Fighting the Inevitable (34 page)

He wasn’t used to being
questioned like this. He was the fucking Alpha for crying out loud.
His pack submitted to him. His mate submitted to him. He turned
around intent on making her submit and stopped when he saw the
tears in her eyes and on her cheeks. She was crying, and she wasn’t
crying for herself; she was crying for his pack. He knew it without
being told. She felt pain on behalf of his people.

His angry words died on
his lips as he looked at her, his beautiful Millie, and he felt the
weight of her words crushing him. “It wasn’t intentional.” His
voice was hoarse as he jammed his hands into his jeans and looked
down at the floor. “You have to understand the overriding need to
protect the pack, Millie. It’s everything to the Alpha. It’s the
one law I can’t make arbitrary decisions about.”

She scrubbed at her
cheeks and ran a hand through her unruly curls. “Then, ask the
pack. I know things are different in Rafe’s circumstances, because
he’s officially dead, but the rest of the pack needn’t give up
their human lives, if they don’t want to. It’s the one major
obstacle I have about even considering joining with you, Jared. I
like my job. I like my human life. I don’t want to give it up to go
live in a wooden house in the forest cut off from everything.” Her
cobalt eyes pleaded with him to understand where she was coming
from.

He raised his head and
looked at her, his expression guarded. He seemed less like the
Jared she knew and more like the Alpha wolf he really was. She
wondered what was going through his head. Was he thinking she was
rejecting him, because she really wasn’t. Was she? He had said he
would still love her and be with her even if she decided to remain
human. Had he been just saying that in the hopes she would let him
turn her anyway? Had he lied when he said that?

Jared’s thoughts were in
utter turmoil, and he automatically retreated into himself, as he
tried to work out what to do. Millie didn’t want to leave her human
life, and he couldn’t not be with her. She was as necessary to him
as his need to breathe air. She was bright and beautiful and so
very intelligent and sharp. She had cut straight to the very heart
of what was a major problem within the pack. A problem he had so
clearly overlooked, and for that, he didn’t deserve to be the Alpha
of the pack. In protecting themselves, they had quite literally
stunted their evolution.

The pack would be split
by Millie’s controversial suggestion. The older wolves would want
to stick to tradition, the younger wolves would most likely jump at
the chance of being able to walk among humans and seek out their
mates. It would be utter chaos and give him the worst headache
imaginable. Even worse than dealing with Rafe, which had been his
toughest challenge to date as Alpha. Still, the pack had supported
him when he asked for their approval to help save Rafe. Maybe, they
wouldn’t be so resistant to changing pack laws as he thought they
would be.

The only thing Jared knew
for sure at that moment was that he needed Millie badly, and his
pack needed her too. Her keen way of looking at things and reaching
conclusions of such staggering importance was direly needed. She
was his equal in every way. She was his mate, and therefore, she
had a say in how the pack was run, even if he hadn’t officially
mated with her, and maybe never would, if he couldn’t convince the
pack to change.

His long silence worried
Millie, as did his carefully neutral expression. She had no idea
what he was thinking and the longer the silence stretched, the more
her anxiety increased. Finally, she couldn’t take it any longer and
she let out a little sigh, “Jared?”

Her hesitant tone, her
worried expression, wrenched at his heart and he smothered down a
groan and crossed the room to pull her up from her chair and into
his arms. He buried his head in the side of her neck and inhaled
her sweet scent deeply, as his lips whispered over her satiny skin.
“I’m going to need your help, baby. It’s not going to be easy to
convince the pack. We’re all so set in our ways. Not everyone will
understand the need to make changes.”

She melted into his
embrace and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist. He seemed so
unsure of himself, so unlike the arrogant ass he could be, but the
vulnerable side to him called at something deep inside her, and she
found she couldn’t resist it. “I’ll be with you every step of the
way, Jared. I don’t seem to have any choice in the matter. I love
you too much to walk away.”

He smiled against her
neck, as his woman told him she loved him for the first time. He
knew she did even though she hadn’t said the words before, but
hearing them made his heart soar, and he suddenly felt able to take
on the whole world if he needed to. He was capable of achieving
anything with Millie at his side. They would convince the pack if
they stood together. He just knew they would.

CHAPTER
sixteen

Caleb sat high in the
tree, his sharp gaze watching Rafe in his wolf form as he stalked
the wild boar slowly. He was keeping his scent away from the boar
to allow
Wolfie
to explore his animal nature without any
hindrance. Rafe really was an impressive wolf. He moved with such
grace as he came at the boar from downwind.

He used an economy of
movements and was on the squealing animal in the blink of an eye.
His normal gentle nature reared up, and he silenced the boar with a
quick kill. The animal’s throat was gone in an instant, and its
life extinct a fraction after that. A quick, merciful kill. Other
Weres may have relished the excitement of sparring with the boar
before they ended its life. Caleb doubted Rafe would ever be like
that. He leapt nimbly down the branches, landing lightly on his
feet, and headed towards the wolf. Now, the next part of Rafe’s
lesson.

Wolfie sensed the vampire
close and raised his head, a feral growl rumbling from his throat
as he rose quickly to stand over his kill. If the intruder thought
to take his food from him, he would tear him limb from limb. The
red mist of rage clouded his mind, and he roared at the advancing
vampire.

Caleb kept on walking
towards Rafe. He could see he was completely wrapped up in his
feral side. There was no trace of the gentle man in the fierce
brown eyes regarding him with rage. Caleb’s stride appeared
nonchalant, but he was alert and ready to move if the wolf
attacked. The whole point of the lesson was to ensure that Rafe
didn’t attack.

If he could control his
feral nature in the face of Caleb’s challenge, then the vampire was
certain Rhianna would never be in any danger from her brother. It
was imperative to Caleb that his Annie was safe at all costs. The
wolf growled, a savage rumble emanating from his throat once more
and Caleb tensed further sensing an impending attack

If the vampire came one
step closer to his kill, Wolfie was going to rip his throat out. He
relished the sheer joy he’d experience as his teeth sank into the
disgusting smelling creature’s neck. He would rip hard and fast and
feel the hot blood flowing into his mouth, just as it had with the
wild boar. He tensed, his powerful body coiling ready to spring
agilely into the air. The approaching man paused a millisecond
before he sprang, flying through the air, a snarling blur of dark
brown fur.

Caleb was Ancient and
able to spot the slight tension in the wolf before it exploded into
action. He sidestepped to the left, his vampiric speed taking him
out of the animal’s way and foiling its attempt to rip out his
throat. This clearly enraged the wolf as it took the vampire closer
to its kill. Not wanting to infuriate Rafe any further, Caleb took
off running before the wolf could halt its forward progression and
turn for a second strike. He leapt into the air, catching a tree
branch and swinging himself gracefully into the thick canopy of
leaves.

Golden brown eyes tracked
the prowling wolf as it launched itself against the tree,
scrabbling to find purchase to get to the vampire out of its reach.
Loud snarls filled the forest as the animal hurled itself
repeatedly against the tree, claws raking away the bark on the
trunk. Finally, the wolf paced away, growling as it headed back to
its kill.

Caleb watched Rafe
protect his food, a frown marring his brow. Jared was right about
the big man’s latent Alpha abilities. Weres were fast but Alphas –
they were something else entirely. They had to be the biggest,
strongest, fastest wolves to run a pack. The speed Rafe had moved
at was a clear indicator that he was born to be an Alpha, whether
he wanted to be one or not.

Another thought crossed
his mind that made his blood run cold. If Annie had tried this…dear
God, Rafe could have killed her without realising what he was
doing. There hadn’t been any recognition in the wolf’s eyes as it
attacked him. There had been no sign of Rafe at all. Caleb was glad
his woman had seen sense and agreed to let him work with her
brother. Despite both Annie and Rafe’s protestations, neither of
them had the first inkling about how to deal with the wolf half of
a newly turned Were.

As Rafe became enamoured
with his food again, Caleb slipped back out of the tree and decided
to try again. There was no shame in the big man failing the first
time. There was a high probability it would take numerous attempts
at this before Rafe was able to fully control his animal side. It
was just a case of trial and error until he got it
right.

The blur of colour was
the only warning the vampire got before the wolf careered into him.
Caleb spun sharply, cursing himself for being distracted thinking
about Annie’s welfare that he hadn’t been giving Rafe enough of his
attention. His palm snapped out and he had to moderate his strength
as he connected with the wide chest of the wolf. With a startled
yelp, the huge beast flew backwards but not before his jaw raked
down Caleb’s arm drawing blood.

~~~~~

Blood; hot, metallic,
tasty blood filled the wolf’s mouth as it flew through the air to
land with a hard, thump against a tree. The collision hurt but it
struggled to its feet ready to make another lunge at its enemy. A
voice sounded somewhere, and the wolf stopped in
confusion.

‘
Best not do
that, Wolfie,’ the voice said. ‘Annie will be really pissed, if you
hurt Caleb.’

The vampire forgotten, he
turned around wildly to see who had spoken, but there was no one
there. The voice was laughing now in his head, and he roared
furiously, his confusion growing.

‘
You’re not
going to find me behind you,’ the voice said, with more than a hint
of amusement. ‘I’m inside you, Wolfie. I’m your other half, your
human side.’

The wolf sat down heavily
and shook his head, a low whine coming from his chest. He
instinctively knew who the voice was, even if he didn’t want to
listen to him right now.

‘
I’m not
going away,’ Rafe continued. ‘I belong here, too, Wolfie. We are
one.’

Wolfie whined loudly
again and turned his big head to look at the vampire, who was now
standing right beside his kill. The desire to rip out the man’s
throat was still there, but it was muted now. His human side was
starting to take more and more control from him, stopping when they
were balanced evenly.

Wolfie/Rafe looked at
Caleb and chuffed lightly, his teeth baring into a wide grin. This
really wasn’t as difficult as he had imagined it would be. Oh, he
knew he’d failed a couple of times, but something about drawing
Caleb’s blood had gotten through to him before he could do too much
damage. The second that had happened, Rafe had been able to gain
enough control to reason with his beast.

His human side could look
at his kill with only a modicum of discomfort. His wolf side could
recognise the vampire as a friend and dampen down his need to
protect his kill. His back hurt where he’d hit the tree as did his
chest. But apart from that, things had gone reasonably well for
both sides of his dual nature and Caleb didn’t look too pissed at
being bitten.

Caleb smiled at Rafe when
he grinned at him. He walked over to the big wolf and placed a hand
lightly on his large head. He felt the wolf quiver fractionally and
then fully relax. He could sense the balance within the animal and
felt genuine pleasure. He was actually beginning to like Rhianna’s
brother. He wasn’t that bad for a wolf, and he was important to his
woman, so he had an added incentive to like him.

“
That didn’t
seem too hard,” he said to the wolf, removing his hand and stepping
back as the animal shifted, and Rafe’s human body uncoiled and
stood up quickly. “I expected you to fail a few more times before
finding some balance.” He wasn’t concerned about the bite. He had
healed instantly, and he’d let Rafe bite him a thousand times if
that’s what it took to keep Rhianna safe.

“
It was
easier than I anticipated,” Rafe answered with a slow smile.
“Wolfie was a little surprised for a moment, a bit resistant to
listening, but I was able to get through to him quite quickly.
Sorry about the bite.”

“
It’s a
wolf’s instinct to see one of my kind as being an immediate threat.
The fact you managed to talk Wolfie down and reach a balance so
quickly is commendable. I was expecting you to fail at least the
first half dozen times we tried this,” Caleb told him.

The big man’s smile
broadened. He was pleased he had surprised the vampire. The
surprise was evident in Caleb’s tone along with grudging respect,
too. Annie’s choice in mate was appearing to be a good one. He
still wasn’t comfortable with his sister dating a vampire, but she
was all grown up now. She didn’t need him the way she used to. She
had Caleb now and he had the pack. They would always be extremely
close, but he could now see their lives had moved in completely
different directions. At least, they would still be able to see
each other.