his skin blooming into a thick, fury pelt. His bones stretched, and his nose lengthened to a snout.
 
Fangs erupted from simple human incisors and premolars.
 
He took on the full size of an Alpha wolf.
 
His coloring ranged from grey to brown, and he was eight feet long, weighing it at about 250 lbs.
 
He stretched and then turned, waiting for Carly to join him.

Carly likewise dropped to ground on all fours and swiftly transformed.
 
She was not nearly as big as he was, but Jason clearly saw that she was not a petite wolf either. He headed off and fell into a fast run, with Carly having a surprisingly easy time keeping up with him.
 

Together they climbed the rocks, heading deeper and deeper into the 13-mile canyon.
 
Jason had a favorite spot, and he led Carly there. Side by side they sat, calmly, awaiting the deepening of the night sky, which melted from a deep blue to a tar black, speckled with stars.

And then they howled at the moon.

After a time, Jason shifted back into his human state, and motioned for Carly to do the same.
 
He wanted to have a conversation with her, and he wanted to do it while in their human state.

He leaned up against a ledge and motioned for her to come closer.
 
She leaned back against his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her.
 
As the desert cooled off, she never actually felt cold, warmed by Jason's body heat.

 
"I need to tell you something," he said.

She turned her head, glancing back and up at him.

"I'm letting you go," he said.

She wasn't sure at first that she had heard him right.

"What do you mean exactly?"

"What I did – it was unfair – it doesn't really matter if I have the right," he said. "I don't want a woman who feels trapped with me, and like she can't trust me and so she needs a contract."

Suddenly, Carly felt bad, even though she shouldn't, should she?

"What does this mean?" she asked.
 
Did he not want her?
 
Was that what this was about – as she originally feared?

"I told the casino that I'm not taking you in lieu of my winnings," he said.
 
"I told them I wanted the $10 million dollars back."

 
"Who the hell do you think you are?" she demanded. "You upend my life, make me believe that you want me, and now you just try and get rid of me!"

Carly suddenly tried to pull away from him at this point.

He wouldn't let her.
 
His hold on her was too strong as she tried to fight him off.

"Stop it!" he ordered her. "Just stop! You didn't let me finish."

It was useless to try to get away from him.
 
She hadn't realized just how strong an Alpha's grip was, until she felt herself closed in by it.
 
She felt tears start to well up in her eyes.

Jason sighed.
 
He could hear her start to sniffle, and he realized she misunderstood him completely.