Untamed: an Alpha's Love (Paranormal Werewolf Shifter Romance) (3 page)

CHAPTER
FIVE

It was much later when Charmaine reluctantly untangled herself from Parker's arms to get a drink of water. It was already dark, the moon casting soft beams through the windows so that she strolled through shadows into the kitchen. She smiled at the mess in the kitchen—clothes strewn about, the dish of pineapple waiting to be put away—and set to tidying things up.

She'd just turned out the lights when she heard her phone chirp from deep in her purse. Reluctantly she dug into the bottom of the bag, already suspecting what she'd find. Sure enough, there was a series of calls and texts from Scottie:

1:35 PM—
Are you home yet?

1:45, 2:06, 2:17 PM—missed calls.

2:20 PM—
Are you okay?

2:33 PM—missed call.

2:45 PM—
Hey, just call me and let me know you got home safely.

3:00, 3:20, 3:36, 3:50 PM—missed calls.

4:00 PM—
Charmaine, I need to know you're okay.

She sighed and slid the phone back into her purse. As much as she wanted to let him know she was okay, she was still hurt and angry that he hadn't defended her. Not only that, he'd told her he was okay with just being friends, but then he'd acted like an overprotective boyfriend.
I won't ever stop protecting you, not as long as I live.
Her mouth twisted.
You could've started with protecting me from my brother instead of taking his side, Scottie.

"Messages?" Parker's deep voice cut through her reverie as he crossed the kitchen to where she stood, the phone still in her hand.

"Scottie called about a million times." She felt guilty, as if she'd encouraged it.

"I figured he would." Parker's voice held no trace of jealousy or irritation.

"He's worried."

"I'm sure. You'll be able to call him soon enough, don't worry." He reached for her and she slid into his embrace, burying her face in the solid wall of his chest.

"What's our plan?"

"Tomorrow we head to my parents' house. We'll get an Elder over there to verify the pregnancy and the fact that we're Mates. When that's done, we're golden. Christopher won't have any recourse if you call your mother or Scottie."

"They can still choose not to speak to me." Her chest tightened at the thought.

"They can," he agreed. "But they won't. They love you. Everything's going to be okay."

"Parker, do you promise?" she murmured into his neck.

"Hey." He tipped her face up to his and planted a light kiss on the tip of her nose. "Yes, I promise Please don't worry, Baby. Come to bed. Let me hold you and let's just forget about it for tonight. We'll deal with it in the morning."

***

They rose extra early the next morning. Charmaine stretched in the bed, loving the slight soreness of her muscles and the ache in her lower back from their afternoon lovemaking. She rolled over onto Parker's torso and his fingers went right for her tender spots, kneading and pressing the aches and pains. With a sigh she sank into his touch.

Ten minutes later, she was ready to face the day. The thought of meeting one of the Elders was terrifying. Would he ask a lot of questions? What would it be like to have her mind probed by a stranger? How much could that person read of her inner thoughts? It seemed like the most intimate of violations. And yet it was critical for them in order to get on with their lives. She wanted her Mating ceremony and she wanted to go places with Parker without fear. She wanted her mother and eventually even Scottie to be a part of her life.

It was a necessary step.

At the Kreuger's she was grateful when Lena greeted her with a motherly squeeze. Lena's arms around her, comforting and kind, brought tears to her eyes. She'd been cast out for less than twenty-four hours from her own pack, and already she felt the sharp physical pain of missing her mother.

"I'm sorry, Charmaine," her mother-in-law said. "But we'll get this sorted out. I'm sure you miss your family already. But it will be okay." Charmaine followed Lena to the living room where Dominic slumped in his wheelchair, gray and grizzled and looking exhausted but for the fire in his eyes. "I'll make some tea." Lena disappeared into the kitchen and Parker locked eyes with his father.

"What's the news?" Dominic demanded.

She was shocked when Parker told his father, "I got a text from Jamison. One of the scouts just reported Vella pack members hassling his wife at the grocery store. I think we're gearing up for real trouble."

"A warning strike," Dominic mused.

Parker nodded. "Christopher has demanded a face-to-face with me in the presence of the Council so he can make formal charges against me for violating the treaty. But that's a distraction; he's planning a strike, I just know it." As if sensing Charmaine's surprise, he turned to her. "I got the texts this morning. I didn't want you to know until we were safely here." She glared at him, but he didn't budge. "That's not treating you like a child," he insisted. "I had every intention of you finding out, but I didn't want to stress you out so early in the morning."

He turned to his father, whose face was furrowed in a deep frown. "We've got to get one of our Elders over here to verify her pregnancy and then the Council can negotiate it between themselves. I'm not going to trial at his whim, especially not when I already requested a meeting with the Elders for this very reason. In the meantime," he continued, "I've called everyone and told them to lay low." Dominic nodded.

"Who else should we call?"

Dominic motioned to Parker to wheel him back into the bedroom. "There's one more, but I can make this call myself."

"Dad, you don't have to—"

He held up his withered hand. "Let me feel useful," Dominic growled. "This is my grandson's safety we're talking about."

"Fair enough." Parker nodded and wheeled his father into the other room.

An insistent buzzing began in Charmaine's purse, and reluctantly she dug for the phone and powered it off without looking to see who it was. It hardly mattered, not now. Lena handed her a steaming mug of tea and she thanked her with a grateful smile. The two sat making small talk while they waited for Parker and Dominic to return from the other room.

Both men looked relieved when Parker wheeled Dominic back out to the living room. "We have an Elder on the way to verify the pregnancy and the fact that we are Mates," Parker announced. "He's coming tomorrow, not today, but that's soon enough." Dominic nodded in agreement, and Charmaine felt herself relax.
Parker's got it under control. In less than a day, this will all be over and we can start having a normal life again.

Parker took the cup of tea his mother handed him and sat down next to Charmaine. "See, Baby, I told you everything would be okay," he said, rubbing the tip of his nose against hers. She smiled in spite of the doubts that still swirled in her mind and laid her head on his shoulder.

Seconds later, his phone beeped in his pocket, vibrating against her hip. He pulled it out and put it to his ear. "Kreuger here," he answered impatiently. Charmaine watched his expression turn from irritated to concerned. For a brief moment she thought somehow Christopher had gotten his number until Parker's face drained of its color. Finally he hung up and spoke in a strangled voice.

"There's been an accident."

CHAPTER
SIX

"We just changed the emergency contact for Maddie's school last week," Parker explained to Charmaine as they sped to the scene. His heart galloped and his foot pressed harder and harder on the accelerator, but he forced his voice to remain calm and steady. "I'm so glad I got that call instead of one of my parents. I don't think my mom can handle one more thing at this point."

He'd downplayed the accident to his parents as they left, saying only that the bus had hit a guardrail, rather than explaining how serious it really was. In fact, it was the worst school bus accident in the history of their state. Forty-eight students were on the bus when it burst through the guardrail and plummeted over the embankment. The driver, who hadn't been wearing his seatbelt, was thrown through the windshield and killed instantly. Eleven children had already been flown to the shock trauma center. Paramedics were in the process of triaging the rest of the children. Parker only knew that Maddie wasn't among the eleven.
Thank God.

But he was unprepared for what greeted them at the scene of the accident. He gripped Charmaine's hand as they waded through a sea of flashing lights and terrified families. A caravan of ambulances had already taken several children to the hospital, and paramedics were treating more minor injuries on-site. He had never witnessed such devastation: grown men weeping like babies, children's eyes hollowed by shock, grimly focused paramedics weaving through the crowd to administer care and comfort. He cursed himself for bringing Charmaine to this mayhem, but he hadn't even tried to dissuade her from coming with him. It would have been pointless.

They scanned the teeming mass of people and vehicles scattered throughout the adjacent field, searching for any sign of Maddie. Several towing crews strained and swore in chorus, trying to raise the battered bus up the side of the hill to a waiting flatbed carrier.

"What a mess." His voice didn't even sound like his own. Charmaine trembled next to him, her hand over her mouth as if she was ready to be sick.
I've got to find Maddie and get them both out of here.
The knot in his gut tightened.
Where the hell is my sister?
And then her familiar voice cried out and he turned blindly in the direction of his name. In a second Maddie hurled herself into Parker's arms, a flash of pink fleece and long hair.

He lifted her as if she were still the little girl he'd carried piggyback for years, before she stopped begging for his attention and company. Despite the fact that she was almost as tall as Charmaine, her petite frame was feather-light in his arms. Her entire existence flashed in his brain: the bawling bundle in his mother's arms, Maddie's first tentative steps in the grass after his baseball game, her bloody grin after a lost tooth, her serious face when she asked him if middle school was scary.

"Parker, it was like some crazy movie!" she wept, clinging to his neck. "We went right over..." she looked tearfully back at the bus and around at the people still spread across the field. "The other car just like, disappeared." She grabbed for Charmaine's hand over Parker's shoulder. "I was so scared, you guys."

The paramedic, who introduced herself as Lauren, gave them a report of Maddie's injuries: bruising, some lacerations, and a mildly sprained wrist. "She was one of the lucky ones," the woman said, shaking her head as she stripped off her gloves. Maddie wriggled out of Parker's embrace and cuddled up against Charmaine. Lauren patted Maddie on the back before adding, "I don't know who in their right mind would run a school bus full of kids off the road and keep driving. Sometimes mankind makes me so ashamed."

She turned to Parker. "I don't want to alarm you, but these types of accidents can have lasting effects. We're asking that everyone speak to the counselor. You might want to do that privately." Her eyes flickered to Maddie and Charmaine just as a second, older woman approached him.

Suddenly he was back in the oncologist's office with Dominic, hearing those terrible words:
maybe three months
. He couldn't stand for Maddie's last weeks with their father to be anxiety-ridden. He hoped to God that the social worker had some practical advice, something he could
do
.
I can't be powerless against one more thing
, he thought.

"Sir?" the woman ventured, and he handed Charmaine the keys. "Go ahead and take Maddie to the car. I'll be there in a second."

As the counselor explained some of the typical after-effects of trauma, he grew uneasy. Dizziness, cold sweats, racing thoughts, a persistent lump in the throat, tightness in the chest, knot in the stomach—he'd been experiencing all of those symptoms, sometimes in pairs or threes and sometimes all of them in one day—since he found out Charmaine was carrying his child.

Not because he didn't want the baby. Not because he didn't want a baby with
her
. But because it was becoming increasingly more difficult to keep everyone he loved safe, and it had never been more apparent than now that he was failing miserably.

He mumbled hasty thanks to the woman, took her assortment of pamphlets, and promised to limit Maddie's exposure to media coverage of the accident. Managing a smile and a shaky, "Thanks again!" to the paramedic, he jogged in the other direction of his car and into a nearby thicket of trees. His lungs seized, his stomach tightened, and the last thought he had before he spewed into the bushes was,
get your shit together, Parker Kreuger
.