Wolver's Reward (40 page)

River heard it, too. It so startled him, he
broke the kiss and dropped her to the ground. Eyes wide with
surprise, he muttered, "Fuck."

"Fudge," she corrected automatically and the
next thing she knew she was running again, this time as he held her
hand and dragged her behind him across the compound to the main
lodge.

"That," he pointed to the fancy pickup truck
parked out front, "Is leaving. Now. Along with everyone who came
with it."

He didn't give her a chance to speak or
explain. He dragged her up the stairs and across the wide wooden
porch. Once inside, his head snapped back and forth, searching for
Reb wasn't sure what.

"River, they just got here this morning," she
tried, but River wasn't listening. He was moving again, eyes pinned
on the door to the big dining room.

Her father's guest was sitting at the table.
A small and unimposing little wolver, he smiled benignly when they
came storming through the door. He was dressed like a department
store version of a lumberjack in heavy canvas trousers and a
thermal shirt beneath a buffalo checked wool one. He wore heavy
work boots. It was all brand new.

Two pies, one with a slice missing, sat in
front of him. A stack of plates, forks, and napkins stood next to
them.

"Hey there, boy. Good to see you again. Want
a slice of pie?" Eugene Begley pointed with his fork at the half
eaten slice on his plate. "Somebody around here makes a mighty fine
pie."

Chapter 31

"No, I don't want pie. I want you gone, and
you can take your Alpha with you."

"Well, I can see your manners haven't
improved none." The little wolver sat back in his chair and dabbed
his lips with his napkin. "Eugene Begley, miss. Don't know whether
to say pleased to meet you, or run for your life."

He was a funny little wolver and Reb liked
him immediately. "I'm Rebecca."

"And she's mine. You've got no say in it,
Begley, so fuck my manners. I'm sorry you came all this way, but
you aren't needed or wanted here. Take your Alpha and go home. Or,
I'll kill him and then you can take him home."

"Careful, boy." It was clearly a threat. The
little wolver's face suddenly changed. A ripple of power rolled
from him and he didn't look so harmless anymore.

River didn't look like he was going to back
down. She put her hand on his chest. "River, honey, what's this all
about? Mr. Begley is obviously an Alpha and it's obvious you've
met." She turned to the Alpha. "What is your business here, Mr.
Begley?"

"I'm known as a matchmaker, Rebecca,
specializing in Alpha's Mates. River's the one recommended me to
your daddy. Seems the boy thought you were in need of an
Alpha."

Begley grinned like a cub who'd just won a
schoolyard argument. Reb wouldn't have been surprised if he'd stuck
out his tongue.

River's anger was, as always, the result of
his fear. This was one fear he needed to get past once and for
all.

The hand on his chest went to her hip.
"River, is this true?"

"Babe, I wanted you to be safe. I wanted you
to be happy. Aw, damn it, I thought Mr. Begley was the one who
could make that happen."

"You never thought to ask me."

"I should have, Babe, but I thought..."

"I know what you thought, River Goodman, but
in the future, you'd better think again. I'm not a
Babe-in-the-woods when it comes to my wolf and my heart." She
turned to the little Alpha. "I'm sorry, Mr. Begley, but I don't
share my fudge with anyone but River."

River hung his shaking head and muttered,
"Fuck."

"Fudge," Reb corrected.

Eugene Begley burst out laughing.

"River Goodman, you'd better learn to watch
that mouth. There are pups present." A woman stood in the doorway
with a baby balanced on her hip.

"What are you doing here?" River asked
looking from the little Alpha to the woman. Once again, he grabbed
Reb's hand.

"Well, that's a fine hello. I thought your
mood might be a little more forgiving after all that's happened. In
spite of his rude behavior, I can assure you he wasn't raised in a
cave," the woman said to Reb. "At least not for the last seven
years." Shifting the pup to her other hip, she held out her right
hand. "By the grip he has on you, I'm going to assume you're Reb.
I'm Kat, his Mate and erstwhile mother. It's very nice to finally
meet you. Your mother said you were feeling under the weather. I
hope you're feeling better now."

Reb extracted her hand from River's to shake.
"I am. Much better, thank you."

Kat held her hand, turning it to inspect the
bracelet. "He must love you if he gave you that. I never thought
he'd part with it."

River's face turned red. "You knew?"

His erstwhile mother laughed. "Of course I
knew. I'm the Mate. I know everything." She laughed again, this
time to Reb. "No matter how many times you tell them, cubs always
think they can get away with things. The Mate or the mother, we
know. You'll see."

Reb felt River stiffen beside her. She
slipped her hand back into his and squeezed. "A mother maybe, but
never as a Mate. I don't want it."

"Good luck with that. I didn't ask to be one
either and then this house painter came along and wham, bam, thank
you ma'am, I was a Mate. It's not a bad gig once you get the hang
of it."

"Reb's not going to get the hang of it,"
River snarled. "Now where's the Alpha?"

Reb sighed. They were right back at square
one.

"Right here, and watch how you talk to my
Mate. We've had this conversation before." Reb knew who he was when
the Alpha, Charles Goodman, smiled at his Mate. "Hey there, little
Red Riding Hood." He came around behind Kat and kissed her neck,
then chucked the baby under the chin with his knuckle. "The cub
giving you a hard time?"

"The little one? No. The big one? He's gone
back to acting like a little pri...naughty boy."

"Must take after his old man." The Alpha
winked at River and kissed his Mate's neck again, this time adding
a tickling finger behind her ear.

"Don't start what you can't finish, Big
Bad."

"Will you two stop it? It's embarrassing,"
River growled. "Now where's the Alpha?"

"Which one?" Begley asked.

"Were you looking for me?" Roland held the
door for Margaret.

"River, dear, grinding your jaws like that
isn't good for your teeth." As if he wasn't about to explode,
Margaret kissed his cheek. "Sit down and have some pie."

Everyone else took a seat, but Reb stood with
River. She wasn't quite sure what was going on, but knew her place
was with him.

Roland held out his arms and Kat passed him
the latest Goodman. Jiggling the little boy on his knee with a
giddy-up motion, he smiled at his mate. "I wouldn't mind one or two
of these about the place. They'd provide a delightful entertainment
in my dotty old age."

"It will be a long while before dotty sets
in, dearest, and let's not jump the gun. She isn't mated. Yet.
Rebecca, please take a seat. You and River are making people
nervous. It's becoming a habit."

"Get used to it," Charles advised. "He's been
making us nervous for years."

River shook his head in disgusted defeat. He
held a chair out for Reb and as she sat, he whispered in her ear.
"They're crazy, every last one of them."

"But we ain't deaf." Begley pointed to
River's chair. "Set yourself down, boy, and have a piece of pie.
Then we can stop all the yammerin' and get down to business.

"All I want to know is where's the Alpha
who's supposed to mate with Reb?"

"Dead," Begley said flatly. "The first one,
anyway. And now I've got another poor girl crying her heart out
down in Arkansas. You mind cutting me another slice of that pie,
ma'am?" He pushed his empty plate toward Margaret.

"Of course, Mr. Begley." She cut him another
slice and passed back the plate.

He was talking about Dennis and everyone knew
it. Reb bowed her head. Dennis was a good man and a good Alpha, but
she could never have loved him the way she loved River.

"I don't get it. Who cares about some girl in
Arkansas?"

"I agree with River on this one," Reb
interrupted her train of thought. "I only care about River and me.
I'm not mating an Alpha. I'm mating River." She closed her eyes in
a flinch. They hadn't even talked about mating. She just
assumed.

She was so relieved when River laughed and
draped his arm around her neck. He pulled her to him and kissed her
forehead.

"Why do you think I came back, Babe?"

So relieved, she started to giggle. "For
fudge?"

"That, too."

He seemed calmer now, more relaxed, so she
finished what she'd been about to say. "I feel bad for this
heartbroken female, but I don't see how it should be my
concern."

"Not you, him." Begley glared at Kat. "I
thought you said he can read?"

"Can and may, Eugene. He can read. He may not
have."

The glare turned to River. "Didn't you read
them papers I gave you?"

River shrugged. "I was gonna."

"Was gonna don't put food on the table. It
don't stop from adding to my headaches, neither."

"What the he..." With four wolver's staring
at him, three of whom were female, River changed tack. "...heck are
you talking about?"

Charles snickered. "Coward."

"You're one to talk," River snickered
back.

"That poor miserable girl in Arkansas is
waiting for the Alpha who's set on mating Rebecca," Begley said,
"Of course, she doesn't know it yet. Human you know," he said to
the others.

Kat raised her finger. "Careful there,
Eugene. I was human once."

"And you didn't know what you were, did you?
Neither does that poor girl. There's a little pack down there that
needs a good Alpha and that Alpha needs a Mate. You," he pointed to
River, "screwed that up."

"Well, let me unscrew it for you." River
slapped the table. "Send Reb's Alpha right on down to Arkansas to
make that little pack and that poor girl happy. Problem
solved."

"I don't think Miss Rebecca would like that,"
the little wolver said, rather happily, Reb thought. Begley grinned
and winked at her.

The others were grinning, too, and Reb was
beginning to think River was right. They were crazy. All of
them.

Still grinning, Begley shook his head from
side to side. "Thick as mud, the two of you."

River leapt from his seat so abruptly, the
chair would have fallen if Reb hadn't been quick handed enough to
catch it.

"No." No anger, just, "No."

His eyes darted about the room as if he was
searching for an exit from which to flee and judging his chances of
making it. The wolver who claimed to be afraid of nothing, looked
frightened.

Reb grabbed for his hand, but he moved and
she captured his forearm instead. She tugged at it to bring his
eyes to her.

"Whatever it is, River, I've got you."

"As a good Mate should," Margaret agreed with
a nod to Kat.

"I'm not..." Reb began.

"I'm not an Alpha," River's protest overrode
Reb's.

"Of course you are." Charles was no longer
smiling. "We've known it for a long time. Didn't admit it until
recently, but we knew it."

"No. I can't be. You don't understand what's
inside." River tapped his chest so hard, they heard the thunk.

"But we do, sweetie," Kat argued, "We just
never found a way to make you understand it."

"Kind, brave, and handsome." Reb didn't know
she'd whispered it aloud until Kat laughed.

"I don't think that last is a requirement,
but I'm glad you see him that way, too. It certainly doesn't hurt
if you're the Mate."

"No."

"Yes." Charles' contradiction was firm.
"You've been leaking power for months."

"No."

"How did you save that cub?" Roland asked. "I
felt it. I know when another Alpha uses his power within my
territory. Every Alpha does. When I asked Ben..."

"Ben promised to keep his mouth shut."

Though his tone remained mild, Roland leaked
a little power of his own. The other Alpha's at the table bristled
with it.

"Ben is loyal to his Alpha. When asked, he
answered truthfully. Had he not answered, I still would have known.
Do you think I didn't know who augmented my power? Do you think me
such a fool that I would risk my health and therefore my pack's if
I wasn't confident of the outcome?"

Margaret coughed into her hand and Roland
smiled at his Mate's unobtrusive correction.

"I shall amend that to I took a calculated
risk, though I was quite certain of the outcome, and if I'd had the
slightest doubt, your battle with Donavan would have relieved
it."

Still in denial, River continued to argue.
"You didn't see me, sir. You didn't see what I became. If you had,
you wouldn't have seen an Alpha. You would have seen a
monster."

Begley broke in, no longer grinning. "We all
have monsters inside of us, River. A good Alpha knows how to keep
it leashed."

River sank back into his chair. Elbows on the
table, he dropped his head into his hands.

"You aren't listening. I didn't keep control.
The leash broke."

"Roland killed him as is his right. Those
were your words, River." Roland frowned in consternation. "Had the
leash truly broken, you would have usurped that right. You would
have killed Donavan and might very well have killed me."

River continued to stare at the table, head
in hands. Reb took the opportunity to pick over a bone of her own.
She glared at her mother.

"You knew. All this time, you knew, and you
didn't feel the least bit compelled to tell me? This is my life,
Mother."

"I didn't know. Without the mantle, there's
no way to be sure. I merely suspected. Your father and I discussed
it and decided that after the initial disaster we should leave
nature to take its course." Margaret paused thoughtfully and issued
a long suffering sigh before she continued. "Frankly, I was
convinced that if I encouraged the relationship, you'd reject it
out of hand."