When a Pack Dies (30 page)

“Have you given any thought to...?” Her voice trailed away.

“To
what
?” Owen growled. That furrow between his eyes deepened. “How come you neglected to mention that you’d mated?”

Her feet stopped moving and she looked down at the ground. Cutler and Nath stood beside her, facing Owen with their arms folded over their chests but saying nothing.

“Those ideas we were tossing around about you, Ryan and I forming a pack of our own? That deal’s off the table, Fina.” Owen’s hand slashed through the air. “Mated females stay put. You know that. It’s one of the cornerstones of our species.
Not
telling me you were mated, whether intentional or unconscious, is a pretty big omission,” he added harshly.

Fina blushed.

“And don’t start in about second thoughts, duress or survivor guilt, woman,” he barked. “You’re an adult. You knew what it meant to mate with these men. Weres mate for life and you made your decision.”

She kicked at the ground, wrapped her arms around herself then nodded jerkily. Owen gave her a brusque one-armed hug then let go.

“Ever since you told me about our pack being killed I’ve been chasing a demon around in my head. I keep thinking what if one more strong male in the pack would have made a difference?” Owen’s voice faltered then he lifted his chin and firmed his mouth. “I ran away because I hated living here, in this pack. But what if I’d come back? I’m a trained soldier, Fina. What if...?” His voice trailed off. Eventually he started walking again and Fina fell into step beside him.

“You’ve got issues, Fina,” Owen continued after awhile. “All three of us do. We’re entitled to them,” he added dryly. “Deal with yours but let your mates help you heal. You and Ryan. You’re his family now. All three of you. I’m his cousin and legally I’m entitled to be his guardian. I think he’d be better off with you. Hell I know he would.” Owen ran a sun darkened, scarred hand over his head. “We can’t run away from our grief. Don’t let that confuse you into running away from happiness.”

They walked past the remaining houses.

“I’d like to tear them down,” Owen said suddenly. “Sell the land so others can rebuild. There’s too much death, too much blood here now. I can’t stomach the idea of selling these houses to unsuspecting families.”

Fina nodded slowly. “Agreed.”

They picked up the pace and soon they were outside the nursery. It was run down, empty and almost completely void of greenery. Trees that had been planted before Fina was born had been uprooted. The stark, dank holes hadn’t even been filled in. Harnessing the sorrow welling up inside of her, she keyed in the security code to the office.

“Can you get to them?” Owen asked anxiously.

Her mates shot her a curious look but they and the rest of her pack followed her inside without question.

“Yes. I made sure the electricity stayed on.” She led them through the office and into a warehouse area piled high with refuse.

Owen grabbed a discarded pair of gloves and started digging a path through a pile of empty fertilizer bags. He brushed off a computer access panel then stood aside, hovering while Fina punched in an access code.

A long, nondescript bank of what looked like refrigerator doors clicked open. Fina and Owen began checking the contents, the humidity and temperature gauges.

“They should all still be viable,” Fina said.

“What will you do with them?”

“I hadn’t thought about that.”

“You can’t let them die. Too much here has died already.”

Fina looked up at her mates. “I can recreate this setup in Wyoming. I’ll need to dig into the old pack’s coffers but—”

“Do whatever it takes,” Owen interrupted firmly. “Let this be our families’ legacy. If you want, set some money aside for me in a retirement fund. Not too much though. My needs are simple and I’ve got a good job I love doing.” He grinned crookedly. “Who knows? Maybe someday I’ll get lucky like you and find a pack I fit into as an adult wolf.” He grew serious as he started shutting up the drawers. “Keep this business alive and keep you and Ryan provided for. His father was a good man. So was yours. I’ll come visit you when the Wyoming nursery is up and running. Maybe we’ll feel like talking about them. My mom too.”

Epilogue

Three Years Later

Fina Whitesage-Powell entered through the back door of her home, swiped the dirt off her overalls and toed off her steel-toed boots. She ran the back of her hand across her forehead, wiping off the well-earned sweat and dirt from a good day’s work and walked into the kitchen.

“Hey, Mary. What’s for supper?” Her nose twitched and she lifted a lid off a pot, inhaling expectantly.

She was rewarded with a light slap on her hand.

“Chicken,” their feisty, sixty-something housekeeper-slash-cook snapped as she replaced the lid. “About time you got home too.” She stuck out her cheek and tapped it with her forefinger. Fina kissed her obediently and affectionately then turned on the tap to wash her hands. “It might very well be warm outside today, young lady, but that spring wind has turned your face red.”

“My men like my face when it’s red,” Fina shot back. “And speaking of men, is Nath home?”

“Hey, sweetheart.” He walked into the kitchen, right on cue, wrapped his arms around Fina’s shoulders, leaned into her back and kissed her neck. “Hmm. You taste sweaty.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere.” She dried off her hands and pulled two small, square, brass plaques out of her breast pocket. “The samples arrived today. Tell me which one you like and I’ll get them engraved.”

The front door opened. Fina’s wolf ears picked up the sound of Cutler’s boots thudding on the floor then the sound of him opening then closing the gun lock-box inside the hall closet. His firm footfalls preceded him into the kitchen. “Hey, honey.” He kissed his wife with a resounding, wet, smacking sound. “Are those the plaques?” He pulled one out of Nath’s hand. “Tell me again why you need them?”

Fina rolled her neck from side to side and stretched her back. “The plaques will be mounted on rocks that will be set beside each of the specimen trees I’ve planted around Nath’s base camp. They’ll describe the plants, give the year they were planted in and the country they originated in.”

“Hmm. Sounds good...something you tree huggers will get off on.” He handed the plaque back to his brother, dug an elbow into Nath’s ribs and leapt away nimbly when Nath tried to cuff him one.

“Anyway,” Fina sighed loudly, cutting off their jousting before it got out of hand. “The greenhouse there is fully stocked and I’ve got a healthy ecosystem going. We’ll be ready for our first customers next week. Nath was right.” She grinned up at Cutler. “Housing our retail site there is a perfect tie-in to his eco-tourism business. Plus, I like having a secondary nursery location in case something catastrophic happens to the main nursery.”

She glanced out the back window. Not far from the barn was a neat line of greenhouses.

An infant started to cry.

“This kid stinks,” Ryan snorted from down the hall. “You know, you’ll be a lot more fun to hang out with when you can run around and stuff.” When he entered the kitchen, his face was screwed up and he was holding a chunky ten-month old, carrying the crying baby well away from himself. “I don’t
do
poopy diapers,” he declared righteously. By his eighth birthday Ryan had passed the five-foot mark. Now, at nine, he was tall, gangly and had enormous hands and feet.

Cutler scooped the baby out of Ryan’s arms. “That’s my son,” he proclaimed proudly. “Anything worth doing is worth doing loud and proud.” The aqua-eyed child cooed up at him, slapped Cutler’s cheek with a meaty hand and drooled. Cutler’s nose wrinkled. “I guess you
do
need your bum changed after all.” He ruffled Ryan’s hair and grinned down at him. “How was school today, buddy?”

“Speaking of school,” Nath interrupted. He dropped his fists onto his hips and faced Fina. “
You
got an email from college. That post-graduate course you’re taking on tax law? You only got a B-plus.” Both he and Cutler frowned down at her.

Fina cleared her throat nervously but they didn’t say anything else.

“I also checked my bookings for this summer,” Nath continued after a moment. His tone softened as he let the subject of her grade drop. “It looks good. This should be my best year ever. Of course that means I won’t be around this summer to help you in the nursery although I should be able to step back in come October or so.” He crossed over to Fina and hugged her gently. “If you can handle the phones for me the next couple of months, we’ll be even.” He kissed her forehead, gave her another gentle squeeze then stepped back to lay his hands on the slight mound of her belly. He grinned and rubbed it through her bib overalls like it was the most precious thing he’d ever held. “Now, how are all
three
of my girls doing?”

“The twins are sleeping right now,” Fina said. “I could use a foot rub.”

“Ah ah,” Mary scolded. She waved a wooden spoon menacingly. “Please. At least wait until I’ve left for the day.”

Nath looked disappointed but he kissed Fina and leaned in to her to whisper, “After the kids are in bed, your wish is my command, sweetheart.”

Cutler kissed her cheek then carried his son away to change his diaper. “Count me in, honey. Two feet. Two mates. No waiting.”

End

-------------------------------

About the Author

Gwen Campbell got her start in the magazine industry, writing everything from news stories to children’s fiction to obituaries. When the company she worked for succumbed to economic turndown, she looked at her bank book and gave herself one year to pursue writing full time. The deal was if she made money, she didn’t have to look for a real job. It’s worked out pretty good so far and she still doesn’t have a real job. A life-long believer in romance, she now writes romantic fiction. Gwen is married and she and her husband contribute the success of their relationship to making a point of saying “I love you,” at least once a day, sometimes saying, “Yes, dear,” just because, and making sure the toilet paper always comes over the top of the roll. She says her best sticky-plot resolutions come to her while dog walking.

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Book Excerpts

Following are some excerpts of other hot erotic titles from Shadowfire Press.

If you enjoyed the werewolf paranormal
Wyoming Wild 1: Death of a Pack
by Gwen Campbell you might also like Gwen Campbell’s
As My Warrior Commands
, a scifi themed
Frontiers of Love
title.

When a kingdom crashes down around her, will his love be enough to save her?

Sibyls are old crones. Everybody knows that. So what’s a warrior supposed to think when a beautiful young woman turns up in the middle of a siege, says she’s a sibyl, predicts the downfall of a kingdom and tells him he’s going there with her to prevent it? He does what any hot-blooded warrior would do. He follows the woman. She’s intelligent, brave, can see the future, has an ass he can’t stop staring at and she knows how to make him laugh. What he doesn’t know is that the sibyls have predicted the downfall of the Kingdom of Jareb-Phar if a young sibyl enters their throne room. What they don’t know is if her arrival will be coincidental or cause the kingdom’s fall. The only thing the warrior does know for sure is that beneath his beautiful, young sibyl’s discipline is a woman as lusty and wanton as he is.

Here is a short excerpt from
Frontiers of Love 2: As My Warrior Commands
.

Touching her arm, Thain encouraged Jessica to take another bite of hard bread. They’d eaten the last of the soft two days ago. He had a sense she dipped it into her tea, bit off a piece and chewed only to make him happy. They’d left the flood waters behind that morning.

For the most part they kept to their own, dark thoughts. Because a full bath was impossible, both Jessica and Thain stripped down in the failing light and dragged wet cloths over their bodies. Again, Thain had to discipline himself to look away. The beautiful Sibyl stirred him more with each passing day. As a Warrior, he was trained to ignore the distraction of women—when necessary. His discipline had never been so thin. Jessica had laid her leathers out to air and sat wrapped up in one of his drying cloths. It provided adequate coverage but Thain couldn’t stop looking at her smooth shoulders, the curve of her knee. He adjusted his seat and wished his damned hard-on would go away. His balls had ached for days.

When they finished eating, he reached for her metal plate. Leftover food slid off hers and landed on her leg.

Thain had noticed she trimmed the fat off her meat. He found it odd but didn’t mind. It meant more for him and he’d taken to cleaning off her plate for her. Without thinking, he knelt in front of Jessica and licked her thigh, picking up the perfectly good piece of fat while he cleaned her skin.

Jessica gasped—then moaned.

Damned Warrior. He’d got right past her defenses. Thain’s warm breath, the rasp of his tongue sent shivers up Jessica’s leg, straight to her pussy. It spasmed and she couldn’t stop her response.

Thain grinned wolfishly. He’d thought this Sibyl incapable of lust...or a master of it. He touched his tongue to her skin and watched her reaction.

“Stop,” Jessica breathed. She gripped his hair but pulled as much as she pushed.

Setting the plates aside, Thain wrapped his fingers around her thighs and licked her skin. Jessica was the sweetest, softest thing he’d ever touched. He inhaled her scent, the heat of her body, the spiciness of her arousal. She wove her fingers into his hair and this time made an effort to push him away. Thain resisted her easily and dragged his tongue along the primly shut line of her legs. He pulled gently and Jessica allowed him to ease her knees apart.

There was no more need to resist her. She clearly wanted him and he’d wanted her from the moment he’d laid eyes on her. Six days of riding with her soft body pressed into his...nights lying beside her had taken their toll. Thain’s cock was rock hard and ready to make this beautiful Sibyl his.

Or you might enjoy reading
In Heaven’s Arms
, a
Finding Love: Memorial Day
themed contemporary story by Persephone Jones.