Capturing the Alpha (Shifters of Nunavut Book 1) (18 page)

Later that evening, Zane stood outside of the den, surrounded by his betas. He’d been gone over a week, and all except Tallow, whom he’d spoken to earlier in the day, seemed to be competing for his attention.

“There hasn’t been any sign of the caribou herd this far north yet,” Breeze told him. “But Kya found two muskox carcasses near the point.”

“Amarok?” Zane asked, unable to hide his sneer.

He had told Tallow about his encounter with the western pack, and she had relayed it to the others. It wasn’t unusual for the Amarok wolves to be spotted on the fringes of Siluit territory, especially during winter, when their own barren territory struggled to support them. But it was rare for Erik to be sighted, and now more than ever, Zane bristled at the thought of the other alpha in his territory.

Kuva said, “The carcasses were old and the storm covered up the tracks, but she says they smelled like bears.”

A week ago, Zane would have scoffed at the idea of bears being so close to the den, but now he felt unsettled. He told the others what he and Enzo had seen in the southern forest, and his suspicion that it might be the cause of the bear migration.

“How widespread do you think this is?” Breeze asked, frowning.

“There’s no telling,” he said. “I’m not going to send anyone to scout the entire southern border. I think what we need to focus on right now is teaching every capable wolf how to fight. Between the bears and Amarok, things could get complicated in the months to come.”

“I take it we won’t have Sedna’s help?” Breeze said.

Zane met her level gaze, and refused to look away. None of them had brought up Ginnifer, not even Kuva, but Zane knew they were all wondering what his mark on her meant for the future of their pack.

“I don’t think Sedna’s going to be a problem.” Tallow spoke for the first time, and they all turned to look at her. She appeared intensely focused on picking the nonexistent dirt from beneath her fingernails.

“What did you do?” Zane asked slowly.

She looked at him, and then back at her nails. “Haven’t you wondered where Coral is?”

He had been wondering that, from the moment his mind wasn’t preoccupied with worrying over Ginnifer. After she’d fallen asleep, he’d spoken briefly with Tallow about Marl. Tallow pretended not to need reassurance, but he told her it wasn’t her fault and that Marl’s health had already been at a tipping point. Once he’d left Tallow, he’d gone to Coral’s room to find it empty.

Breeze repeated, “What did you do?”

“I
may
have encouraged her to run off with Roch.”

Tallow explained how she’d gone to Coral’s room as soon as Zane and Ginnifer had arrived at the den. She’d told Coral that Zane had marked Ginnifer as his mate, and that if she knew what was best for her, she’d leave.

“It was all Indigo’s idea, and she’s the one that put a bug in Roch’s ear a few days back. He’s always had a thing for Coral and seems to think he can pull off being alpha of his own pack,” Tallow said, snorting.

Zane stared at her in disbelief. “She’s not going to mate with Roch. She’s going to go straight to her mother and tell her that I drove her away from the den to take a human as my mate.”

Breeze cut in, sounding uncharacteristically furious. “Which is exactly what Zane’s father did to Shale. Maybe we could have smoothed this over, but you’ve made things a thousand times worse.”

“Will you settle the fuck down?” Tallow bit out. “Shale’s my aunt, and I grew up in Sedna, in case you forgot. I think I understand the situation a lot better than either of you.”

Zane held up a hand to silence them both. He gave Tallow a hard look, but said, “You better have a good explanation.”

“It’s a lot better than yours,” Tallow said, but she quickly averted her gaze towards the ground. “None of you know Sedna like I do. There’s a reason I decided to stay here when Shale became alpha. She’s a cold bitch, and her daughters are nothing but pawns to her.

“I didn’t tell Coral she should leave because you were going to kick her out. I told her that you were going to have her sent back to Sedna. If Shale finds out that you chose a human over Coral, Coral’s going to be in even deeper shit than we are.”

Anger surged in Zane’s chest. He’d always assumed that Tallow’s stories about Shale’s cruelty were overblown. He couldn’t fathom Shale blaming Coral because he rejected her.

Tallow went on, her features tightening. “When I told her that she should probably run, she told me something even worse. Apparently, Shale’s planning to ally with Amarok as well. Next year, when Nova’s of age, she’s going to try to pass her off to Erik. This winter, before Coral left to come down here, Shale told her that if she wasn’t mated to you by the end of spring, she’d be sending Coral off to Amarok instead.”

The alpha of Amarok was widely regarded as a bloodthirsty tyrant. Now and again, they took in wolves that had fled from Amarok, all of whom told stories about a pack where the strong lorded over the weak, violence was an everyday affair, and the only punishment for insult to the alpha was death.

Zane’s fists clenched. “There’s no way she meant that.”

Now and again in Siluit, disobedient pups were told they’d be sent off to Amarok if they didn’t stop misbehaving. Zane often threatened Indigo with as much, but it was an empty threat and they both knew it. He’d sooner break his own leg than see his sister as part of that pack.

“I can’t say for certain,” Tallow conceded. “But what matters is that Coral believed it and she’s out of the way now, so you’re free to do whatever you want with your human. You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Thank you,” Zane said, patting her on the head. “You’ll be leaving tomorrow to find Coral and Roch before they get themselves killed.”

Tallow gaped at him in disbelief. “You seriously want to bring her back here? What about Ginnifer?”

“Ginnifer has nothing to do with this,” he said. “Coral can’t fight. Roch is strong, but he’s young and inexperienced. There are poachers, bears, and Amarok wolves out there. They won’t last the month on their own.”

More so than that, Zane felt responsible for Coral, now more than ever. She left because of him, and in her mind, she had nowhere to go. He had much less sympathy for Roch, but he wouldn’t leave the young male out there to die.

Tallow continued to stare petulantly at him, and Zane motioned for the other two to go. Kuva left without complaint, but Breeze made an agitated sound.

“I don’t understand,” Tallow said, kicking at the snow. “I thought this would make you happy.”

“I appreciate what you were trying to do, but Coral is pack.”

“Coral’s from Sedna.”

Zane gave her a pointed look, and she wrinkled her nose.

“I’ve spent most of my life here,” she said defensively.

“I know. But Coral’s still your cousin. I don’t understand how you could do that to her, even for my sake.”

“It wasn’t only for your sake,” she said, tugging at her braided hair. “I wasn’t even going to go along with it at first, but then I saw that you’d marked that human, and I thought… I thought that with Coral out of the way, you’d take her as your mate for sure. If she decided to stay here…”

Tallow turned her back to him, but not before he noticed her blushing, something he had not seen in years. “If she stays, maybe Boaz will, too.”

Zane put a hand on her shoulder. “Are you in love with him?”

She shrugged him off.

“He isn’t…” She paused to exhale. “All of the other males are afraid of me. Even Kuva. But Boaz, he thinks I’m funny and…cute.”

“Cute?”

Tallow whirled around to glare at him. “Don’t mock me.”

“I’m not mocking you,” he said with a grin. “I’ve always thought you were cute.”

There had been a time when Zane had thought Tallow would be his mate. That seemed like another lifetime, and in many ways it was, but it was why the others assumed that he not only gave her so much authority, but also tolerated her combative nature. That was part of the reason, but only a small part.

“You are the only one who doesn’t treat me any differently than before I was alpha,” he said. “And as much as that can piss me off, I need that. I need you. So I understand why this human is important to you.”

A genuine smile broke over her face, though it quickly turned sly. “You know what else Boaz said to me? He told me that I’m the most beautiful female he’s ever seen, much prettier than your human.”

“I doubt he said that. Not unless you had his arm twisted behind his back.”

She scowled. “He didn’t explicitly say I was more beautiful than her, but it was implied.”

“Go spend some time with your male before you have to go,” he told her as he moved to head inside.

Tallow grabbed his arm to stop him. “Ginnifer… She’s going to stay, isn’t she?”

“Focus on finding Coral, and let me worry about that.”

“How’s it feeling?”

“Not too bad, if I don’t move it the wrong way,” Ginnifer said, absently rubbing the splint. “Or sneeze. Or breathe too hard.”

“It would hurt a lot less if you took the medicine I gave you,” Indigo chided, still not looking up from her book. The young shifter was poring over a textbook on—of all things—botany.

“Are you planning to start a garden?” Ginnifer asked, both out of interest and to avoid more lecturing.

Despite Zane’s insistence that she stay in bed, she had managed to have a very productive week. The wolves had been clamoring to get in front of the camera and she and Boaz had been filming almost nonstop. According to Indigo, they wanted to suck up to Ginnifer so that when she became Zane’s mate, they’d have a higher standing in the pack.

The first couple of days, she’d found it difficult to work while on pain medication, which turned her into a groggy, giggly space cadet. She’d ditched the strong stuff, opting for double doses of Tylenol to take the edge off her discomfort.

“I was thinking that if I could get my hands on an extra generator, I can set up some sort of greenery. It would have to be underground, my brother would never let me build a real greenhouse.”

“Do you plan on growing vegetables?”

Indigo gagged. “Ew, no. Herbs, and things I can use to make medicines. Now that Marl’s gone, it’s going to be tougher to get those sorts of things.”

“I could help,” Ginnifer said. “Before I leave, I’ll give you my number and if you ever need anything, you can call me and I’ll make it happen.”

Indigo turned a page without responding.

“I could even get you a generator and the supplies you need to get set up with your—”

The book snapped shut. “If you really want to help me, you can stay here with my brother instead of running back to wherever it was you came from.”

Ginnifer had been prepared for Indigo to say something to that effect. Indigo had been taking jabs at her all week, ever since Ginnifer had told her that she was still going back to the states.

“I’m not running away,” Ginnifer said patiently. “I’m going home. It doesn’t mean I won’t be back.”

As it stood, she and Boaz had already gathered more footage than they needed. Despite their best efforts in planning and organization, she was going to be wading through hundreds of hours of video, and trying to condense it into a film that was less than two hours long, not to mention cohesive.

She could have left already,
would
have left already, if not for Zane. She wasn’t ready to give up waking beside him every morning, or falling asleep in his arms. She wasn’t sure how she could get through a day without him checking in on her every hour, feigning concern over her arm while surreptitiously glaring at any men that were standing too close to her. And the thought of never kissing his lips again—that was the worst.

“You don’t get to take half measures,” Indigo said, and something about her tone reminded Ginnifer of her older sister. “You can’t expect Zane to wait around for you to come back, and if you do, then you’re no better than Raine.”

That was new.

“Who’s Raine?”

Indigo shook her head. “Forget about it. If you don’t already know, then that’s because it’s none of your business.”

As she contemplated that, Ginnifer unconsciously rubbed at her splint. She winced and let out a whistling breath as she tapped it too hard.

“You have a terrible pain tolerance,” Indigo said. “It really shouldn’t be hurting that badly anymore.”

Ginnifer was glad for the change of subject. “I don’t heal as quickly as a shifter.”

“Still, it shouldn’t be hurting so badly.” Indigo set her book aside. “Let me see it.”

Indigo removed the outer layer of cloth, then the splint, and then began unwrapping the final layer. Beneath the cloth, her skin still looked inflamed, but no worse than when it had been wrapped, Ginnifer thought.

“Oh,” Indigo said, clicking her tongue. She brushed her index finger over the inflamed area, and Ginnifer twitched away from her.

“What is it?”

“This shouldn’t look like this. It felt like a clean break, but now I’m not so sure. There could be a fragment of bone in the muscle tissue.”

Ginnifer’s stomach churned. In a small voice, she asked, “What are you going to do?”

“Me?”
Indigo asked, taken aback. “I know how to set a bone, but I’m no doctor. You’re probably going to need surgery.”

Ginnifer took her arm back. “Maybe you’re wrong. We should give it a few more days and see what happens.”

***

“We’re going to Port Trent,” Zane said, folding his arms across his chest. It was difficult to be firm when Ginnifer’s face was as white as fresh snow.

He had stopped by the room to look in on Ginnifer, and had found her with her cast off, she and Indigo with their noses buried in a book on human anatomy.

“Uh uh,” Ginnifer said, shaking her head. “We just got back. Besides, it doesn’t hurt as much as I thought. In fact, it’s already feeling a little better.”

“Don’t make me blow on it,” he said dryly.

Zane had been concerned about her arm all week. Ever since she’d stopped taking the medicine Indigo had given her, Ginnifer had been sleeping fitfully at night and hiding her discomfort behind forced smiles during the day. Aside from making him worry, it had made sex impossible. The one time they’d tried to be intimate, he’d had her near to tears when he’d accidentally bumped her arm.

Ginnifer said, “Fine, but how are we going to get there? There are bear traps down the south road and actual bears on the eastern pass, so what, we go west and run into your crazy neighbors?”

“I thought you’d be glad to be going back to civilization,” Zane said smoothly.

Their debate about her staying in the pack had reached a standstill. Every time Zane thought that he was making progress convincing her, she would casually mention something she planned on doing once she got home. It put Zane in a difficult position, as he wanted—
needed
—her to stay, but he also wasn’t willing to stoop to pleading.

After days of frustration, he’d considered a different strategy, a risky strategy, and now was the perfect time to deploy it.

“Indigo, give us a moment.”

His sister was more stubborn even than Tallow, and never one to be ordered around, least of all ordered out of her own room. So when she got up and left with an overstated sigh, Zane knew she planned on listening outside the door.

When she was gone, Ginnifer said, “All right, if you want the truth, I’m not a big fan of doctors, I’m more of a homeopathic type of woman. I’m sure this is only hurting because…”

Zane tuned out of whatever else she said, wanting to roll his eyes.
This from the female who said she wouldn’t give birth except in a hospital and on as many drugs as they could give her
.

There was another reason she didn’t want to go back, a reason she didn’t want to admit, and Zane thought he knew what that reason was. If his suspicions were correct, then his plan would work perfectly.

But if you’re wrong
…

“I’m going to take you to Port Trent tonight,” he said, interrupting her ramblings. “You should bring your things. I think it would be best for you to go home while you heal.”

Her eyes widened. “What? You mean your home, the den, right?”

“No, of course not.
Your
home would be best. That way if any complications arise, you’ll have all the medical assistance that you need.” It was a struggle to get the words out, but she appeared too taken aback to notice the strain in his voice.

“What about Boaz? I can’t leave him here all by himself. I think it’s best that I come back and—”

“I’ll have Tallow bring him to town as soon as she’s back,” Zane told her. “And in the meantime, I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

Ginnifer was standing now, and he wondered if she realized that she was pacing. “So, okay, you’re going to take me to Port Trent and then…what? You’ll leave me there?”

“I can wait for you to see the doctor, if you want,” he said with a shrug. “But I’d prefer to head back to the den as soon as possible. I’ve already been away for too long these past few weeks.”

Before she could think too much, Zane was ushering her out the door with a hand on her back. “Go pack you’re things. We’ll leave once you’re ready.”

“I’m really tired,” she said, trying to turn to face him. “Can we at least stay, have dinner, and get some sleep. Who knows, maybe things will look better in the morning and we can save ourselves a trip.”

Zane kept his hand firm and continued pushing her forward. “I’d rather not wait and risk your arm getting any worse. I’ll meet you at my room shortly.”

Not waiting for her to reply, he turned to walk in the opposite direction. She’d reacted in exactly the way he’d hoped—better than he’d hoped, but it didn’t feel like a victory.

He rounded a corner to find Indigo waiting for him, tapping a finger to her cheek and frowning. As soon as she saw him, she narrowed her eyes.

“What are you doing?” she hissed. “You’re sending her back to stupid Florida—which isn’t her home, by the way,
this is
.” She stamped her foot on the ground for emphasis. “Tell me this is some sort of plan and that you aren’t sending her off so that you can mate with Coral instead.”

Zane flicked her nose, earning a scowl. “I do have a plan. Though it’s more of a gamble.”

Indigo considered him for a moment, and then took a quick breath. “Oh!” An impish grin transformed her face, making her look less like a woman and more like the little sister he knew. “You’re giving her the cold shoulder!”

She spoke so loudly that Zane had to look around the corner to make sure Ginnifer wasn’t still within earshot. The space where she’d been was gone.

“I’m giving her a chance to evaluate her priorities,” he said.

It sounded a lot less manipulative that way.

“I get it! It’s reverse psychology,” she said, her hands gesticulating wildly with her excitement. “You make her think you don’t care whether she stays, and she’ll realize this is where she really wants to be. How did you come up with that?”

From raising you
, he thought wryly.

Indigo’s combative nature had been even worse as a pup. Back then, she would argue a point to death, no matter how much logic was thrown her way. Even when she knew she was wrong, she’d stubbornly stick to her opinions, and the only way to get her to change her mind was to agree with her so much that she ended up arguing for the other side.

It was clear to him that Ginnifer enjoyed being with the pack, and he didn’t doubt that she cared for him. That was why her insistence on leaving had been so confusing, until he’d drawn the parallel between her and his sister. While she wasn’t nearly as stubborn as Indigo, he thought that perhaps she’d defended her choice to the point that she didn’t recognize that it wasn’t what she wanted anymore. If instead of asking her to stay, he urged her to return home, she might realize that she wanted to stay with him.

“You don’t look happy,” Indigo remarked. “Don’t worry, it’ll work for sure. I
know
she wants to stay.”

Zane wished he could share her conviction. Somewhere inside of him, his wolf was growling.