Untamed: an Alpha's Love (Paranormal Werewolf Shifter Romance) (5 page)

CHAPTER TEN

Parker reminded himself that Charmaine's quivering bottom lip was a normal reaction to fear. He was doing his level best to keep her and the baby safe, starting with the proclamation of being Mated and the acknowledgment of her pregnancy when the Elder arrived. They just had to wait, and then half the battle would be won. Christopher was a bully and an egomaniac, but surely he wasn't stupid enough to rise up against Council law. The Elders' proclamation would be enough to stop him in his tracks.

I hate seeing her this way.

Elder Samson Vilmer was on his way. He had the closest ties to the Kreuger pack and could get there first thing in the morning. Dominic had insisted he was the best one to have on their side. Elder Samson's word held a lot of sway in the Council. His judgment would not be contested. Parker relaxed slightly with the knowledge that he and Charmaine were nearly one step closer to a peaceful, legitimate life together.

But right now, her anxiety was palpable. She sat on the sofa next to him, chewing her bottom lip until he thought it would bleed. He slipped his arm around her and drew her close, hoping to calm her, but even curled against his side she fiddled with her rings and twirled her hair. As keyed up as he was, he feared their combined stress would swallow the room. Both of them had refused dinner, neither would engage in conversation, and Lena was at a loss. Her worried gaze darted between their faces.

Finally Dominic cleared his throat. "I think it's time you both heard the story of Mary McBride."

His wife looked at him sharply and gave a barely perceptible shake of her head, but he held his hand up. At the gesture she pressed her lips together and looked pointedly at Charmaine but said no more, so he continued. "Mary McBride was the young girl whose secret love affair started this whole pack rivalry."

Parker dared a glance at Charmaine, who sat straight up and leaned in toward Dominic. "Tell us," she urged before turning to Parker. "Do you know this story?"

He shook his head. "No," he answered truthfully. "I've never heard of Mary McBride."

"Good," said Dominic. "But you're Alpha now, so you should know. And you—" here he paused and looked directly at Charmaine, "you should know, too."

Her hand was cold when Parker took it in his, so he tucked the other one under his arm to warm it and she graced him with a faint smile.

"Mary McBride was seventeen when she met Jeremiah Kreuger in the woods behind her farm where she was gathering berries," Dominic began. "As the story goes, it was love at first sight for young Mary, who was already betrothed—unhappily, we're meant to understand—to Henry Peck, who owned the farm next to hers. She agreed to marry the much-older widower because it was uncertain if she could bear children and he already had five of his own. She'd already been helping him run his household and care for his children since his wife's death the previous fall, a deal brokered by her father in exchange for a share of Henry's crop yield come the harvest. Her father eased her into that arrangement and then argued that marriage wasn't going to be much more of a step. Because he was in a bit of financial trouble and she didn't want him to have to mortgage the farm, she agreed."

Charmaine frowned. "When was this again?"

"About 1840 or so."

She nodded and he continued. "When Jeremiah came out of the trees with his day's catch dangling from his fishing pole, she took one look at him and everything else went out the window. He talked to her for an hour and at the end of that hour he kissed her and told her he was going to take her away with him. He was planning to go north and pan for gold, and he wanted her to come with him and be his wife.

"Some say they were Mates. Others say he tricked her into a 'secret marriage' to get what he wanted. Whatever the case may be, what we do know is that as soon as her belly started swelling, her brothers—who had a vested interest in her marrying the widower—became suspicious of her long morning walks and followed her one day. They discovered her with Jeremiah and killed him, right there in front of Mary. She watched her lover take his last breaths while she stood there, helpless, with his baby growing inside of her."

Parker felt Charmaine's fingers tighten around his and wondered if his mother had been right. She didn't need to hear this particular story, not now. But then he recalled her stubborn insistence on the way home from Las Vegas.
Protect me like I'm a woman, then, not a child ... don't keep me in the dark.
And he realized that, despite his promise, his brain kept defaulting him to the very thing he'd sworn not to do.
Suck up your Alpha bullshit
, he warned himself.
It's just a story, and no one was ever hurt by hearing a story. She can handle it.

"Jeremiah's murder naturally led to an immediate retaliation from his brothers, who knew nothing of the affair or the shame he'd brought on the young McBride girl until she showed up on the doorstep of their parents' farm, hysterical and covered in Jeremiah's blood. When they realized what had happened, they took Mary in to keep her safe from her own family, and she stayed with them until she was summoned to appear in front of the Council.

"Mary confessed everything to the Council, but before they could reconvene for a judgment, she gave birth to a tiny baby boy and promptly drowned herself in the river."

"That poor girl," Charmaine gasped, her hand straying automatically to her own tiny swell.

"So what happened then?" Parker prompted. "What happened to the baby?"

"Here's where it gets sticky. Some of Mary's relations showed up to try to get the baby, but the entire pack rallied and refused to give him up. Her family tried so hard to get the little one back. Never mind that they'd been ready to shun her for having allowed herself to be soiled by a man from another pack to whom they believed she was neither married nor Mated."

"Do we know they weren't Mated?" Parker asked.

"We do not. The Elders could have figured that out, but by the time anyone thought to ask the question both Jeremiah and Mary were dead and the fighting over the baby had begun."

Parker glanced at the clock, anxious for Elder Samson to arrive so they could distance themselves as far as possible from the fate of Mary McBride. The whole thing hit just a little too close to home.

"So what happened then?" Charmaine was listening with rapt attention, her body finally still and her hands no longer struggling inside of his.

"That fall is when the serious hostilities began. There used to be a Harvest Moon Festival each year with friendly pack competition—you know, tug-o'-war, sack races, that sort of thing—planned by the women of the two packs. After the fallout, the women stopped speaking to each other. They'd always been the peacemakers, but when there's war in the hearts of men, there can be no peace in the hearts of women."

"Absolutely true," Lena murmured from across the room.

"So, wait— I think I missed something. What happened to the baby?" Charmaine asked.

"The little boy was raised by the Wythe family and became part of the Vella pack. No one treated him any differently; he was brought up like any other son of the pack. Married eventually, had kids of his own."

Parker exhaled slowly. "That's a hell of a story."

"I thought you should know. It's our history, and it explains a lot about the feelings on either side. Any way you slice it, there's dishonor, murder, kidnapping, and a young girl who took her own life. It's a rotten thing for our packs to have fallen out over, but there it is."

"And apparently there are some who think that's still worth shedding blood over."

Dominic nodded grimly. "I'm afraid so."

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Charmaine tried her best not to react too strongly to Dominic's story, but the parallels were too strong to deny. Here it was, nearly 175 years later, and still the feud simmered in the collective consciousness of both packs. What would it take for them to let it go? No one alive had any direct ties to Jeremiah or Mary. It was all stupid pride, false sense of honor, testosterone-fueled bullshit. Did any of them really care about the fate of some poor, pregnant farm girl from the past? And if Mary's fate was so important to everyone, then she—a woman in the here and now, the daughter of one Alpha and the wife and Mate of another—should be their focus.

"I want to speak to the Council," she blurted, and everyone looked at her in surprise. "When you have your meeting, Parker, I need to go."

"Babe, that's —" He looked to his father. "That's never been done, has it?"

"The wife of an Alpha speaking openly with the Council? No."

"You said yourself you wanted to move the pack into a more progressive future," she argued. "What better way to do that than for me to make an appeal to the Council to renegotiate the treaty?"

"That's not—" Parker stopped, at a loss for words. "It's not safe."

She shook her head. "No," she argued, sure of something for the first time. "That's not true. I'm the safest person in this room. Don't you see?"

The blank stares told her that they did not, in fact, see. Parker looked furious and Lena looked like she was about to faint. Only Dominic cocked his head at her, his curiosity getting the best of him. "Go on," he urged.

"If both packs consider that situation to be the most abhorrent thing to happen in the history of the packs, then I have a bargaining chip."

"Absolutely not!" Parker thundered.

But Dominic put his hand on his son's arm. "Let's hear her out."

"Think about it. I go to the Council. We're verified Mates, and the Council Elders know I'm pregnant. I make the announcement, evoke the memory of Mary McBride, and then ask the packs to agree to renegotiate the treaty to ensure that nothing like that happens between our packs again. I ask it in the name of my son, a direct descendant of both packs. Don't you think that would resonate with them?"

"Will they listen?" Parker directed his question to his father, but it was Charmaine who replied.

"You forget what I've been doing for a living," she answered sweetly. "I know how to make someone buy what I'm selling. I've got this, Parker."

Parker was speechless. He rubbed the back of his neck, his face red.

"I know you think it's a good idea."

His jaw was stubborn, his mouth set in a hard line. He stared at the floor, deep in thought, until his father spoke.

"It might work," Dominic agreed. "I don't agree that we should ease up on your security, though. I want you right here, safe, until Samson gets here. Then I want you out of sight until that Council meeting. Son, what do you think?"

Parker's face was unreadable, set in that maddeningly neutral mask he'd put on when she first met him. "I don't like it, but I'm too emotional when it comes to Charmaine. I can't think like an Alpha where she's concerned," he said to his father. Then he turned to her, and the green ice of his eyes burned through her. "I can't see straight right now. We almost lost Maddie. My son is inside of you. And you—you're everything to me. If anything ever happened..." He cleared his throat. "If anything ever happened to you, I'd lose it. I don't know how else to say it."

"Stay here tonight," Dominic offered. "Samson will be here in the morning. We can get this done."

Parker nodded. "Thanks, Dad. It's a long drive home, anyway."

"Don't go meet Christopher," Charmaine begged. "Please, Parker, stay here."

"Shit, I almost forgot. My mind is..." he shook his head. "Yeah, Christopher. I have to go meet him, Baby. I said I would."

"Don't. Who cares if you said you would? We're safe here. Don't put yourself at risk. You're way more of a target than I am. Call Jamison and tell him to deal with it."

"Maybe you're right." He looked doubtful.

"I am right. Please, don't go tonight. Stay with me. Stay with all of us, your family, and let this simmer on the back burner for tonight."

He kneeled at her feet and buried his head in her lap. "Every fiber of my being wants to walk out that door and go meet that asshole," he murmured into her thighs. "It's emasculating to sit here in safety while he's out there thinking I've run scared."

"Let him think it!" She curled her fingers in his hair and gripped it tight, tugging his head back so she could look in his eyes. "That's your male pride talking. Stay. Do it for your son." Her voice was low but fierce, and his eyes agreed before he ever said a word. He pressed his face against her stomach.

"I'll stay," he whispered hoarsely.