Force of Nature Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 4) (74 page)

Stacy laughed. He was trying to make up to her. But she’d long since forgiven him and had been meaning to tell him she’d been wrong. Maybe tomorrow. Or the next day. Alexis told her before she left the studio that keeping a man guessing was half the fun. The rest was a battle.

“Phil is very frugal, but he is not cheap. I like him. He is good to your sister.” She crawled up the bed and yawned. “You have worn me out. I would love to have more of this wine, but I fear that I will fall asleep in the bubbles.”

He took the glass from her and set both hers and his on the night stand. He stood her up and pulled back the sheets. “Here, you lie down and I’ll be right there beside you. And in the morning, if you manage to be here when I wake, I will make it worth your while.”

He wiggled his brows at her and she burst out laughing. “I will do that on one condition. You must not go down after I fall asleep and clean up our mess. We will need to get to it in the morning before any of your guests come in and see it.”

He nodded as he stretched out beside her. “I love you, Stacy. More than I thought possible.”

“I love you too, Dallas. And will for the rest of our days.” She closed her eyes when she heard him snore. As soon as he had been asleep for a few minutes, she turned her body to his and wrapped herself around him. He pulled her closer even in his sleep.

Chapter 14

Rich moved his gun to the back of his now clean pants. He was nearly to the Force place when he felt a familiar touch to his mind. He wasn’t so much surprised as he was pissed off.

“I thought you dead.”
Hoped it, actually. It would save him the trouble of killing him himself.
“Where are you and how soon can you get to me? And by asking that, you know that I’m ordering you to come to me now.”

Rich didn’t know where Harvey had been staying, but had an idea it had been with the Force’s. He and Poor, the new name he’d given to his other self, had had a long conversation about Harvey, Austin, and the pack. Neither of them were very happy right now.

“
I’m not coming to you. Nor will I ever. You have treated me badly for long enough. Now I do what I want.”

Rich stopped in mid-step. He couldn’t believe what his brother was saying.

“And so you know, the pack here is well aware of you living off the means of your daughter.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I had you kill her long ago. Things like her shouldn’t be left to live.”
Rich moved to sit near a tree.
“You come to me right now and I won’t make you suffer for it. As for my daughter, when this is finished, and it will finish soon, you’ll do as I told you and murder the bad seed and bury her with that bitch of a mother of hers.”

“Stacy has taken a mate. Would you like to know who the fates have chosen?”
Rich tried to think who Stacy was and nearly asked him when he spoke again
. “You’re daughter has done well for herself. And with the added property that has come to her, she will bring a lovely dowry to her pack.”

“My daughter? I think not. Her mother laid with another. That abomination will never take my name.”
He had a moment of panic when he thought of his daughter, but dismissed it soon enough.
“Tell me who her mate is so that you can have your say and come here. I’m nearly to the—”

“She is mated to Dallas Force.”

Rich waited for the laughter. Waited in vain for the “just kidding,” even though his brother had never had much of a sense of humor. But nothing was forthcoming.

“You lie.” Rich realized he’d spoken out loud then spoke to his brother
. “You lie. Why would she mate with my mortal enemy? She would never do that to her own father.”

Laughter touched his mind. Something his brother hadn’t done in, well, decades. Rich waited for him to calm before he spoke again. It was then that he realized that Harvey sounded almost sane.

“You tell me that she is dead to you in one breath then say that she wouldn’t dishonor you, her father, in the next. You are going to have to do better than that, brother dear. And I do not lie.”
There was a hardness there, something that Rich had never heard from his younger brother.
“And the vampire you sent to kill her is now in the custody of the council. And they have retrieved her household.”

He’d forgotten about her. He couldn’t recall her name at the moment, but he’d kidnapped her and had tried to kill her mate. The human had been much harder to get to than he would have first though. Humans, he thought, shouldn’t be allowed to turn on vampires. They should be simply grateful that his kind let the human race live at all.

“She served her purpose.”
Rich stood up again and started walking toward the Force compound.
“I had a good meal and now they know that I mean business.”

He’d not fed from anyone. He’d thought about it, but once he’d locked them all in the shed out back, he’d been so worn out that he’d barely been able to hold his head up. He’d ended up taking a nap on the cold ground and had waked only when he heard a car in the drive. He’d hidden while some pimply-faced kid had gotten out of the car and had knocked on the door. Rich supposed he’d been there to collect the paper bill. Stupid humans. They could actually watch it on the television. Why read it when it was unnecessary?

Harvey didn’t answer him. Rich was afraid that his brother was really not coming to him. He needed him, more than he’d ever thought possible. He was about to beg him to come to the forest with him when Harvey spoke again.

“You’d do well to turn yourself in, Richard. You’re only hurting yourself by doing what you’re doing to everyone. The council may go easier on you if you only admit what you’ve done.”

Over his dead body.

“It may come to that.”

The connection closed almost as if a door had physically come down between them. Rich looked around to see if he’d spoken out loud and his brother had been close enough to hear him. But there was nothing, not even a squirrel or bird.

Something was wrong here. His brother seemed to have grown a backbone and was speaking to him as if he was better than them. Yes, Rich thought, something was definitely wrong here.

“Of course there is. Did you think that Force was going to sit around and wait for us to come and shoot him? I think not.”

He wanted to glare at Poor, but didn’t know how that worked. “Are you being smart with me? You know what I do to people who are smart to me.”

“Yes, and look where that has gotten you. In the middle of nowhere, fat, lazy, and walking much too slow for us to ever get to where we’re going before it snows. Move the fuck up a bit, will you?”

Rich started to walk again. He was suddenly not liking his other self and he told himself so. “You should have better respect for me. When I get this other pack, I’m going to be rich again and where will that leave you?”

The laughter again made him pissed. He continued walking without saying another word to his other self until he got to the gates of the compound. The hum of electric was enough to make his wolf snarl and back away.

“Now what? I can’t crawl under it because I don’t have the proper tools. I can’t even go over it without killing myself.” Then there is the added bonus of not knowing what’s on the other side. He looked up and down the high fence and wondered just who this guy didn’t trust.

“You? Or maybe…no, he doesn’t trust you.”
Rich walked on.
“You do know that we could have shifted and been there in half the time, don’t you?”

“And been naked when we get there. Thank you, but I have no desire to be fighting and killing whatever person on the other side of this fence while I’m buck naked.” Rich thought he’d gotten the last word when he spoke again.

“And I suppose bringing extra clothes would have been out of the question. You did know that you were coming here, right?”
Rich tried to clamp his mind down to his other self and couldn’t manage it.
“Of course you can’t, you moronic dick. I am you.”

~~~

Georgia was sitting in the kitchen when Dallas came down. He looked around and saw that with the exception of the cup in front of her, everything was cleaned up and everyone was gone. He opened the refrigerator and took out the milk. She stood up and took it from him before he could pour himself a glass. She ordered him to sit.

“Your mate Stacy has gone to her alpha. She said that she has pledged to the woman who makes soaps.”

Dallas nodded, took the glass, and watched as she took out eggs and bacon.

“I must speak my mind. If you don’t mind.”

He started to point out that she’d been doing that, but only nodded again. He wondered where his mom was and the rest of the people who’d been staying with them. The smell of bacon frying made him realize that he’d not eaten much the night before and had burned a lot of calories. He flushed when he realized she was staring at him.

“You said you had something to say. Why don’t you have a seat and tell me what it might be. I can’t fix what I don’t know is broken.” He tried to smile at her, but she looked a great deal like his mother did when she knew he was shining her on. “I do want to help you.”

“Rich isn’t going to stop until you kill him.” Okay, blunt worked too. “And when you do, the council is going to come down on your heads for it, aren’t they?”

“No. As of yesterday, they have given us permission to take him out. A rogue werewolf isn’t something they want others to find out about. He is being hunted now as if he is going to be killed. No one will try to take him alive after what they’ve seen he’s done to his pack.”

Georgia nodded as she set his plate in front of him. “I want to know what your brother has planned for us. There are a few that want to leave now before Rich kills your brother, and others still that want to help this pack so that they have a better chance of staying.”

“Everyone can stay. Austin is a good man and he’d never turn anyone away. But if some of you want to leave then…I suppose we can make some arrangements for them to other packs.” Dallas started eating and was surprised to find not only eggs, bacon and hash browns, but fluffy biscuits as well as gravy to smother it in. He moaned when he ate a few more bites. “You should open a restaurant. This is fantastic.”

She got up and started cleaning the spotless sink. She tossed the rag in it and turned to him. “Can I? I used to do it. Run my restaurant. But when it started to lose money because Rich was taking all the profit and then some, it began to fail. Soon I couldn’t even pay the employees or the bills and we had to fold.”

It took his mind a few seconds to catch up. Unfortunately, by the time it did, Georgia had taken his silence for a no. She started talking about what a bad idea it was and that she’d never be able to make it work anyway.

“You can do whatever you want, Georgia. In fact, there is a building in town that I think you’d be able to make work for you.” He tried to think what a restaurant would need and decided to ask someone in the college to help them. “After this is over, why don’t we sit down with Austin? You come up with a plan. You know, a menu and how much startup capital you think you’ll need. The pack will help you start it, but you’ll be ultimately responsible for it.”

She was nodding and smiling. He thought she was going to hug him several times, but checked herself whenever she got close. He thought she was the happiest he’d ever seen her.

He grinned. “In the meantime, do you think you could fix us some meals here? Stacy doesn’t cook and if you cleaned up from last night, you know that I can’t either.” Something else occurred to him. “Maybe you could bring in a couple of people to work for us after you get the restaurant going. That way you can train someone to help you when you need them and I won’t have to eat my own cooking.”

This time, she did hug him. It was quick, but he felt it all the way to his heart. He looked up at the door when his mate walked in. She didn’t say a word, but Georgia stepped back and flinched. Stacy only hugged her as well and sat down.

“Do you think it is possible that I get some of what he is eating?”

Georgia stood there for only a few seconds before she moved to the stove again.

“And I would like some sausage, please. I do not care for bacon.”

“Yes, miss, of course. I will do—”

“Georgia? You have hugged my mate and gotten away with it today. The least you could do is call me by my name, please.”

Georgia nodded and turned back to the stove again. But not before Dallas saw the tears in her eyes. He looked at his mate.
“You are a good woman. You could have harmed her for what she did.”
Stacy took the last piece of biscuit from his plate
. “Hey, you’ll get yours.”

She bit off a large piece.
“So will you. Do not let another woman hug you, Dallas. I am a very jealous woman and would hate to cause you harm because you have a big heart.”

“You’d like for me to be mean?”
He smiled at her when her own plate was set before her.
“Perhaps you’d like it if I only touched you. Like I did last night.”

“That would be advisable for you.”
She flushed a deep crimson
. “Of course we could go our separate ways and you could have any woman you want taking you into her arms.”

He pulled her to him and kissed her. Devoured her mouth before he let her go.
“You’re the only woman I want to touch, love. And all I will ever have. I love you.”

“And I, you.”
She finished her breakfast in record time as he drank his milk.
“We must go to speak with your brother soon. My uncle has played his part well. Richard has threatened him.”

As soon as they both stood to leave, Georgia stepped up to Stacy. The two of them looked deeply into one another eyes before Georgia nodded. “You are the one they said he murdered, his daughter.” Stacy nodded. “The other man, his brother? Is he yet dead? The drugs in his system were supplied by the other alpha.”

“My father?” Georgia shook her head. “Then who?”

“He is your sire, child, not your father. He supplied him with the drugs.” Georgia looked at him them at Stacy again. “I knew your mother. She was a good woman and did not deserve to die like she did.”

“No, she did not. And my uncle lives. He is better now thanks to some of my mate’s family. He asks of your children. He said that he was training them at one time, giving them help with the lessons of our kind before his mate was murdered.”

“I will send them to him. They would enjoy seeing him. Thank you.” Georgia wrapped her arms around Stacy. “You are like her in many ways. Your mother was a good person, as are you.”