This Weakness For You (Entangled Select Otherworld) (Taming the Pack) (9 page)

Dane was the only one in that same position left in the pack. As a park ranger, Dane had gone through the police academy, and he’d never been great with submission—which suddenly was a benefit—but this was still unorthodox. At least he’d been attending the meetings for over a year, and when it came down to it, the pack trusted him. Jordan trusted him.

“My intention is to leave the pack with an acting Alpha they can trust, or I won’t leave. If we can get a majority agreement, then I can go catch these poachers before more of our former pack members are dead and before they move on to the next closest pack—ours.”

Dane didn’t have his head bowed—it was more cocked at an angle, but he made eye contact and nodded. At least he’d acknowledged Jordan.

“Yes, Dane?”

“I could go with you for portions of the time. With Nathanial around now, I wouldn’t want to leave for long periods, but I’ve got the time off for the baby anyway.”

“Actually, you’re my choice for acting Alpha while I’m gone.”

Several of the pack members broke deference and briefly raised their heads to stare at him.

Dane squinted. “Wait, what?”

At least he didn’t accuse Jordan of being on drugs or insane…that would have undermined his authority, and he and Dane had always danced around that.

“Don’t you have to be Lycan?” Dane asked.

“You have to be a member of the pack. You’re Glacier pack—no one disputes that—you carry a gun, and you like to order people around. Hell, if you were Lycan, we would’ve fought this out already.”

Dane shrugged. “Fine. If the pack agrees. If not, maybe I’ll go in your place for a few days here and there at Rainier—but I don’t have your ability to track so they’d probably prefer you.”

Jordan nodded. “It’s an unusual solution, but it’s our honor to come to the aid of our fellow Lycans and also stop poachers from advancing on us if we can. Our hierarchy is pack, honor, alpha, mate, ourselves. Forget yourself and think of your pack and the will of your Alpha as you vote. There are thirty-seven members here—thirty-five without Dane and Vanessa. Our pack is at fifty-one…” He nodded down at the baby. “Okay, fifty-two, but he’s not allowed to vote, either.”

Several pack members smiled, as he’d hoped they would.

“We’ll need allegiance from twenty-six in order to proceed. If the majority rules, the minority follows. What we decide here is decided by the whole. Insubordination to the will of the pack is against the pack and will not be tolerated. Show your allegiance.”

He knew there would be holdouts with a human Alpha. Travis was likable and had been accepted with only six dissenters, but the pack’s membership had been larger and six dissenters was nothing. If more than nine dissented, he’d be staying home, and it would feel like a blow to his honor, because Travis had actually asked for help.

One by one, Lycans lowered their heads in allegiance, and he counted them and made no sign of his feelings with those still meeting his eyes in dissent. He’d knew there’d be dissent—and that was their right, and it was within their honor to vote as they believed—but Dane was the only one who’d even get this many, and he was really the only one Jordan trusted. It was Dane or he wouldn’t go.

Twenty-five. Dammit. Well, it may have been too much to spring on the pack with little notice. He should be happy to stay home with Christa, but the poachers as close as Rainier felt like an upcoming storm. If they didn’t stop them, Glacier pack would be next. And he knew most of the members of Rainier—they still felt like pack.

Dammit.

He’d tried, and it was worth that try.

He nodded to Ethan. “Ethan, come and tally.” Ethan climbed atop the short platform and counted first himself, and then muttered under his breath before finally turning to Jordan. “Twenty-six.”

Jordan raised his eyebrows. He hadn’t expected Ethan to cheat on behalf of Dane, and he was half tempted to let it stand—because the pack came first and honor second.

Ethan sensed his hesitation and said, “I counted you. I’m assuming you agree since you proposed it.”

A grin spread across his face. “Yes, I’m in favor. Twenty-six—a majority. The pack has spoken and your pack comes first. Your choice is always to follow or to leave. Inform those not present for this meeting. Dane, come up as acting Alpha.”

Dane looked bemused as he stood on the platform, and everyone bowed their head in deference. He also looked uncomfortable, but he did fake a glare at his wife, who wasn’t showing deference.

Yeah, get used to that, Dane.

Though Vanessa did look proud, and then she winked at Dane and tipped her chin up higher.

Beside Jordan, Ethan said with his head bowed, “I’m assuming Dane’s sister wasn’t in the original tally yet, even though she’s pack.”

Dane smiled at Ethan.

Ethan was still facing Jordan, though. “But we’ll keep an eye on her since she’s with you.”

Aw, hell.

Chapter Six

From outside Jordan’s Bronco, others might have guessed the new acting Alpha and the Alpha were having a discussion about how things were to be run, and that Dane’s Jeep playing raucous heavy metal next to it was for privacy, not to mask an argument with the potential of a homicide.

Inside the Bronco, they were being careful to talk through gritted teeth, and it was significantly less pleasant than it looked.

“What part of ‘I will kill you’ did you not understand? Because it sounds pretty self-explanatory to me,” Dane said, waving at Ethan as he got into a nearby car. Dane’s fake smile looked like a suppressed snarl, but Ethan smiled back and waved. “I remember saying ‘I will kill you’—I remember that.”

Jordan rolled his eyes, but at least Dane had gotten beyond repeating, “She’s my sister! My sister!” over and over again.

“I told you, she came to my house last night with that cat.”

“Then you send her away. Vanessa told me you were threatening to kill that cat for marking everywhere when I had it.”

You mean like you’ve been doing?
He didn’t say it. He thought it really loud, but he didn’t say it.

“So, you
should
have just sent her and Lucifer away. But no, you didn’t do that. She’s my sister, Jordan! My sister!”

That didn’t last long.
“I tried to send her away, and she told me you would probably rather she passed out inside my house than outside. She collapsed twice before she went to sleep.”

Dane narrowed his eyes, but had no response to that.

“She told me she shouldn’t be driving.” And with those weak moments she’d had, he wouldn’t have let her drive away if she’d changed her mind.

“So you call me and have me come pick up my
younger
sister
.”

“Yeah, I think it was the ‘I will kill you’ part that kept you from being number one on my speed dial, but Christa is twenty-four, intelligent, and capable of making her own decisions.” It was useful that his and Christa’s fighting had given him so many arguments in their favor for this discussion with Dane. He chose not to acknowledge that most of these were from her. “She was the one who texted Vanessa and said she was staying over with her cat. She didn’t want Vanessa’s allergies being a problem.”

He wasn’t sure how they were going to settle this today or
if
they’d settle it today, but Dane had agreed not to cause a scene if they did discuss it.

“So, she just stayed the night? That’s it? Nothing else happened?”

He refused to feel guilty about what had happened between him and Christa—and for what would happen. Being with her felt too good and too honest to be something he lied about.

It wasn’t necessarily a good idea to flaunt it in front of her brother, though.

Jordan rubbed a palm against his forehead. “No, I gave her every single reason she should stay away from me—every single one, and she refused. In fact, she tried to break a Tiffany lamp over my head.”

Dane scowled. “I’d call you a liar but she hit me with a lamp once.” He glanced at Jordan. “She’s got a good arm when her MS isn’t too bad.” Then his eyes narrowed. “You do know that she…?”

“Has MS? Yes. I’d treat her with kid gloves except she’d kick my ass for it…and then she’d throw the lamp at my head. By the way, she knows
some
things about Lycans, and she knows that I am one. I’m sure she has a lot of questions, but I didn’t have time to stay and answer them.”

Dane was still scowling. It wasn’t an ideal in-law relationship by any means. “She could do better,” he grumbled.

“Yeah, I tried to force her to come to that realization, and that’s when she jumped toward the lamp after throwing two shoes at me. She claims I smell like forever.” He shrugged.

Dane dragged both hands through his hair with a sigh. “I remember that. I thought that with Vanessa. Dammit, I did
not
want you for a brother-in-law.”

“I didn’t want to have a mate ever again.”

“Well, you do, so you better stop whining about it and treat my sister right.”

Jordan blinked. That was it? They were done? “I will.”

Dane nodded.

Jordan nodded.

“I guess this means I can probably stop peeing all over my property.”

“Vanessa likes it. She says it’s manly,” Jordan said.

Dane laughed. “You are such a liar, but I admire your dishonesty—that would have been funny if I’d believed that.” He cleared his throat. “Also, I’m glad you’re calling her Vanessa.”

“I think it bothered Christa.”

Dane stared at him for a second before shrugging. “I never thought you’d notice something like that. It’s bugged the hell out of me this whole time.”

“I didn’t know—I wouldn’t have stopped, but that might have given me some pleasure.”

“That’s why I never mentioned it.”

“I left Christa with the keys to my house so she can at least keep the cat there, but you might want to check on her…make sure she’s doing okay. I’m not sure she should be driving, but she might be stubborn enough to do it anyway.”

“You don’t have to tell me to check on my own sister.”

“Yeah, but I wanted to tell you because I need to know that I’m not just leaving her without telling someone—without someone watching over her—which makes no sense, but I stopped making sense a week ago.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe the timing on this. I don’t want to leave her, but…” He shook his head again.

Dane glanced his way. “I don’t get why they’d take on that pack. Rainier pack is like the frat-house pack…a bunch of single Lycans. That’d be the last pack I’d try to take down. You had to scrounge up a human to be acting Alpha, and yet these poachers take on a whole pack of them. What kind of morons would do that?”

“It doesn’t make sense. That’s part of why I’m going. I want to see what is actually happening there and if it’s going to spill over to us. We’re almost all just families now.”

“We
are
all families—you were the last one.”

Jordan smiled. He hadn’t been part of a family since he’d been made Alpha. The pack was a family, and it preceded his place in his own. Now he was part of a family—which included Dane, but it could be worse. Although Dane would probably go piss on all his property while he was gone just to annoy him.

“I’ll still shoot you if you hurt her,” Dane said, sliding him a look.

“Fair enough.”

“You’re going to call her with updates so she doesn’t worry, right?”

“Of course I am.”

“Just like you had Vanessa call me when she was staying with you?”

Jordan ignored him, but squinted as a thought occurred to him. “Should I have told Christa that—that I was going to call her so she wouldn’t worry?”

“Yes.”

“But it was obvious.”

Dane shook his head. “You always tell them.” He laughed. “In fact, I seem to remember some similar wisdom dished out by an idiot when we were in my Jeep going ninety on Forest Service roads.”

“Everything I ever said or did to you is about to be repaid, isn’t it?” Jordan asked.

Dane punched him in the shoulder as he opened the door. “Welcome to the family, bro!”

…

A big house felt empty with just one person and her cowed cat in it. She didn’t know how Jordan could stand it. She’d explored—other than down the stairs in the cellar. Even if he didn’t keep a wife down there, she didn’t have to check out
every
square inch of the place.

Finally, she’d dropped onto the couch in the library. The gas fireplace was awfully cozy, and Lucifer had decided the hearth was the best spot in the house for sleeping.

“Here we are, Lucifer. This is our new home…which is surreal.” A week ago, she’d been trying to get out of a two-bedroom apartment she shared with a drug addict. Now she was sitting in a house that she’d stumbled across in the middle of a rainstorm and housed a wolf. Until she was feeling better, she was somewhat trapped here. “It’s like
Beauty and the Beast
.”

Lucifer shot her a look.

“Yeah, don’t tell him I called him beautiful. Okay, let’s get going on this day, huh?”

She got to her feet. Not bad. She felt so much stronger today—which was good because she was officially on her own, in a strange man’s house. Probably the strangest man she’d ever met—though who knew how many werewolves she’d met and not realized it.

“Time to get to work.”

Lucifer turned his back to her and went to sleep.

At least she had work to pass the hours, and a lot of old guys to call. It was a shame she’d be tying up Jordan’s phone line, but there was no cell reception.

She picked up the phone and frowned as it clicked and popped. It’d been forever since she’d relied on a landline. This felt old-school—which fit with who she’d be calling. She opened up her files on her laptop, which Jordan had retrieved from her car. If only she’d packed clothes, too.

“Here we go.” She dialed the first number. “Hey, blue eyes,” she said when a gruff voice answered. “How are you? Are you eating, Frank?” she asked the seventy-year-old veteran after he’d grumbled a greeting.

Frank groused as he always did. He was eating, but he liked to be fussed over. “Where have you been? I had to talk to one of them other gals and she refused to read my horoscope or sing for me.”

“I should refuse to sing for you—I bet you turn down your hearing aid when I do.” Every one of her clients would probably complain about her recent absence. She’d been sleeping too much to work, but she’d missed all her old guys.

“Nah…just as long as you don’t try for those high notes.”

She laughed. “You sweet-talker.”

“When are you going to come over in person and have dinner with me?”

“Well, let’s look at your horoscope. Oh, outlook doesn’t look good for May/December romances.”

“December? I’m a good October I’ll have you know! The doctor put me on these new pills for my blood pressure—I’m a new man. I could even take you out dancing.”

Her smile felt forced. Normally, the things that were becoming impossible didn’t matter so much, but with Jordan in her life…it might bother her that things like dancing were probably too much. It might bother him. Hell, it might piss off this new pack she was Alpha over.
What did a bunch of werewolves do if you didn’t measure up?
She shuddered.

“Christa?”

“Is this new medication having any negative side effects?” she asked as she scrolled down his file. She had most of his information memorized, but she put in health concerns to check back on.

“Nope. Wait. It turns my pee orange, does that count?”

“Well, I guess that depends on how you feel about the color orange. Myself, I might enjoy a nice bright sunny greeting from the toilet like that.”

Frank chuckled.

After hearing a car pull up outside, she pushed up from behind the giant desk and carried the phone over to the door to peek out. “Uh-oh, Frank. I’ll need to call you later. My big brother just showed up, and I bet he’s here to be all overprotective and psychotic.”

“Well, you should take care of yourself. You deserve good things.”

She frowned. Hopefully Dane wasn’t here to take away her good things. “You, too, sweetie. I’ll check in with you later, but go eat some lunch—something green.”

“Pistachio ice cream?”

“There you go. That’ll help you grow up big and strong.”

He laughed as he said good-bye.

She opened the door with a flourish. “I’m staying.”

At the bottom of the stairs, Dane, her suitcase in one hand, stopped to take his sunglasses off with the other hand—dramatically. It was a cloudy day; there was no reason for sunglasses. “Well, well, well, let’s have a look at you. How the mighty have fallen.” He was smiling, so he couldn’t have been that upset.

“You thought I was mighty?” She bit her lip. “Jordan told you I was here, huh?”

He shrugged.

“At your big werewolf meeting?”

Dane stared at her as if he was trying to decide what to hold back. She swore he’d hang onto a secret just to keep something from her.

“Jordan told me everything.” Or close to nothing, but her brother might volunteer information if she acted like she didn’t care.

“He told you that you’d turn into a wolf tonight when the moon comes out?”

Her mouth dropped open.
No. Way.

Dane laughed.

“You’re an ass.”

“And you just hooked up with a bigger one. He claimed you tried to hit him over the head with a lamp when he attempted to talk you out of sticking around.”

“I did,” she said with a shrug. “I’ve never been this sure of anything.”

Dane sighed and gestured at her with a wave. “I felt the same way with Vanessa, so it’d be hypocritical of me to stand in the way. Let’s go back in. It’s too cold out here.”

Well, that went easier than she’d ever expected. She stood back to let him pass. “I’m surprised he told you.”

“Actually, someone in the pack ratted you out. They patrol near all the pack’s homes fairly regularly, and Jordan’s gone a while without a relationship, so it was noteworthy. I think the bastard was hoping to sneak off on this trip without me finding out.” He narrowed his eyes and frowned, but it was more irritable than mad.

“Yeah, well, he thought you’d be castrating him, and I take it he’s fond of those parts.”

Dane laughed and dropped the suitcase with a
thunk
. “I’ve never actually been here.” He gazed around the entryway. “A bit ostentatious.”

“It echoes. The whole place does. Listen.” She drew in a huge breath. “Dane is an idiot!” They both listened as it bounced along walls.

Her brother nodded. “Nice. It looks like you’ll need more than just a suitcase full of stuff.”

She leaned against the wall. “I feel like Little Orphan Annie…I mean, you saw my last apartment.”

“I don’t think Annie and Daddy Warbucks had this sort of relationship, though, Squeaky. If they did, well, that certainly changes the meaning of some of those songs.”