Ellie's Wolf (14 page)

As he expected, Snake and Mel came to stand beside him as they chewed the jerky Snow handed out. He didn’t have to wait long for Snake to speak.

“Me and Mel want to split off from you and head down to her brothers’ place.”

Quill nodded. “I heard you talking about it. I don’t think it’s a good idea. Even you aren’t enough protection for Mel alone.”

Mel rubbed her thumb over the butt of her pistol. “Stone is coming with us. So Sara is coming too.”

Quill looked at the other members of their party, considering what would be best to do. Splitting up the group would leave all the women with less protection than he liked. “You can’t wait ’til we get to the den? The chief will send as many of the boys as you need to see to the safety of your mate.”

Snake looked at his mate. “I like that idea. We could be back at your family’s place in two weeks. That would work, don’t you think?”

“No.” Mel’s laconic voice was grim. “I want to see my family again before word gets back to the rest of the Fosses. Once they know that Jim and the others are dead, they’ll come hunting me. I can’t stay at the D long, but there’s something I have to do.”

Quill exchanged a glance with Snake. A woman of the Clan being hunted was an invitation to war. If anyone were hunting Ellie to harm her, he would kill them. Snake nodded at him with brows pulled low, mouth tight.

“Maybe we could all go to Mel’s place,” Quill suggested. “Give my mate and the boys a chance to rest. How long will this take?”

He watched Snake run a quick hand down Mel’s arm to give her hand a quick squeeze. “Mel? Tell it all.”

Mel seemed to ignore Snake’s caress. Her hand didn’t twitch. Her voice was cool as she continued. “I don’t know how long it will take. Less than a month, I think. I don’t want to talk about it. No offense to Quill, but I don’t know him well enough to discuss private family matters with him. There’s a reason I need to go home, and there’s a reason I need Stone.”

“He’ll get answers for you,” Snake said, a flat promise.

Sara joined them. “I’m going too,” she declared.

Stone put an arm around Sara’s shoulders. She promptly threw it off. He accepted that with no words of hurt, but Quill noticed the slight stiffness in his shoulders. “I still think we should go to the den,” Stone insisted. He cast a quick, apologetic smile at Mel before turning his attention back to his young mate. “You’ll be safe there.”

“Oh, hell no!” Sara put her fists on her hips to glare at Stone. “We’re going to the Flying D and help Mel.”

“The chief put Quill in charge of our group. He makes the decisions. He says where we go. Quill, we should head straight for the den.”

Sara rounded on Quill and transferred her glare to him. “You go right ahead and try it! Me and Mel will go on our own.”

Quill combed his fingers through the ponytail that held his hair away from his face and sighed. Taye would have given an order, and everyone would obey without questions. “She sounds pretty determined, Stone. I think we’ll head to the Flying D.”

Sara smirked at Stone, and then she and Mel strolled over to where Ellie was feeding Connor jerky. Watching Ellie tear the dried meat into tiny pieces made Quill curse himself. Some leader he was. He hadn’t made any special provisions for feeding a small boy. As Stone had said, he was in charge. It was his responsibility to take care of everyone in this group. Did Connor have enough teeth to be able to chew jerky?

Before he could go to Ellie, Snake spoke. “We’ll be heading south, then, right after lunch?”

He wanted all of them to head to the den together. “You can’t wait until after we get to the den?” he asked in a very low voice.

Snake shook his head. “No. It’s only thirty miles from here, so it’s not a long detour. There’s a man due to meet the Dirks in less than a week. Mel wants to catch him this month, not three months from now.” His voice darkened. “She’s also afraid of what will happen when the Fosses find out I killed their brothers.”

“They’re dead because they asked for it.”

“Yeah. I don’t regret it.” Snake’s voice was quiet. “I don’t think Mel does either. But there’s no sense asking for trouble. Come spend a day or so at the ranch then head north to the den. Me and Stone and our mates will stay at the Flying D until we settle this business for Mel. Sorry I can’t tell you about it, but my mate wants to keep it quiet. Once you’re at the den, you can send some of the Pack back for us.”

That would leave him with nine other men to escort Ellie and the boys north. That would work. Quill nodded. “Okay.”

“Besides”—Snake lowered his voice even more—“you and Miss Ellie can have a room to yourselves at Mel’s place.”

Quill’s mind shot to that kiss. “Uh, right.” Just the memory of that kiss made him hard. He shifted his weight to ease the pressure in his jeans. “Let’s round everybody up and let ’em know about the change in plans.”

“Quill!”

His mate hurried over to him, Connor on her hip. The boy had beef-scented drool at the corner of his mouth. “Quill, we’re not going to the den?”

He reached out a finger to wipe Connor’s mouth. He was fascinated by the size and roughness of his finger compared to Connor’s soft little face. “Not right away. It adds only about two days to our trip. We’ll stop at the Dirk place for one or two nights before we head up to the den. Won’t it be nice to have real bed to sleep in and a real bathtub?”

Her eyes, looking up at him, were brown velvet. He could stare into her eyes all day. They blinked. “That’s good. I’m looking forward to being home in our own place, but a bath and a real bed would be nice.”

He was looking forward to having his mate home too. To go to their room in the den and find his mate waiting for him in bed would be a long cherished dream come true. “Me too. Mel and Sara are determined to go to the Flying D. I don’t want to split our party. Keeping all of us together is the best thing to do, so we’ll all go to the Flying D.”

His mate smiled at him. “You know best.”

He hoped so. “I’m not an Alpha, Ellie. I’m just trying to do the right thing.”

Her smile grew, showing real amusement. “Taye’s an Alpha, isn’t he? Is he always right?”

Quill couldn’t quite hold his grin back. “Maybe not, but he always acts like he thinks he is.”

Ellie snorted and said, “Will you hold Connor for a minute? I want to talk to Mel and Sara.”

He accepted Connor’s weight and tried to set him on his hip as Ellie had done. After several shifts to find a comfortable way to balance the boy’s weight on his hip, he decided it must be a woman thing and slung him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Connor giggled with delight. Tommy, energy unflagging, ran over to him and raised his arms in a silent demand to be picked up. Quill swung the older boy up to his other shoulder and watched Ellie walk to Sara and Mel. Sweat darkened the back of her shirt. Her arms lifted to give Mel a hug, and the movement made her pants stretch to outline her pert bottom. Quill controlled his urge to groan. Tonight he would court her. He would arrange for them to have a little privacy. No matter what it took, he would get another kiss tonight. And maybe more once they reached the Flying D.

Ellie shifted in the saddle, wondering if they would stop soon to make camp. The sun was still several hours from setting, but Connor was a dead weight against her numb arm. She worried about him. His speech and behavior had regressed at least six months. Was that a result of being left with a man who didn’t care for him? Ellie was determined to shower him with attention and affection. It was hard, though, when he wouldn’t sit still. Her son had spent the afternoon wiggling and demanding to get down. He was too young to stay in the saddle for hours at a time, but Quill was anxious for them to press on as quickly as possible. Ellie felt the same. Stopping at Mel’s ranch and sleeping in a bed would be nice, but she wanted to be back in Kearney, with Taye and Carla and friends around her.

Ellie would miss Mel and Sara when they left the other women behind at the Flying D, and not only because they helped her with the boys. They hadn’t known each other long, but the life-changing events they’d shared threw them into surprisingly deep friendship in a very short time. She wished she had some privacy to ask them if they noticed anything different about Quill. Wolf ears picked up too much for her to question them, so she kept it to herself. It seemed to Ellie that Quill had spent the last several hours staring at her. There was a subtle change in his expression, particularly when he looked at her mouth and her breasts. When he did, her nipples tightened, and her belly clenched with the sort of desire she’d never felt for anyone but Neal.

A muffled rumble lifted Ellie’s gaze to the northwest. Far in the distance, the sky in that direction was dark with clouds. The setting sun painted the clouds with sullen shades of plum edged with gold. She shifted Connor to her other arm, soothing his sleepy whine with a few murmured words of love. They were going south. Hopefully they’d avoid the rain, at least until they got to the ranch.

Quill rode to her side at a canter and took Connor from her. “Camp is being set up.”

Connor woke with a jerk and a wail. Quill put a hand on the boy’s head and rubbed his blond hair to quiet him. Her son looked up at Quill with such calm trust that Ellie was the one who felt soothed. She might experience guilt over allowing Quill to take Neal’s place so quickly, but her son obviously didn’t.

“Looks like we might run into rain tomorrow.” He jerked his chin to the west. “We’ll get going early in the morning. I don’t want you to get wet.”

She smiled. “I’ve gotten wet before. How far is it to Mel’s place?”

He grunted. “If we leave at dawn, we should be there before lunch.”

How she wanted to be done traveling! She stretched in the saddle. “Well, I’m looking forward to getting there.”

His eyes seemed almost to glow when he fixed his gaze on her, watching the arch of her spine. “Me too.”

His voice was husky, intimate, an almost tangible caress over her most sensitive parts. She resisted the urge to squirm. “Where is the campsite?”

He led her there. Mel and Sara dismounted and set about hauling water from a nearby stream in a clever collapsible bucket made from treated leather. She gave her horse to Paint and busied herself getting the saddlebags of food unpacked. They were getting low on staples. Quill hadn’t planned on so many women and another boy to feed on this trip. Maybe they could buy some from the Dirks? The men probably didn’t care if there were biscuits and dried fruit with the meal. They preferred meat. Five of them were patrolling the area in wolf form and would hunt their own supper. One of the men she didn’t know well presented her with a pair of freshly skinned and gutted rabbits. His name was Sand, and she wondered where the name had come from. His hair was jet black, his skin dark, his eyes the color of spilled India ink.

“I’ll set up a spit and roast the meat,” he said to her. “Why don’t you rest a little?”

“I’ll help you cook, mister,” Tommy offered eagerly.

Sand smiled down at Tommy, showing off a chipped tooth. Ellie didn’t think the small imperfection detracted from his good looks. “Well, sure,” Sand said. “I’ll show you how to turn the spit.”

The way these men looked after the children astounded her. Their patience seemed limitless. Quill’s attitude toward the boys was another thing in his favor. She watched him put up the women’s tent. Connor clung to his leg, getting in his way, but Quill never scolded him for it.

Sara, perched on a folded blanket beside Ellie while they waited for supper, noticed too. “He’ll make a good dad,” she commented, sniffing the scent of roasting rabbit with appreciation.

Ellie had to agree. Marriage to Quill was beginning to seem less of a forced obligation and more of a welcome one. “There are worse men out there to be married to.”

Mel was on her other side, cleaning her pistol. “Snake says he’ll do anything to make me happy. I’m starting to believe he really means it. He’s sorta…sweet.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Ellie saw Sara make a face. “Sweet? Don’t you remember what he did in that hotel room?”

Mel shrugged, running a metal rod tipped with cotton down the pistol barrel. “Yeah, but he did that to protect me.”

“Eeew.”

Mel set the pistol on her knee and leaned to look around Ellie at the teenager. “Yeah, but has he hurt me, even a little bit? No. Just watch these guys. They’re nice. They’re kind. And they’re patient. You just said it yourself. They’ll be good dads. But I’d hate to be the guy who tried to hurt us. Snake would tear him apart, just like he did to the Fosses. We could have been won by a hell of a lot worse guys at that Bride Fight.”

Like the Fosses. Ellie had thought that before. She studied her dirty fingernails. “You’re right,” she said in quiet voice she hoped wouldn’t carry to wolf ears. “I’m glad Quill won me. But I’m just not sure I’m ready to be a wife again. Neal’s been gone only five months.”

Mel snapped the pistol back together with sure fingers. “You know a woman won’t be a widow long. You’re lucky you had that much time to grieve.”

She was right. Ellie remembered thinking that exact thing at Neal’s grave. Most widows remarried within a month, if not days. How did they do it? How could they go from loving one man to accepting another in his place so quickly?

Connor trotted over and tumbled into Ellie’s lap with a carefree giggle. “Mama, I put up a tent!”

“Yes, I saw. What a big boy you’re getting to be.”

“I sleep with Sand and Paint tonight?”

Ellie smiled down at her son’s dirty face, so happy to see his smile that tears stung her nose. Perhaps the regression she thought she’d noticed in him would be short-lived. “May I please sleep with Sand and Paint tonight?” she corrected.

“Tommy too!”

“What do we say?” She waited patiently until Connor made the request properly. “Yes, Connor, you and Tommy may sleep outside with the men tonight.”

After they ate, Quill spoke to the men in a low voice. A few glances were directed her way, accompanied by nods and smiles. In only a few minutes most of the men melted into the darkness, taking Tommy and Connor with them. Only Snake and Stone stayed to watch over Sara and Mel while they cleaned the dishes. Ellie moved to join them, but Quill stepped in front of her.