Wolf Bite (14 page)

They both took long drinks, then Ryan faced him. “You fucked her.”

“The only reason you’re still breathing is you’re her father. Don’t make me regret that decision.” He’d take any blame Ryan wanted to dish out, but he would not tolerate anyone—not even him—speaking badly of her.

“Fine. You slept with my daughter. You broke the
law
Mason.” Ryan’s scowl spoke volumes. “You put
her
life in danger. What’s your smartass answer to that?”

“I have no defense. I behaved poorly where she was concerned.” And he’d do it again, if only to taste her one more time—to hear her laugh, to experience the sharp, acerbic edge of her temper as she gave him orders. “I will not go near her again. I will not endanger her.”

Ryan snorted. “Too late for that.”

Everything in Mason stilled. He and his wolf considered Ryan. The other man’s wolf was still in his eyes and he held Mason’s gaze long enough to make it clear that while he’d yielded, he was far from being without fight.

“What do you mean, too late for that?”

If Margo or any other Enforcer laid a hand on Alexis, he’d show them what a Rogue could truly do. Sex wasn’t illegal, not by the tenants of the Lone Wolves. That Lexi was still Willow Bend definitely flouted the rules, but he hadn’t bitten her or tried to change her. Fuck, he hadn’t even claimed her when everything in him demanded that he do so.

He hadn’t broken the law except… Lexi looked ill when he’d seen her. She’d lost weight. She’d gone quiet for days and she’d raged at Margo with a dominant ferocity that went beyond her normal temper.

The beer bottle shattered in his hand and he didn’t notice the glass digging into his palms or the beer stinking the air. “She’s pregnant?”

Ryan’s glare told him everything.

“She’s human.” Staggered, he actually fell back a step and leaned against the wall.

“Not for much longer,” Ryan said, his justified rage darkening every syllable. “You’ve condemned her.”

For a human to give birth to a wolf, it would change her. That change would be brutal, beyond what the bite did. At least the bites they could control, no—her body would share blood with her baby. It would be like a poison spreading through her a system, an infection she couldn’t fight nor could she fully surrender to as her body’s resources went to caring for her child—
his
child.

“Who knows?” He had to get her beyond where anyone could touch her. A life on the run? No. That wasn’t a life—and when the change happened, it could kill her.

“Alexis. Margo. Me.” Ryan ticked them off on his fingers. “And now you.”

Fuck
. “Margo will…”

“Do nothing,” Ryan said, resolute and confident. “She called me. She will say nothing to anyone else. She will keep the other Enforcers away. Margo owes me. This is how she will repay her debt.” It must have been a hell of a favor that Ryan had done for her because by not acting and not reporting, Margo danced with becoming Rogue herself.

That bought them time. But how much? Lexi had to be frightened. Self-loathing burned in his gut. He picked out the glass from his hand, needing the sting to stay grounded.

“If you return to a pack,” Ryan was still talking. “Before anyone learns, you can claim her and they will both be safe.” How the man had to hate him.

“No pack will take me.” He’d already considered his options—maybe Serafina? But what kind of life would Lexi have there? Delta Crescent was far different from Willow Bend.

Unforgiving, Ryan continued. “Then you have to take one. Return to Willow Bend and challenge Toman.”

The mention of the man served to amp up his fury. “So, I die and the problem is solved or Toman dies and you’re finally rid of an Alpha you’ve hated?” The moment he said the words, Mason tasted the truth in them. Ryan Huston despised the Alpha, he had for years. He’d the game played to take his wife, and mate. He’d intercepted Mason after his mother’s suicide and told him to call Lone Wolf when Toman sent for him. Ryan had stayed with him every moment until he was out of town—and Toman’s territory.

“You die and Alexis will be next. So, no.” Ryan smiled, but nothing friendly echoed in his expression. He didn’t, however, dispute the charge that he hated his Alpha. “You have only one choice—challenge Toman and kill him. Make this right for my daughter. You condemned her and now you have to fix it.”

“She’s my mate.” Despite the horror of everything else, saying it aloud—staking his claim to her father—
that
was right.

Sighing, the older man carried his beer to the edge of the porch and sat. “I know. She has been since you were children.”

How…?
Mason scowled. No lie discolored his statement. “You knew and you still had me claim Lone Wolf?”

“You would never have bowed to Toman. Even if you had, Toman would have found a way to make you challenge him…just as he did your father.” Weariness weighed on the other man.

“What did he do to my father?” No one had mentioned this. Mason had been at school and a note had come that said he needed to go to the office. His mother had been waiting for him, devastation oozing from her pores. They’d gone home and, a few hours later, she’d shot herself.

“Get me another beer and one for yourself.”

“What about Lexi?”

“For the time being, she is safe. Margo has watch. She quit her job,” Ryan said softly. “And she’s packed her things. She planned to fly to Europe in a few days and disappear overseas.”

The information delivered a knife to his gut. “What?”

“She understands enough of our laws to know that your life is forfeit when the others learn of her pregnancy. She is trying to protect you. Now you will do the same for her. She cannot leave until she receives her passport and I’ve made arrangements to slow that down. Get two beers. You need information before you fight.” It went against everything in Mason to obey. Lexi planned to run? Europe had its own packs and laws, but she could disappear there, at least until her baby was born. His heart sank.

“She doesn’t know the whole of it though, does she?”

“No,” Ryan said softly. “She doesn’t know what will happen. You must be Alpha before we tell her. You have to claim her before…”

“Will it save her?”

“I don’t know.” More truth. “The mating bond may do it, but you have to claim her and she has to accept that claim. Then we might have a chance.”

He had no problem with killing Toman, but Lexi? No, he couldn’t lose her. Suddenly, he understood his mother. He understood why she’d done it. Life without her mate had been too brutal and her Alpha should have known that—should have…Fresh fury swept through him. Toman had let his mother die.

Ryan knew the whole story.

Mason needed it.

He went for the beers.

Twenty-four hours later, Mason stopped at a fueling station an hour out from Willow Bend. He didn’t need the gas, but he wanted to be seen. He leaned against the side of his truck while he waited for the tank to fill. The attendant kept ‘not’ looking in his direction and Mason paid no attention to the whirring camera mounted above. He’d had hours to consider Ryan’s tale and he’d smelled not one whiff of deception on him.

Toman Carlyle had been Alpha for nearly one hundred years. An unprecedented reign in pack history, particularly considering some of the violent and bloody coups that occurred to the other packs throughout the twentieth century, but not Willow Bend. No, Toman held the pack together through two World Wars, a cold war, the civil unrest of the sixties, and the turbulence of the seventies. He’d continued to push back the line as the world’s technological prowess developed and he’d kept Willow Bend strong.

All because he knew who the threats were and he made sure to quietly, but skillfully, dispose of them. Some he sent on missions that would certainly break them. Others he lured into challenging him long before they were truly ready or capable—like Mason’s father. All because Mason had shown his strength and dominance early on and every year that strength had grown. His ability to shift whenever he wanted, to rule his temper—and more—to rule his yearmates and those younger had marked him as Alpha potential. Toman saw Mason as a threat and systematically set out to destroy his support structure.

It had worked. Mason’s parents were dead and Mason himself was gone. Other wolves faced different fates—A.J. Buckley, a boy who had been two years behind Mason in school and triplet, had even gone to a human prison, left there to rot by his Alpha. His brothers, Ryan had said, returned to Willow Bend under orders and they were devastated by the loss of their eldest member—and proved far more tractable.

In a sadistic sense, Toman had maintained his rule with an iron fist that seemed relatively bloodless on the surface unless one knew where the bodies were. Ryan knew where they were all buried and yet he continued to toe the line. So why had he continued to serve Toman?

“Better the devil I knew,” Ryan said. “And I am not more dominant than him. I was not a true threat, then I married Tiffany.”
Tiffany and Alexis had given Toman more leverage. Though Ryan didn’t say so, Mason knew he was the reason Toman had granted Alexis’ request to leave Willow Bend. Ryan had apparently suspected the mate-potential between him and Lexi. Toman suspected it as well. He wanted her out of his territory.

He wanted Mason to have no reason to return.

After the tank was full, he climbed back in the car and followed the interstate for another two miles, then took the state highway exit.

Thirty minutes later, his welcoming party stood in the center of the road. This far out, the only destination was Willow Bend and they didn’t get a lot of tourists. Stopping, he shut off the engine and stepped out.

“Owen.” Of all the Hunters to greet him, Owen Chase was the best. Owen had been two years ahead of him in school and, while they hadn’t been close, the wolf had been a friend of sorts.

“Lone Wolves do not enter Willow Bend territory without permission. You do
not
have permission.” Implacable and unyielding, Owen studied him. This wasn’t a pissing contest. Protecting their borders was Owen’s job. He was a Hunter, he was their first line of defense.

To enter, Mason had only one recourse unless he wanted to kill his friend. “Alpha challenge.” And he didn’t want to kill him.

Surprise filtered through Owen’s unreadable expression, vanishing as swiftly as it appeared. “Truly?”

Mason nodded once. “On my honor, I am here to challenge Toman. Warn him, if you must. I am going straight for him.” Every hour of this journey was an hour longer until he could claim Alexis. Ryan had gone to look after his daughter and he’d sent Tiffany with Kyle to Chicago. He’d moved his whole family out of the line of fire.

“Hey, Alpha challenge is between you and the big guy.” Owen shrugged, and headed toward the woods bordering the road. “Try not to get dead.” The last was as close to ‘good luck’ as the Hunter was likely to give him and he knew it was his friend and not the pack soldier saying it. Owen would notify other Hunters along the road and nearer to the town to leave him be.

An Alpha challenge gave him free passage. No one would interfere with him or the fight as long as he didn’t deviate from his course. Chances were high someone would tell Toman. Mason didn’t care. Let the Alpha sweat. He’d done everything he could to destroy Mason. In his own perverted way, he’d contributed to the situation that now had Mason ready to challenge him.

Driving with the windows open filled the truck with the scent of home. The woods, the lakes, the land—he knew them all. He’d roamed in this area from a very young age, racing through the woods with his parents, and his friends. Three miles from the town, he slowed at Lakepointe Crossing. Just a few hundred yards off the state highway, he’d shifted in front of Alexis for the first time.

Her shriek had hurt his ears, but the terror on her face had sliced his heart. Worse, she’d run from him, tears streaming down her face. He streaked after her, because she’d run the wrong way, deeper into the woods rather than toward the town.

When she tripped over a snake, he’d killed it without thinking twice. He did not want it to bite her. Every time he tried to get near her, she took off again, so he shadowed her progress. Finally, two miles later, she’d stopped and sat down. Only when he was sure she wouldn’t run again had he resumed his human shape.

Their fathers tracked them down an hour later, and Mason had only just managed to get her to stop crying and hear him. She’d thrown herself into Ryan’s arms and her father had swept her away. Mason had failed Lexi then.

He wouldn’t do it again.

Closer to town, he caught the scent of other wolves. Most of Willow Bend’s population were wolves with only a handful of humans scattered amongst them. Most, like Lexi, were children of previous marriages. No human child would be allowed the bite until they reached their majority then only if they wished it—usually because they’d mated a wolf.

Like Lexi and he seemed to have done. Had Toman not interfered, would he and Lexi have already mated? Would she have been willing to stay in Willow Bend? Or would she still have wanted to leave? Ryan said she’d run away several times after Mason left.

Had she been unconsciously looking for him? It had been years since he’d even allowed himself the memory of her, but once he’d caught her scent in that alley, he couldn’t bear to be apart.

Now, Lexi might die. Another death he could lay at Toman’s feet. The cagey old Alpha had cost him too much.

Working from memory, he bypassed the town and headed east toward Toman’s house. The Alpha had an estate of sorts, lots of open land around his oversized manse. Lights burned all over town and nearly every house Mason passed was similarly lit up.

Did they know he was coming? Did it matter?

Alpha
. If—no,
when
—he won this challenge, Mason would replace Toman as Alpha. All of these people would be his to protect. Yes, he was challenging Toman to make a place for Lexi, to protect her and their unborn child, but he would earn the responsibility of so many more if he succeeded.