Claiming His Need (2 page)

Half Trac chuckled. “It’s always such a pleasure doing business with you, Gatekeeper.”

“That’s good to hear, sir.”

The powerful shifter was still chuckling when I pressed end and walked toward my brothers.
 

“Half Trac says we roll, and we need five.” I nodded at Klutch. “So, who’s on the team?”

Klutch pointed to the front row of shifters. “You, Shadow, Sandman, Magnus, and Pup One. You could pull Numbers in over the prospect if you’d like or if you think you’ll need the war wagon.”

I glanced between the two shifters in question. I liked them both; they were strong, smart, and easy to work with. But Pup One had nearly died in Milwaukee when Rebel met his mate, and he hadn’t been on a mission since. He needed to get back on the horse, so to speak. A simple territory dispute would be the perfect back-to-work project for him.

“I’ll keep Pup. Numbers can hang back on this one.” I turned to head for the rear of the warehouse where we used what was once a manufacturing space to store our bikes. No way were we parking our girls on the street.
 

“Sandman, you’ll be captaining this trip since Klutch isn’t joining us,” Magnus yelled. “Let’s load up and move out. It’s a long fucking drive, and we’ve got a limited number of hours to make it in.”

I swung open the door to the garage and nearly grinned at the sight. Hundreds of motorcycles filled the space. Just about any make, model, and color one could think of—from stock bikes to custom choppers, crotch-rockets to baggers. Every possible option waited for us to take it out for a spin, though there was only one bike I wanted. My favorite…my baby.

I strode straight to my classic Indian Chief Blackhawk and threw my leg over her. While all the other guys chose their newest models for this trek, I wanted my old girl for reasons I couldn’t explain. She just felt like the right piece of steel to have with me. Everything about the bike had been customized over the years. The chrome exhaust, the chumps handlebars, the leather bitch-seat add-on—the bike was one-hundred-percent mine.

“Think you can keep up on that thing, old man?”

Sandman straddled a Ducati crotch-rocket a few spots over. His bike definitely had the horsepower we needed, as well as a style that screamed badass. But it lacked the finesse of my favorite lady. Where his bike looked like speed and aggression, mine looked like a classic pinup beauty. A beauty that could tear past any bike in the warehouse without even coming close to the red line.
 

“You worry about your own self, young one. My girl and I will do just fine.”

Sandman grinned and started his engine. The deep whine echoed off the metal walls. Three others soon joined in the noise, the whole building beginning to shake with the vibrations.

With a glance at Sandman and a nod to Magnus, I kick-started my engine, the throaty rumble of American ingenuity louder than anything else in the warehouse. The leather seat gave with my weight as I pushed off into a slow roll. We followed Magnus out of the building, falling into our road order as we headed north. Soon, the white concrete of the highway was flying by under our tires. We had nine hours to make it to a rough, secluded section of the Keweenaw Peninsula. It was going to be a long, hard ride.

Mother Nature hated me. An unquenchable thirst was ravaging my body. My skin itched with a burn I couldn’t soothe, my joints popped like hot grease in a pan, and my blood scalded my veins as it ran through my body. Every inch of me ached with my upcoming heat cycle, but I refused to let it show. Not that most of my packmates wouldn’t know; I was sure they could all smell the hormone cocktail my body threw off as I burned alive from the inside out. I just hoped the majority would be respectful enough to keep the knowledge to themselves.
 

“I can’t believe you’ve called in those animals. They’re hardly better than the nomads trying to push us out of our territory. ” Elder Donati stood in the center of the great room, his face red with what could only be described as rage. He and my father had been arguing for hours over the obvious signs of a nomad invasion onto Valkoisus Pack land.

“They have come before to aid us when we needed them. I remember no issues with their respect of pack law, Elder.” My father stood in front of the fireplace with his arms crossed. He loomed over the smaller Donati clan leader, his Alpha rank obvious in body language as well as mass.

“Then perhaps you should learn from them, Alpha Wariksen. Your own respect of pack law seems to be lacking in regards to your family.”

My father’s face grew hard as he clenched his jaw. Soon, the vein in his forehead would begin to throb. He would roar and growl and order the other shifters to bend to his will. Whether they liked it or not, he was Alpha of the pack, a strong leader, and a stronger opponent. There was no one I knew of who could possibly best him. And yet the Donati clan consistently pushed and tested their boundaries like errant teenagers.

Bored with the back-and-forth, I left the men to their argument on the other side of the room and turned my attention to my youngest nephews. The two sat beside each other on the fabric of the scarlet Alpha family cloak I wore, their own little cloaks wrapped around their chubby legs.

“No no, Luka. We don’t eat our brother’s shoes.” I wagged my finger at the toddler and replaced the now-sodden shoe with a nubby teether ring. “Here you go, baby.”

“You’re good with them.”
 

I glanced at Lanie, my newest packsister, as she settled herself on the couch behind me. I envied her the ability to wear jeans and sweaters whenever she wanted to. While the cloaks were comfortable and perfect for shifters who tended to destroy regular clothes on a daily basis, they were old-fashioned and not particularly flattering. I much preferred the human clothes I’d begun to wear when I was alone in my suite.

“I love these two rascals. They’re like mini-versions of my brother.”

“Which one? You have a few, you know.”

I rolled my eyes. “Dante, of course. His sons are tiny carbon copies of him.”

“Now, there’s a scary thought. Two more Dantes terrorizing this place? The entire Donati clan would secede from the pack.”

“Good riddance,” I whispered. Lanie raised an eyebrow, but I ignored it and smiled at my adorable nephews instead. I hadn’t been kidding when I’d said they were like mini-Dantes. They looked exactly like him when he was a young boy, the shifter genes overriding the human ones. Where Dante’s mate, Collette, was tall with dark skin, raven hair, and brown eyes, the boys were fair and blond like the rest of the Wariksen shifters. They even had our dimples.
 

My other three nephews, the triplets, were a mix of their parents. Bernte had mated another shifter, so the darker hair and eyes that two of the boys had were more to be expected. Only one looked like a Wariksen. I couldn’t wait for Lanie and my twin brother Rex to have babies. They’d been mated only a few months, so I expected a bit of a delay. Though with mating season coming, and lots of cold months to hunker down against the frigid Upper Peninsula air, they might surprise us with a summer baby. I truly hoped for it. With five nephews and no nieces, I had a strong yearning for all things pink and frilly.

“What are they arguing about now?” Lanie asked when the voices grew louder. As a human mate, she was not always present at these meetings. But with Dante away on a fishing trip for our business, Collette and the boys were spending a lot of time at the Alpha house. Unfortunately, Collette had come down with a cold, so Lanie had been hanging around to help me with the boys. Trying to corral two shifter pups under the age of two could drive anyone to madness. Mother Nature must have laughed at us all as she blessed us with twins, triplets, and more. Single births were simply unheard of in the Wariksen family.

I snuck a peek at the group of men and women on the other side of the great room. Representatives from each family clan of the Valkoisus Pack were present, as well as the Alpha male and female. My oldest brother, Bernte—Dante’s twin—stood in as leader of the Wariksen clan, his dark maroon cloak declaring his Alpha family status. My father, as Alpha, could not vote on his own family’s behalf.

“The nomads have come onto pack land again.” I turned back to my packsister. “Not fully into camp, but far enough that the Helina clan will be staying at the Alpha house until the boat returns tomorrow. Their cabins are too far out to monitor without straining the guards. Father called the NALB to request assistance from the Feral Breed, and Elder Donati isn’t happy about it.”

Lanie cocked her head and frowned, her coffee-colored hair falling in waves along her shoulders. She glanced at the pack leaders and then leaned forward to make sure no one else would hear her. “I know the NALB is the Lycan Brotherhood leadership, right? They make the rules for the packs. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the Feral Breed.”

“You’re sort of correct. Many of the laws of our kind are pack-specific. The NALB oversees the basic covenants of all shifters, like keeping the secret and which groups are allotted land. The Feral Breed is kind of like their mercenary team. They help enforce the rules the NALB dictate.”

“So why is it a bad thing your father called them?”

“It’s not.” I shook my head and shot a quick glance at my father. “Donati’s just fired up about something and is using the Breed as his excuse to fight.”

“Oh.” Lanie sat back, pulling young Eli into her lap as she did. “So what’s got his panties in a twist?”

I smiled at the silly phrase. The way she spoke was so different than most of the pack. Of course, most of the pack was ten times as old as the young human.

“I’m not sure, though I think it has something to do with me.”

“Why would you think that?”

“They keep looking at me. And”—I glanced around to be sure no one could overhear—“I’m about to go into heat.”

Lanie’s eyes opened wide, and she leaned forward to keep the conversation as private as possible. “I thought shewolves only went into heat in the winter.”

I shrugged, feigning nonchalance even as her words added weight to the lead ball in my stomach. “We do.”

“Well…damn. You’re early.”

“Exactly.”
 

“Have you talked to your father about that huge coming-out thing you wolfy-types have? Where you invite all the other wolfy-types to come sniff you or whatever.”

I snorted a laugh. “The Gathering. It’s not a chance for shifters to sniff me, but to meet me in the hopes that one of the male shifters will be my mate. It’s a huge event held every year, very formal with rules and guidelines to avoid the possibility of interpack fighting. It’s also one huge party for the entire Lycan Brotherhood. I want to go to one so badly, but Father hasn’t mentioned if we will attend this year. He refused me when I asked last year. He said it wouldn’t be safe for me because of the whole Omega thing. I guess I wasn’t ready.”
 

“Well, I’m pretty sure you’re ready now.”

“One can only hope.” I swallowed hard as a flare up sent my temperature rocketing. Unmated and quickly coming into my first heat… Mother Nature didn’t just hate me; she wanted to see me suffer.

“Aunt Kai,” Luka said. He had a peculiar look upon his face as he danced from foot to foot.

“I know that move, buddy.” I stood and grabbed his hand. “Do you need to use the potty too, Eli?”

“Potty!” The little imp jumped off Lanie’s lap and hurried ahead of me toward the bathroom off the rear hallway.

“Need any help?” Lanie asked.

“No, you relax. I can handle them both for a few minutes.”

“Good luck.” She smirked as she settled into the corner of the couch. She glanced around the room with an anxious expression before seeming to shrink. I needed to hurry the boys along. I hated to see her look so alone and small. If Rex wasn’t busy preparing his crew to leave for the next week-long fishing trip of Wariksen Whitefish, he’d be sitting right beside her. My twin’s mate was far too shy to hold her own in a room full of old shifters. She’d disappear into that couch if I let her.

Once the boys were finished in the bathroom, I put Luka on my hip and let Eli run ahead of me through the darkened halls. My family had lived in the Alpha house for as long as I could remember, though it had not always been the case. I knew someday a wolf would challenge my father for position, and then we would be forced to move. I hoped one of my brothers would take over, as my father had become Alpha after besting his own father. Out of all the clans of our pack, we were the most progressive. From what I understood of other packs, not all shifters had the freedoms we did. I couldn’t imagine living in a pack with some of the more traditional laws in place. The thought sickened me.

I was halfway between the bathroom and the great room when Chinoo, a younger shifter from the Donati clan, turned the corner and blocked my way.

“Well, don’t you look like Little Red Riding Hood in your cloak.” He leered at me and approached slowly.
 

Chinoo and I had never gotten along. When we were little, he would pick on my twin. At the time, Rex was smaller than Chinoo. As soon as Rex began to tower over the irritating shifter, Chinoo tried to become friends with us. Both Rex and I saw right through him, though. As we grew up, Chinoo’s attention transferred to me. Apparently, my blond hair, blue eyes, and soft curves made him lustful and stupid. He wanted to bed me, and I wanted him to take a giant leap off the nearest cliff.

“Good evening, Chinoo.” I nodded and moved as if to walk around him, but he stepped in my path.

“It’s fortuitous we meet at this moment, Kaija. I was coming to find you.”

I ground my teeth and fought the urge to roll my eyes. “Why would you be looking for me?”

He wrapped a lock of my hair around his finger, spinning the nearly white strands until I was forced to cock my head to keep him from pulling on it.
 

“I just thought you would want to know who you’ll be bedded with this winter.”

Angered by his audacity, I snapped my teeth at his hand. I stepped back as Chinoo stumbled, making him release my hair.