Reflected (Silver Series) (12 page)

Felicia shoved him again. “That’s what I thought at first too, but it’s actually a lot of fun. You have to at least try it before you make up your mind.” She looked at him with a parody of an imploring expression that hadn’t really worked on anyone since she was six, and he snorted and nodded. She grinned. Now,
this
would be fun!

Getting dressed and back to the car took awhile and a little more alcohol. When she tried to get into the driver’s seat, Enrique chuckled a little worriedly and swung her away.
“No, none of that. Tell me how to get there.”

“You were drinking too,”
Felicia said after several moments of intense thought. It was like those stupid commercials on TV about drunk-driving accidents, she realized. She’d never paid attention when she’d thought she couldn’t get drunk.

“And I’m used to it. A drunk werewolf’s reaction times are pretty near a sober human’s, but that doesn’t help if you make stupid decisions.”
Enrique tweaked her chin and guided her to the passenger seat.
“Okay, let’s go find this club of yours.”

8

When Silver welcomed Portland to her home this time, she dispensed with the formal greeting and motioned her inside. Susan had turned Edmond over to one of the teens to watch for the evening, and she stood close to Silver’s shoulder, supportive as any Were beta would be.

“Did you find somewhere comfortable to stay?” Silver asked the question but didn’t pay attention to Portland’s answer. She watched Craig instead, to read his manner going into this meal. He stood farther back from his alpha than Susan did to Silver, evidence of Portland’s displeasure with him, probably expressed at length in private. His confidence remained, however, clear in the prick of his wild self’s ears. He’d gone into this expecting that it would be a long, rough chase, Silver was sure. Well, she and Susan would do what they could to guide him off that chase, rather than providing the obstacles he expected.

The sound of someone wanting to speak at a distance interrupted them once more, making Silver grit her teeth. This time, Susan spoke to whoever it was. “She wants to see the Roanoke?” Susan sighed where a Were would have growled and looked at Silver, eyebrows slightly raised. “Sacramento flew in to see you. Does she have permission?”

“How coincidental.” Death grinned. Silver didn’t need him to raise her suspicions. One female sub-alpha was dealing with a petition that could loosely be said to bear on her gender, and suddenly the other female sub-alpha shows up?

Silver speared Portland with a look. “You told her about the petition?”

Portland’s head and her wild self’s tail dropped. “I spoke to her, but only because I wanted her perspective.” She brought her head up to bolster the sincerity in her scent. “I never imagined she would decide to come up here. Roanoke, I am so sorry.”

Silver hesitated, lips pressed tightly together. She didn’t need another dominant personality in this situation, especially one as volatile as Sacramento could be when she thought she needed to defend her position as a female alpha. Silver could readily believe that coming up had entirely been Sacramento’s own bad idea.

But that volatility seemed like a reason to keep Sacramento close now she knew about the petition. She could easily polarize the issue and prompt one of the more traditional male alphas to be the first to declare independence, if Silver didn’t handle her carefully. Having her close would give Silver the opportunity to channel her away from anything rash. “As long as she’s here, I will see her.” Silver changed her focus to speak to Susan directly rather than passing a message through her. “Is there time for her to arrive before the meal is ready?”

Susan nodded. “She can just make it. Have her hurry up,” she added at a distance to the patroller who had found Sacramento, then dropped her hand. She smiled wanly at Silver. “I’d better make sure they set another place.” Susan slipped farther into the den to deal with the food.

Awkward silence reigned over drinks as Silver sat with the others and the meal’s components grew slowly into harmony in the scents surrounding them. Silver had intended to use this time to steer the conversation to Susan’s experiences, but now she was scrambling for neutral topics. She silently urged the food to cook faster, but of course they couldn’t begin until Sacramento arrived anyway.

Now she knew Craig was the father, she wondered how she’d missed it before. Protectiveness oozed from him, and every time Portland moved, his attention snapped back to her, checking and rechecking for new threats.

A knock sounded and Silver pushed herself up. Portland and her beta followed Silver to the front door. Susan opened it and Sacramento strode in, completely ignoring her. “Roanoke,” she said, and dropped her head with barely the respect necessary for Silver to not toss her out in the dirt again.

Sacramento was as rigidly controlled in her appearance as ever, perhaps in overreaction to the empty-headed beauty-obsessed part Silver had heard she’d played before she assumed the alphaship in her own name. Her blond hair was pulled too tightly back, making her face stark and hard even at rest. Her wild self snarled and snapped at Craig’s.

Her tame self stopped in front of Craig. “I hear you think no woman can be an alpha and also have a child,” she said, and caught his eyes to measure their dominance. She was tall enough she hardly had to tilt her head. Craig snarled back.

“Sacramento.” Silver closed her fingers onto Sacramento’s upper arm, digging fingertips in until bruises formed and healed like little stains under the pressure of her hold. Sacramento had no right to challenge Craig over this, that was usurping Roanoke’s authority. “You forget yourself.” She tugged downward until Sacramento took the hint and went to one knee.

“Oh, go the rest of the way and cast her out for her presumption.” Death laughed. “Might teach her a lesson. Might also turn her against you and your mate’s authority. Never know.” He shook his ruff until it settled down to look exactly as it had before, bottomless black on black.

“Portland was at fault for mentioning this issue to you.” Silver’s glance at the other sub-alpha must have been as furious as she felt, because Portland dropped to her knee too. Craig followed, as etiquette required. “When I told her beta to mention it to no one, she was not excepted.” Silver focused on Sacramento again. “But you have no right to enter so disrespectfully. Do not compound your fault in this further. It is not your place to speak to Portland’s beta about it.”

Sacramento dropped her head. “Roanoke.” This time, properly respectful. A start, at least.

Death snorted. “And how long will that last?”

Silver set her hand on the back of Sacramento’s neck and squeezed, fingers digging in briefly to remind the sub-alpha of her authority. Only then did she allow Sacramento to stand. “You’re just in time for the meal.”

As Silver led them all in to eat, Sacramento tried to get Portland to hang back for a private word with a touch on the other woman’s arm. Portland shook her head, lips thin, and pulled away. She went in with Craig.

When they were seated, Susan arrived with the last dish of food. Silver was too busy watching everyone to appreciate all the scents now matured to deliciousness, but they at least blunted the edge of Sacramento’s anger and embarrassment. Silver felt not a drop of sympathy. If Sacramento didn’t want her alpha angry at her, she shouldn’t have sprinted forward on a chase without considering where it led.

Susan set the dish for Silver to choose her own portion, then lifted it to portion it out for the others. Susan hesitated, and Silver casually angled the first two fingers of the hand resting on the table toward Portland. Portland had held the position of alpha longer, though there was no official difference in rank among the sub-alphas. One had to decide an order at group events
somehow.
Susan gave the two sub-alphas about equal portions without further hesitation.

When Susan settled into her seat and Craig’s plate remained empty, he winced but didn’t seem truly embarrassed until Sacramento smirked. Craig’s wild self snapped at hers, and Silver braced herself to say something, but Portland nudged her plate close to his without hesitation and transferred a generous portion over. Craig subsided.

Portland broke the awkward silence first. “Have you heard from Roanoke Dare about how things are going in Alaska?” Craig’s head came up and Portland frowned him down. He wanted to know what Dare thought about his petition, of course, but Silver suspected from her frustration that Portland hadn’t intended the question to be about that, so Silver answered it rather than growling at them.

“He’s too far to hear calls at the moment,” she said. She ate slowly, too distracted to pay attention to the taste. “I assume earning the mother’s trust will take time, in any case.”

“The mother? I heard he’d gone to Alaska, but not what for.” Sacramento said, leaning cautiously forward to see Silver better around Portland.

“One of the pack sired a child without realizing it. Dare has gone up to talk the mother into some solution.”

“Or kill her,” Death contributed. While everyone ate, he gutted a rabbit of his own with dignified deliberateness.

Silver ignored Death. “So, as I say, he’ll need to earn her trust. I don’t expect him back soon.”

“Lady above, I don’t understand why Were men can’t refuse a game of chase when it comes to human women,” Sacramento grumbled. “They’re so awkward when they can’t smell what you enjoy.”

“Speak up, I don’t think I heard you with my human ears,” Susan snapped and scraped up a mouthful from her plate with an angry clatter. She glanced guiltily over at Silver, but Silver just leaned back and said nothing, making sure the others saw her do it. Her beta had her permission to answer an insult, and they should be aware of that.

“Not
you.
” Sacramento flushed and her wild self pressed its ears flat with embarrassment. “You’re not—you’re different.”

“Nice of you to say so.” Susan’s tone was thin, but she took her next bite with a composed expression.

“And how would you know what human women are or are not like, Sacramento?” Silver said and raised her eyebrows. Clearly she had experience of her own with them and shouldn’t talk. Awkward silence fell to ensnare them once more. Again, Sacramento had fouled her timing—Silver wanted to give Susan time for her frustration to cool before asking her to be persuasive.

Perhaps Silver would have to begin it, then. Hopefully everyone’s bellies were full enough for them to think logically. “Being a sub-alpha is not the same as being an alpha alone, you know,” she said, setting her elbow on the table and resting her chin on her knuckles to feign nonchalance she didn’t feel. “Portland can always come to me or Dare with any problem at all.”

“But will she?” It seemed to Silver that Craig’s voice had picked up an extra rumble from the disuse this evening. “She’s never been one for appearing weak that way.”

“It’s not weakness. It’s a lack of stupid pride.” Silver lifted her shoulder on her bad side. She’d noticed that people reacted the most when her dead arm’s muscles failed to move the way their instincts said they should. Sacramento winced. “An alpha is no alpha without his or her pack. And a pack dies out from inbreeding without the neighboring pack. We all need each other. I cannot have cubs, I’m sure everyone is aware of that by now. But I will do anything—anything—to keep another Roanoke cub safe.”

“I can’t believe you’re even bothering to argue with him.” Sacramento settled back and crossed her arms, an unyielding expression returning. “If I demanded that you force one of the male sub-alphas to step down for a similarly stupid reason, I bet you’d dismiss me out of hand.”

Silver wished she could have put her face in her hand. Why couldn’t Sacramento see she was doing more harm than good? “Dismissing anyone without an explanation rarely helps. Do not mistake explaining for arguing.” Explaining, as Silver was doing to Sacramento at this very moment, rather than dismissing her.

Silver caught Susan’s eye, silently urging the other woman to break in now, rather than give Sacramento time to dig herself deeper. Fortunately, Susan caught her signal. “I don’t really think it’s that big a deal anyway. Everyone makes jokes about how pregnant women are crazy, and sure, things are a little out of whack, but it’s manageable. Especially with support.” She lifted her hand as if to indicate the den in general. “You guys have it good with the pack thing. I only got the edge of that, with John, and it still helped enormously.”

Sacramento put her hand on Portland’s. “Yeah, not just your pack. Anything I can help you with, just ask.”

Portland laughed, shaking her head at the seriousness of the offer. She lifted Sacramento’s hand and kissed it gallantly. Sacramento’s scent flared briefly with attraction, no surprise to anyone, but Portland flushed slightly as her scent did the same in answer. Craig stilled, then looked pointedly away from the two of them, and the moment stretched long enough that even Susan’s eyebrows rose slightly.

Just what they needed. Before Silver could start worrying about that particular wrinkle, Portland set Sacramento’s hand down and continued on like the moment hadn’t happened. “I certainly don’t feel crazy yet.”

“How about morning sickness? Has that started? Or do Were even get it?” Susan grinned when Portland shook her head and started describing the malady in gleeful detail. Portland seemed happy to have a voice of experience to question, and even Sacramento began to look intrigued, but Craig remained quiet. Hard to tell if the details were having any soothing effect on him at all.

Silver glanced around. Everyone’s plates were empty by now, so that seemed like a good excuse to lead into giving them her decision. “Come. We can go sit somewhere more comfortable.”

Craig stacked Portland’s plate with his own and lifted them both automatically, but Sacramento set hers in front of Susan. Sacramento started to turn back, perhaps to lean in for a low-voiced comment to Portland, but Susan caught her across the knuckles with a spoon with a sharp crack. Sacramento squeaked in shock at the pain. “I’m not your low-ranked servant,” Susan said, tightly controlled. Silver suspected it sounded like anger to the others, and while she knew anger definitely played a part, she also knew Susan was controlled because she was fighting against her instincts. The physical aspects of Were culture didn’t come easily to her.