Leader of the Pack (19 page)

“
Finally
, my stubborn bitch.”
He chuckled. “
Now
, we can become one.”

He shifted on the bed and buried his
cock to the hilt. They linked. Their bodies hooked together and the orgasms
that had rolled through her before were nothing to the ones that rippled out
from her womb now. She screamed, only barely aware that
Per
howled as he shot inside her. But something was missing. She needed it, but he
held back.

“Per.
Please.
Do it.”

“Are you sure?” He groaned.

“Yes.
For God’s
sake, yes!”

He leaned over her and she felt his
bite.
Right where her shoulder and neck came together.
He sank his fangs deep and pain radiated as he shook her.
Marking
her.
Held her down with his bite while he fucked her hard, then he came
and so did she.

First, she was shocked by the
violence of it but then a sense of rightness filled her.
This
was what
had been missing. What she needed from him. She needed his Alpha wolf to
dominate hers. This time when she tugged her hands out of his, he let her go.
She reached back to rub his arms.
Caressing him as they
dropped to the bed in a tangled heap.
Yo
tried
to catch her breath, but she had no control over her body. Per adjusted them in
the bed and drew a cover across their bodies.

“But I’m hot.”

“You soon won’t
be,
älskling
.”

She relaxed, unwilling to fight with
him, and just subsided in his arms. He pressed a kiss against the side of her
neck while one hand reached between her legs to cradle her crotch. He wrapped
his free arm around her and held her close, cupping a breast. She was well and
truly captured, but she found that she liked it as a feeling of safety and
protection stole through her. Like always, he seemed to be proved right as she
began to feel cold, but the heat of his body kept her warm and safe. It was
with that feeling of protection and care filling her soul that she surrendered
to sleep in
Per’s
arms with
their bodies locked together.

* * * * *

If he said he’d be here, he
would
be. She was sure of him now, even if she was sure of absolutely nothing else.
Yohana
climbed out of her car in front of city hall,
pausing to hug herself. She carried his pup. She hadn’t been sure, but he
assured her as they cuddled in bed that morning. He’d pressed a kiss against
her lower belly. But then the phone rang. Damn the phone.

He’d been called in for a tough
surgery and she told him to go. Told him she’d be fine. She’d hidden from him
how badly she wanted him with her. She didn’t want to face this meeting alone.
But he said he’d be here in time. So he would.

She should have
come
straight home when they parted, but instead, she dawdled in Denver before
driving back. She hadn’t wanted to rattle around her house alone. So she’d had
a late breakfast.
Done some shopping.
Then drove to
Whitewolf
, stopping at home
only long enough to shower and change.
And now, she faced the meeting.

When she entered the council
chambers she frowned. The place was packed.
Wall to wall.
There were even people standing at the back. She made her way to her place and
every set of eyes watched her progress. She took a deep breath to hide how
unnerved this sudden attention made her.

Dan grinned at her. Smug as he
noticed she was alone. No Mate at her side. He flashed significant looks at
some of the older members of the pack. The ones who questioned her commitment

Damn it to hell. He’d set this up
somehow and she’d played right into it by being so stupidly noble this morning.
She needed
Per
here. If he wasn’t, she knew Dan would
call for a no-confidence vote and there were just enough members of her pack
who’d go for it. Just enough who really had no desire to be ruled by a female,
no matter how forward-thinking they might pretend to be.

She wanted to give
Per
a mental shout but knew that shouting at a doctor with a
scalpel in his hand was a seriously bad idea.
Yohana
knew he’d be here later, but she didn’t know if she’d still have a pack to lead
when he finally arrived.

Yohana
walked to the front of the room—back straight, head held
high. If she was going to go out, she was going to do it with elegance and
grace. After they’d been led by Dan for six months, they’d find her and beg her
to come back. She took her seat at the head of the chamber and her gaze swept
the room.

Despite the fact this was pack
business, all of their neighbors were well represented and not just by their
elected council person. No, she could see
Goldwolf
and
Redwolf
pack members.
Whitehawk
and even the nocturnal
Goldowl
aerie members as well
as Feldspar family members squeezed in along with members of her pack. Everyone
had a stake in this and Drew
Goldwolf
, Kin
Redwolf
, Selma
Whitehawk
and
Brennan Feldspar knew this would impact their people.

For the
Whitewolf
seats, Dan was present, along with her cousin Gwyn, and Jessica
Whitewolf
, who owned a landscaping business in town. One
was missing.

“Where’s Zach
Blackwolf
?”

Mary, the city clerk, looked up. “He
called to say he’d be a few minutes late. Something came up at the bar. It
needed personal attention.”

“Typical,” growled someone in the
crowd.
Yohana
looked for the voice and found Tess
Redwolf
shaking her head. Those two were like oil and
vinegar.
Next door neighbors who drove each other nuts.

Zach rushed into the room.
“Hey, sorry guys.
Someone got a bit drunk and needed an
escort home.”

“At one in
the afternoon?”
Tess called. Zach turned and his
dark gaze caught hers.

“Yes.” He didn’t elaborate and she
just rolled her eyes.

“Well, take your seat,”
Yo
ordered.

“Yes, ma’am.”
He winked at her unrepentantly. A wolf that handsome often
got away with a lot, but there was something about him she just had to like.
She didn’t respond to the wink at all. She just waited until he was seated.
This was it. Time to get the whole damn thing over with, one way or the other.

She pounded the gavel and leaned
into the mike. “I call to order this special meeting of the
Whitewolf
City Council. I ask the clerk to take roll please.”

Mary ran down the list of members
and each one responded “here”. If she could drag this thing out then maybe
she’d give
Per
enough time to get here.
Or not.
Dan was already looking restless.

She looked down at her agenda,
surprised they had other business today. She glanced at Mary, who winked back.
Her stomach settled as she realized Mary was on her side for this fight. It
helped enormously.

“Our first item of business covers
the water situation. We’ll hear from the
Whitewolf
Water Board about the current drought.”

The head of the board came up to the
microphone and reported on the current water flow and the projection of the
drought for
Whitewolf
County.
Yohana
listened to the discussions but breathed a short sigh of relief. Every minute
she could give
Per
was golden. She made notes for
herself while she reviewed the next item on the agenda. For the next hour she
dragged out the meeting as best she could, going over requests for payments,
public works projects and special permits for the Winter Carnival scheduled for
the third weekend of December.

Out of the corner of her eye, she
watched as Dan grew more and more impatient and agitated. Finally, she could
delay no longer, but
Per
still wasn’t here. He’d
promised to be here so she knew only a surgical emergency would have caused him
to break his word to her. Now she had to deal with this on her own. If she had
to face a pack challenge from Dan today, then she’d do it.

“Our final item on the agenda is
pack security.”

“Where’s the mate,
Yohana
?”

She wanted to smack the sneer off
her cousin’s face, but her father’s training was deeply ingrained…for now. “He
was called into surgery this morning.”

“So he’s not coming?”

“He
is
coming
here,
he’s just not here at the moment.”

“Right.
I call for a vote of no confidence.” Dan smiled at her.

“I move that we to go into closed
session to evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose
appointment, hiring, performance or discharge is being considered when
necessary to prevent needless and irreparable injury to that individual’s
reputation,” Drew
Goldwolf
said.

“I second.” It was Kin
Redwolf
. Fast and sharp as he often was.

She had enough of the council on her
side to arrange the private session, but she knew they couldn’t do this
privately. Her pack had the right to know what was going on, so she held up her
hand.

“No. It’s not my professional
competency which is at issue. Is it, Dan?”

“It
is
at issue. Your
willingness to keep your word to your pack
is
question of professional
competency.”

“This is outrageous. Since when does
a female need a male at her side in order to rule?” Selma scowled at Dan and he
was damn lucky she didn’t shift into her hawk form because she looked as if she
wanted to fly at him and rip his eyes out. “What century is this?”

“It’s the twenty-first century,
Selma. It isn’t her lack of a mate that’s the issue. It’s the fact that she
promised she’d find one and she hasn’t.”

“Bullshit, Dan. This is about her
breasts and genitalia.
As if somehow only males are capable
of leading because of a lack of a uterus.”

He colored at her blunt words. “She
didn’t keep her promise.”

“A promise she shouldn’t have been
asked to make.
Ever.”

She pounded the table for emphasis
and Dan jumped.
Yohana
fought a groan. She
appreciated having Selma champion her, but Dan was letting Selma run him and
the meeting. He was completely incapable of leading. How could her pack not see
it?

“Nevertheless, it was a promise she
made…and broke. I call for a vote of no confidence.”

Jessica
Whitewolf
cleared her throat. “A vote of no confidence requires a two-third majority of
the entire pack. We don’t have that here. We can call a special election—”

“Which will cost a great deal of
money,”
Yohana
pointed out.

“Any member of the pack can call for
a no-confidence vote,
Yohana
,” Dan argued.

“That’s true, Dan. But it would need
to go on a ballot and be voted on by the entire pack population. You can’t just
vote her out at a city council meeting. We don’t work like that.” Jessica
frowned at him.

Requiring an election would buy her
some time at least. And once
Per
showed up, Dan’s
argument would hold no water.

“There is an option,” Zach drawled,
“If you’re wolf enough, of course.”

“What the hell do you mean?” Dan
snarled.

“If you want it fast, just challenge
her for pack leadership. We’ll take it out to the park and be done with it when
she wipes the grass with you.” Zach gave Dan a feral smile.

“What makes you think she’d win?”

“Oh, I don’t know.
Maybe the council meeting the other night?”

Dan flushed, glaring at her briefly
before turning his scowl toward Zach. “I wasn’t ready.”

Zach laughed. “A wolf doesn’t need to
get ready
in order to defend
himself
and the
pack. You just couldn’t counter her.” He nodded at
Yohana
.
“I live here and call this pack mine. I don’t want some out-of-control pup as
my Alpha. I want
Yohana’s
demonstrated capabilities.”

“I’m no pup, I’m thirty-five.”

“I know Dan. I was only a couple
years ahead of you at school and I remember a lot. I’m sure I’m not the only
one.”

There were murmurs in the room at
that comment. Dan had been known as a bully back in school. It was
Yohana
who had kept him in line, even then. The tide of the
room was beginning to turn against him. Dan met her gaze and swallowed once.
His eyes narrowed. He only had one shot and this was it. They both knew it. She
didn’t want to fight him like this. A cornered animal was the most dangerous
kind but once he opened his mouth and issued the challenge, there was nothing
else she could do.