Blake, Abby - Suddenly Wolf (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (14 page)

“Rough day?” Dave asked casually.

“You could say that.”

“Sorry, but I think I’m about to make it worse. I just saw your mother and my sister heading toward the main gate with nearly half the pack in their wake. I think they plan to challenge Andrea’s status in the pack.”

“Great, fucking great.” He’d half been expecting a challenge for leadership of the pack, but it seemed that his mother had a scheme to somehow keep him in the alpha position but deny him the mating he wanted. “Where’s my dad?”

“Not sure,” Dave answered. “Last I saw him he was headed to your office.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you at the gate. Hopefully I’ll run into Dad on the way there.”

“No worries,” Dave said. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry my sister is one of the instigators. But I promise you have my support, no matter what.”

“Thanks.”

Xavier hung up the phone slowly. Considering that as alpha he had the power to ostracize Sheila if he believed it best for the pack, it might prove a difficult promise for Dave to keep.

* * * *

Isaac couldn’t help the silly grin that covered his face. Finally he had everything he wanted in life. A good job, a great family, and a mate perfectly suited to them all. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about getting their woman pregnant ever since she’d made the suggestion.

The vibration of his cell phone was an unwelcome intrusion.

He glanced at the caller ID and really wanted to press the ignore button, but knew she was unlikely to give up, so he answered the damn call.

He tried to sound casual. “Hi, Mom. What’s up?”

Isaac could feel the tension level increase in the two people beside him and deliberately opened his mind to Daegan so that his brother could listen into whatever their mother had to say. Isaac felt relieved in a guilty sort of way that their link to Andrea wasn’t yet strong enough to allow this type of communication.

“Something awful has happened.” The woman sounded genuinely distressed, and for a suspended moment, Isaac’s heart damn near climbed into his throat.

She sounded like she was crying, but when she didn’t say anything more, Isaac growled, “Explain.”

There was a moment of silence—perhaps shock that he’d spoken to her in such a disrespectful tone—but then she dragged in a deep breath and continued. “The pack has decided they don’t want a human mated to the alpha. Several of the men are considering challenging Xavier for leadership.” She took a few gasping breaths, and suspicion wormed into Isaac’s brain. His mother wasn’t the type to cry. She’d always held great pride in being able to endure, with grace and poise, any hardships that came her way. For her to be blubbering over what amounted to a rumor seemed very much out of character.

“Where’s Xavier?”

“I don’t know. But it’s too dangerous to bring the human here,” she said, confirming Isaac’s suspicion.

“Why?” It probably made him an awful son, but he didn’t like the feeling of being manipulated and was finding it hard to believe anything coming out of his own mother’s mouth. Considering some of the comments she’d made over the past few weeks—and her refusal to meet Andrea—he suspected she might even be behind part of the unrest within the pack.

“It’s dangerous. Emotions are running high, and she could get hurt. You wouldn’t want your mate to get hurt, would you?” Great, now she was laying the guilt on a little thick. She had a point, though.

“I’ll discuss it with Daegan and get back to you.” He disconnected the call, wishing he still had his flip phone so he could have slammed the damn thing shut. Pressing a tiny little off button just didn’t satisfy the anger grinding through him.

“Is Xavier all right?”

“Relax, sweetheart,” Isaac said as he pulled Andrea’s hand into his own. “Close your eyes and concentrate on him. You should be able to sense his mood. The mating link should be strong enough even from here.”

She did as he asked, and Isaac tried to hide his own fear from her. They were still at least fifteen minutes from the compound, and the winding switchback roads had never annoyed him more than they did today. Trying to go faster would likely lead to tragedy, so he ground his teeth and hoped Xavier was safe.

“Oh, wow,” Andrea said with a small giggle. “That is one pissed-off wolf.”

Isaac smiled, relieved to know that Xavier seemed okay. His cell phone rang a moment later.

* * * *

Andrea could sense Xavier’s urgency and knew without seeing the caller ID that it was him on the phone. She snatched it from Isaac’s hands before he could let her hear only one side of the call.

“Hello, sexy,” she said by way of greeting. “You mother tells us there’s been a bit of trouble at the compound.”

“My mo—” He cut himself off and got straight to the point. “I’m sorry, Andrea, but I’ve got Sheila and some soon-to-be ex-pack members stirring up trouble. Tell Isaac and Daegan I want you to head back down the mountain and find a hotel for the night. I’ll join you as soon as I can.”

“No.”

She didn’t elaborate. Just said the one word and waited for Xavier’s reaction. If she wanted to be accepted by the pack, she needed to show she wasn’t intimidated by any of them—especially her new mother-in-law. Andrea took a deep breath, holding it as she waited for Xavier to say something. She’d thought her last mother-in-law had been a bitch, but compared to her new one, her ex’s mother had been a sweet old lady.

Xavier seemed to be weighing up everything he knew, all the pros and cons, the good, the bad, and the ugly truth about some of the members in his pack, but in the end he uttered a single word in reply. “Okay.”

Andrea couldn’t hide the relief running through her. She could feel Isaac and Daegan’s fear for her very clearly, but she could also sense their confidence in her and drew strength from it.

“Xavier,” she said into the phone, “we’ll be there soon.”

“I love you,” he said at the same moment that she felt his emotions wash over her. Just like Isaac and Daegan, he was worried about what might come her way, but he had faith that she could handle it.

“I love you, too.”

* * * *

Xavier tensed when he saw the truck turn onto the driveway. Sheila, with the help of his mother, had the pack so riled up that they actually jeered at the approaching vehicle. He’d managed to get everyone settled down enough to listen to calm reasoning, but Sheila had riled them back up with a few shouted words.

It was kind of ironic that Sheila had the leadership skills an alpha’s mate needed to deal with a pack. Too bad she was selfishly focused on her own agenda and didn’t give a shit how her ambition affected her pack.

Xavier growled, physically thrusting his pack mates aside so that he could get to the gate and try to calm the situation once more. He had to smile when, bold as brass, his mate stepped from the truck’s cabin and called Sheila out.

“Come on, Sheila. Get your skinny ass out here so we can discuss this problem you seem to be having.”

Xavier caught his mother’s expression and almost burst out laughing. Judging by her openmouthed shock, she’d expected Andrea to cry and flee like a frightened human. He smirked and raised an eyebrow when his mother glanced his way. She should have made time to get to know her new daughter-in-law before deciding she wasn’t good enough for him, so she deserved every shock she would get.

He also noticed that Isaac and Daegan had taken up positions either side, but slightly behind Andrea, showing to the rest of the pack that even though they supported her, the lady was the one in charge. The crowd grew quiet, waiting for Sheila to step up and defend her honor.

Xavier leaned against the gate, crossing his arms and ankles in a show of nonchalance that he was sure nobody missed. He knew that the pack was liable to follow his lead, and if they thought he had no doubt of his mate’s ability, then they were less likely to doubt her as well.

Sheila looked startled by the challenge, but short of turning away and revealing herself as a coward, she had no choice but to brazen it out.

“You’re not welcome here,” she said at the top of her voice. She turned to the people behind her, perhaps expecting a vocal show of support. She got none.

“Says who?” Andrea asked with a relaxed grin. Even her body language was nonthreatening. She seemed calm and composed, and her smile invited others to relax also.

“Says everybody,” Sheila yelled with no small amount of frustration. It was kind of like watching a bratty four-year-old throw a tantrum. “Nobody wants a human leading our pack.”

“Lucky then, that I’m no longer human.”

Sheila growled and stamped her foot. Even some of the people gathered around started to laugh quietly. But it was when Shelia started to change into her wolf that Xavier felt fear burst through him.

Faster than the eye could see, Andrea pulled a handgun from the back of her jeans and aimed it at the half woman, half wolf before her.

“Change back, little girl,” Andrea said with steely determination, “or we are going to have a serious problem.”

Sheila giggled, the noise sounding strange coming from her current half-changed form. “Stupid human. Bullets don’t hurt us. Not even silver can hurt us.”

“True,” Andrea said with a relaxed smile even though her aim didn’t waver in the slightest. “But I hear quicksilver will leave you with a nasty case of dead. You know that’s another name for mercury, right? Amazing how easy it is to add a drop to hollow point bullets.”

Sheila looked terrified and quickly changed back to her human form.

“No fair,” she said in a high-pitched, whiny voice. “You brought a gun. It won’t be a fair fight.”

“And you tried to use your wolf form against someone you know hasn’t yet got the ability,” Xavier added as he realized stepping into the fray now wouldn’t hurt Andrea’s standing. She already had the pack’s approval, even if many of the people standing around didn’t fully realize it yet.

“But feel free to challenge me again, Sheila,” Andrea added with a smirk. “I’m sure I’ll have fun smacking you down in wolf form, too.”

The woman shot Xavier a baleful look, but left without another word. Dave caught his eye, and Xavier nodded in approval as his beta turned and followed his sister. In werewolf terms Sheila was still quite young, and no matter how poor her choices had been, Xavier wasn’t willing to banish her for behavior that had been most likely encouraged by his mother.

His mother on the other hand…

The woman was trying to blend into the crowd, but he spotted her easily and headed straight for her. “Mom, I’d like you to meet our mate.” The woman blanched but let him lead her over to where Isaac and Daegan held Andrea in their embrace.

“It’s very nice to finally meet you,” Andrea said in a friendly tone as she took her mother-in-law’s hand. “I trust that today’s events aren’t going to affect our relationship.”

Xavier’s mom nodded, but it was clear that she heard the demand in Andrea’s voice. Andrea was giving her mother-in-law a second chance to make a first impression. Hopefully, this time his mother would take the time to get to know his mate instead of making snap judgments based on superstitious nonsense.

“I love you,” Xavier said as he pulled Andrea from his brothers’ arms. They echoed his words, kissing her quickly before letting her go. “Welcome home.”

Epilogue

Andrea pressed a hand against her belly, trying to still the fluttery feeling inside. She hadn’t been this nervous since her first shift into wolf form. She knew it was good news she was about to share, but still, it had taken far longer than any of them had been expecting, and in some ways they’d given up trying.

The past eight months hadn’t all been a bed of roses. Her first shift had been a complete disaster. All the planning, all the explanations, all the confidence in the world hadn’t prepared her for the overwhelming primitive instinct to hunt. Andrea hadn’t felt any pain as she’d instinctively changed from human to wolf when the full moon rose in the night sky. She’d taken off outside the house even before the shift had been complete.

Thankfully her men had been more than able to cope with her transformation from rational female to rabid huntress, and the only animal to die that night had been a field mouse in the wrong place at the wrong time. Andrea still felt a little queasy over swallowing the poor thing whole, but apparently that’s what field mice were for—at least according to her wolf half.