Force of Nature Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 4) (72 page)

“If I were you, I’d wait. I’ve seen pissed off mates before and she looks to have murder in her eye. And right now, I can’t blame her.”

Dallas jerked away from him but not when Austin grabbed him. “You’ll stay here. She’s going to see Alexis and she said to wait.”

Phil looked at Austin with a raised brow.

“Alexis just contacted me. She said Stacy is on her way there and that she didn’t want anyone to come over just yet.”

Dallas looked torn. He wanted to go to his mate and he also couldn’t go against his alpha. Phil would have said fuck it and had the shit knocked out of him for his effort. Holly could be a mite mean when she needed to be. Phil smiled. But the makeup sex was phenomenal.

Dallas went to the yard and watched her disappear into the trees. He looked so hurt that Phil almost felt sorry for him. He looked at them as he spoke. “She’s been so hurt by all this. I don’t want anything to happen to her. I’ve fallen in love with her and I can’t stand to see her hurt anymore.” He looked at the trees again. “If that were your mates, you’d go after her, right?”

“Hell no,” both him and Austin said nearly at the same time. “You have to give them their space or they make living with them unbearable.”

Phil nodded at Austin’s advice before adding his own. “She’s used to doing things her own way and at her own pace. If you want her to be happy then you need to back the fuck up, as your sister is so fond of telling me.”

Both men laughed at him. “I’m glad to see that Holly isn’t letting you push her around.”

Dallas laughed at Austin’s observation. “And I’m glad you know not to push when she doesn’t need you.”

Phil laughed and agreed with her brothers. He almost added the part about the makeup sex, but decided that he might need Holly here to protect him if he did that. Then again, she might help them hurt him.

Phil smiled again. Oh yeah, this family was a great deal of fun.

Chapter 12

The notebook was not what she’d expected. There were dates and notes under them, but nothing…she handed it to Alexis. She’d wanted her mother’s thoughts, not everything her father had done to her mother when they’d been married.

“She tells of the night you were born.”

Stacy nodded.

“And she says that your father didn’t show. He was on some kind of hunt, but your mother says he was with another bitch. Several it seems.”

“He still does that. Goes to several women at the same time.” Stacy looked at one of the cubs sleeping on the couch while the other played quietly near the table where the two of them sat. Stacy really liked Sis, but it was Jake that held her heart.

“He beat your mother a great deal, it seems. Nearly to her death a few times.”

Again, Stacy nodded but said nothing.

“Why would she leave you this, or would someone leave it behind for you to find?”

“I doubt my uncle knew it was there and my father had already changed his name by then so no one thought I would come back to the house. I guess it might have been overlooked.” She ran her finger down the soap they were currently wrapping for Alexis’ store. “But it is not that information I think she meant for me to have. It is the information in the back.”

Stacy brought the soap to her nose and inhaled deeply. Lavender and oats, as well as some aloe were what this bar smelled of. She wrapped it up in the parchment paper with Alexis’ logo all over it and reached for another bar. This one smelled of chamomile and honeysuckle. She continued to wrap the product as Alexis read.

“It says here that nearly all the land your mother owns is yours. And has been since your mother’s death. I’m not sure, but I think that makes you an alpha person over your father.”

She looked at Alexis when she didn’t continue.

“Doesn’t that mean that you can order him around?”

“Yes, by pack law. But when I mated with Dallas, everything I am became him as well. He is now a pack leader over my father because Dallas is my mate.” Stacy knew it was much more complicated than that, but did not really know all the rules.

“Does Dallas know this?”

Stacy shook her head.

“Are you planning to tell him? I think this might be important enough to get over your anger with him to let him know.”

Stacy looked at her. “Are you commanding me to do this?”

Alexis looked away and Stacy knew that she was going to say yes. She was not sure if she wanted her to say yes or no, but she did not want to talk to her mate right now.

“I don’t know what to do. You should tell him, but I hate it when Gordon gets all bossy with me too. I think it’s in their DNA or something.” She picked up the next bar of soap and started to wrap it. “But you should tell Austin. He’s my alpha and if you don’t, I will have to tell him.”

Stacy knew that too. She thought maybe that she’d been counting on Alexis telling her that as well. Stacy stood up and walked to the door. Alexis stopped her by saying her name.

“If I were you, and I know that I’ve not been with this pack long, I would tell Dallas. He’ll find out eventually and finding out from someone else other than you might make him madder at you.” Stacy turned toward the door. “And Stacy, the makeup sex is awesome.”

Still grinning, she went out of the shop. Stacy did not want to go home yet, but she did want to speak to Dallas. She found a place to hide and laid low to be able to watch and talk to him.

“If you yell at me then I will not speak to you.”
She was pretty sure that he had not contacted her because he was waiting rather than her being able to block him out. She did not know much about this mate business.

“Okay. But you have to tell me that you’re safe. I can’t stand the thought of you being in harm’s way.”
She could hear the anger in his voice, but not so much that it made her not want to speak to him.

“I am fine. I have found a book that I would like to discuss with you. It concerns the territory my father claims as his.”
She wanted to tell him she’d give it to him now, but waited to see if he would demand it.
“The land belonged to my mother’s family and as she has been killed, it belongs to me.”

He was quiet for so long she thought him to be not speaking to her. But when he did speak, it was not with anger at all
. “So he is living off your good graces. What do you want to do about it?”

She felt her pride in him swell. Stacy pulled out the little book and read a passage to him. “
My mother wrote that she believed him to be lying about his name. She said ‘I think my mate is a liar as well as a thief. I heard him tell another of our pack that someday he’d be rich as any wolf even if he had to kill all he knew to get it. When the other man, a man called Jacobson, asked him why he needed to be so rich, Richard said why not? I believe he will do just as he said.’”

“Jacobson, as in the man on the Council of Wolves Jacobson?”

She told him that it did not say.

“It seems that your father had it in good with a great many people. Could be why he felt he needed so much money. He could pay off who needed to be and have enough to run with if it became necessary.”

Stacy believed him. Her father, from what she had heard from others, was a man who always had an angle and seemed to talk a big game. She wondered if he had ever thought of her over the years.

“If I am able to help, I would like to be able to. It is important to me that my father is not a threat to any more people, especially those that cannot protect themselves.”

He didn’t answer her and she stayed where she was. It was one thing to be told what she could do. It was a matter altogether different to be told she could not help when it was necessary.

“They think that you can sneak into his lair, wherever that might be, and kill him. I think it would be hard to kill ones’ own sire. But if you insist, then I would ask that you let me go with you. I wouldn’t be able to sit by while you go off somewhere you could be harmed.”

She liked that he was asking, but couldn’t see how it would work.
“I have no scent, however, you do. If we go together, then you will get us harmed.”
Probably killed, but she did not say that.

“Come home, Stacy. I need to hold you.”
She felt his need like it was her own…it became her own.
“If you come home now, the house is empty and I’ll make it well worth your while.”

She laughed. She couldn’t help it. He was such a good man and she loved him very much.

“I will come home if you let me have my way with you first. You are always in such a hurry that I do not get to explore.”
She felt his growl.
“You are making me wet, Dallas.”

“Come here now, Stacy Force. I’ll let you play all you want, but in the end, I’m going to fuck you hard.”

Stacy stood, suddenly wanting to get to him now. She turned toward their home and shifted. She could make better time as a wolf.

~~~

Rich didn’t like the way the alpha spoke to him on the phone. He was taunting him, plain and simple. Rich went to the kitchen and looked at the casserole he’d put into the oven before he’d left. He didn’t have a clue what it was supposed to be, but as he’d already eaten all the other things, this and five other of the same brown and green stuff was all that was left.

He looked down at the overflowing trash can and decided that he’d better figure some things out while he was here. Where the trash went was one thing, as well as running the washing machine that was in a smallish closet off the kitchen. He wished he’d been smarter in taking this house and looked for one that had a male in it about his size. The tiny woman had had nothing he could wear and now he had to wash the only pair of pants he had.

He’d brought the mail in this morning and found that while he knew her name, he didn’t have a clue what she’d done for a living. Did he call her work? Was someone going to come to the house to figure out where she was? He didn’t think she worked, there was no car in the tiny garage, and the mail she got was mostly contests she’d entered and lost and a few bills. Rich was going to send money in for her electric tomorrow. He didn’t want to be caught without that again. The cave had been bad enough.

As the food cooked, which was now starting to smell like he’d picked a dessert rather than a meal, he pulled out the notebook he’d found when searching for money or anything to get him by. The stupid thing had numbers in it, not the phone kind, but like she was playing a game that required her to keep score. He didn’t have any idea what “Uno” was and didn’t really care. But if one were to get the lowest score, she would win hands down.

The paper was divided into three sections. He’d marked one “alpha,” the next one “discretions,” and the final one he’d marked “paid.” So far, all he’d been able to put into the first column was “stole pack and money” and “burned me out.” He’d put “fat” on there as well, but had marked through it. It wouldn’t be fair with all the other things he was going to make Alpha Force pay for to add things he really had no part in. The meal started to smell odd and he went to the oven.

As always, it was times like these that he missed Harvey. He’d been doped up all the time, but he kept his brother fed. He’d done the man a favor, he’d been thinking, by killing off his mate. Harvey had become quite the cook and he’d been one hell of a house cleaner. He took the now crisp…thing to the table and started to eat.

“Mother fuck,” he screamed when the roof of his mouth burned. “Another thing for you, Alpha Force.” And he added this to his list as he nursed his burning mouth. “I’m going over the deep end here, don’t you think?” He nodded at his question. “I’m talking to myself, but not yet answering me yet. So I guess that can rule out insanity.”

Rich laughed and went to the cabinets to find them once again empty. He remembered going to the store, but not what he’d bought. Going to his list again, he wrote “Stealing my food.” Then for good measure he added, “pain in my ass” to his list. Sitting down, he looked at the “paid” column.

The only things he had there were buried bodies on land and burned out relative. He was pretty sure that the two men were related, he just didn’t know at the moment.

“But you can bet your last dollar I’ll figure it out.” He picked at the burned food again. “‘Course you got all my dollars.”

Rich watched the television without sound. He was hearing voices now and he wasn’t always sure it was him. He’d caught himself twice now almost answering himself, but had nipped that in the bud right away.

“Yes I did, nipped it right in the bud.” Laughing again, he nearly pissed himself when the phone rang. He wasn’t sure if the old woman in the shoe had an answering machine—he laughed at the nickname he’d given her—so he listened carefully to hear for it. The voice spoke from the phone itself and for some reason, he thought it the funniest thing in the world.

“Mabel, you need to turn in that book you borrowed from the liberry. They’re other people that wanna read it, you know. Don’t you think a month is long enough to have it? Give it up, girl, that man on the cover isn’t going to pick you no matter how many times you read it from cover to cover.”

Rich went up to the bedroom where he’d been sleeping and looked around for the book to take back. He didn’t want anyone coming here unexpected-like and he thought maybe the woman on the phone needed it a tad bit more than Mabel did at the moment.

“Yeah, she doesn’t have any light in the freezer unless I open it up for her. ‘Course I think maybe I broke her reading glasses when I snapped her neck, but what the fuck? She’ll take the stupid book back to the
liberry
for you.” Stupid hick town.

Rich was suddenly glad he’d had nothing to do with the humans here in this shit hole town and pulled open drawers to find the book when he nearly fell back on the bed. There in the nightstand was a gun.

And not just a little old lady one either. It was a Glock nine millimeter. He pulled it out and looked it over. Loaded with silver. The old bat might have known about his kind, it seemed.

“Gotta add that to another list. Killed off a human who knew about us. Can’t have that, can we?”

“Nope. Can’t.”
He looked around the room for the voice.
“You know it’s me, you idiot. You said you were going over the edge. I’m here to help you.”

“So now I’m answering myself.” He felt himself nod and felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. “Okay then prove you’re not here talking to me.”

“
Prove what? That you’re a nut ball? Get over it. Take that gun and put it in your pocket. Next time you come across that fucking bastard Force, blow a hole in his head.”
His other self seemed to have his shit together.

“You should come work for me. I need a cook and a housekeeper. I’ll pay you really well. My brother took off and—”

“You know Force has him, right? He took him and is now brainwashing him. In a few more days, he’ll think you killed all those people and you stole all their money.”
Rich nodded again.
“And now that you have your little equalizer, you can hunt the prick down and take his fucking ass out.”