ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (191 page)

“Who taught you?” I asked. I was teetering on the line between anger and awe. She’d gone out of her way to understand what it was like being me. To really understand my world. But she’d been doing it behind my back.

“I’ve been talking to Ted,” she said, and she swallowed. Kurt was fiddling with my dog tag, calm because I was holding him. He could sit here all day before he got tired of me. If he felt the rising tension between us he didn’t show it, but he must have. He had a wolf too, and they never slept, not really.

I felt myself tip toward anger.

“Ted is dangerous,” I said and my voice was hard. “You can’t just go behind my back and talk to him. What if something happened to you?”

She looked down, and I wasn’t sure if it was a sign of submission or if she was just avoiding eye contact.

“You were already prepared for that by having him follow me. So we talked when he did, instead of him hiding behind things like a stalker. Besides, are we going to argue about something happening to me because of Sarelle, or because of Ted? Don’t talk to be about doing something behind your back, Reid.”

I took breath to throw another argument at her, but instead I swallowed my anger. She was right. I’d gone behind her back, too. All she’d done was take the opportunity. But Ted wasn’t part of a pack. He was rogue, and it was impossible to predict a rogue wolf. He had more control than any wolf in a pack I’d ever seen, but he was still rogue. There was a reason they called wolves with no pack ‘rogue’.

I let out my breath with a sigh and turned, putting Kurt down on the ground. I took Allegra’s hand and pulled her close to me, a hug with my body pressed down the length of hers. God, coming home would be miserable without her. She surprised me every time.

We drove home. Kurt talked most of the way, telling me things he’d learned at playschool, something about a friend that was his best friend in the whole world, and how he wanted to surprise me with a banner to say welcome daddy but I spoiled it by coming home early.

“But it’s okay,” he said. “I’m not mad.”

Allegra and I glanced at each other and smiled. It really was good to be home.

We parked in front of the house and I got out, unbuckling Kurt and setting him down on the ground. He ran toward the house while I got my bag. Allegra and I walked to the front door hand in hand. I felt him before I saw him, and when I did see him, Kurt was sitting in front of him, looking up but as low as he could go without lying down. His wolf had recognized Ted’s wolf, and the hierarchy was established.

Ted looked at me and Allegra, and didn’t get up. No greeting of respect for an alpha that would never equal him in power. He nodded to Allegra who nodded back. I’d forgotten they knew each other better now.

“I’d like to talk to you,” Ted said, finally getting up. “Alone, if you don’t mind.”

I looked at Allegra, who nodded and scooped Kurt up.

“Chocolate chip pancakes for daddy!” she said and Kurt started chanting with her. Ted and I watched them walk into the house.

We turned away from the house and walked down the road. “Your little wolf has a lot of power,” Ted said. “He’s going to be a force to be reckoned with when he comes of age.”

“I’m not sure when that will be,” I said. “He’s already running with us during full moon.”

Ted looked at me, blinked, looked away again.

“He doesn’t change, I’ve watched him.”

“He only changes when I’m home. I think it’s got something to do with Allegra’s power. Or ability. Whatever. He’s just a normal kid when I’m gone, she says. When I’m home, that’s when the fun starts.”

Ted looked at me like he was considering my words. I didn’t know if he believed me, but it didn’t matter.

“What’s going on?” I asked. We’d walked to a vacant lot around the corner from our house, with grass growing about knee height.

“Sarelle is part of a pack. She’s been lying low for the past two months so I found her and followed her. She’s dating the alpha now, but their bond isn’t very strong. It’s new. I think she’d been part of it much longer than her position as alpha’s mate.”

“That’s good,” I said. Maybe she would forget about me kicking her out of our pack. Especially now if she was higher up in a new pack. That was all she wanted, anyway. But Ted shook his head.

“I don’t know if it’s good. The alpha might be alpha, but he’s a walk over. I don’t know how he got there. For all intents and purposes she’s running the pack. So if she wants a war…”

I nodded. I understood what he was getting at. If Sarelle had it in for us then she could convince the alpha to war against us. If that happened, it wasn’t just between her and Allegra anymore. It was pack against pack, and we were all involved.

“Our pack isn’t very big,” I said. “How many are they?”

“Almost twenty, but a few of them are young wolves and not all of them military. They won’t put them all in. Still, I think it’s fair to prepare for the worst.”

He looked around the vacant lot as if he was waiting for something to jump out at us from the grass. But I felt it too, the sense of foreboding that had come with this conversation.

“That’s more than two to one,” I said.

“But you’re stronger. And if you’re ready, you can take them.”

“With Allegra? She’s not even a wolf and she might need to face more than two? That’s almost ten times her strength.”

Ted looked at me and I struggled to read his face. No one ever really knew what he was thinking – that was probably part of why he was so scary.

“She’s a lot stronger than you think, Reid,” he said. “Just let her do what she does best, and it will work out.”

Ted walked away from me, leaving me alone in that vacant lot. I took a deep breath, smelling the air, but I was alone. The danger hadn’t come, not yet.

Allegra was strong, but it was emotional strength, not physical. How was she going to last in a pack of wolves when it was a free for all? She was human, I could bargain for the first blood rule. But what happened if she was turned? If a wolf lost control? What if they just didn’t respect the rule? There were so many things that could go wrong.

I turned and headed toward home. I needed to tell her, at least. For better or worse, that was what we’d both promised. But this was going to get a lot worse before it was going to get better, and I didn’t know how she was going to survive it.

And if she didn’t survive it, I didn’t know how I was going to survive it.

I got home to the smell of pancakes. The kitchen was hot and Kurt’s face was half-covered in flour.

“Pancakes!” he said and held out one to me. I walked up to him, taking a bite out of it from his hand and realized only afterward how animalistic it was.

“Yum,” I said and swallowed. I looked at Allegra. She was worried. She could sense my tension.

“She’s found a pack,” I said, dusting Kurt’s face. I kept my voice light, like it wasn’t a big deal, but I felt Allegra still next to me.

“I don’t suppose she’s just going to get on with her life and let it go?”

I shook my head. Allegra knew that Ted wouldn’t have been here to talk to me if that had been the case.

“Full moon is coming. I wouldn’t be surprised if its soon.”

She nodded. She understood how it worked. Probably more than I thought she did.

“How will you prepare them?” she asked, and I knew she was talking about the pack. It was amazing how we were on the same page, even when we went months without seeing each other.

The bond between an alpha and his mate was powerful. Even when it was with a human. But then again, I was starting to think Allegra was less human than she was wolf, even if she didn’t change during the full moon. Even if she didn’t have shape, she was part animal.

She was more part of us than she was part of the human society.

And I loved that about her.

No matter what came, I would make sure nothing happened to her.

“What are we doing to do with Kurt? With you here we can’t expect Charlene to watch him.”

He would turn during the full moon and Charlene wasn’t equipped for that. And we couldn’t spare the other wolves to babysit.

“When the time comes we’ll find a way. Until then we prepare, make sure we’re ready for them.”

It hadn’t happened yet. But the danger hung in the air, we could all feel it. And it was coming soon.

Chapter 8

Allegra

It did come. Sarelle arrived on our doorstep three days later. Two days before full moon. And she challenged me. Just like that. “I challenge you to a duel.”

Reid appeared behind me and I could feel his wolf. I glanced around at him because I wasn’t sure he was human or not. But he was, towering over both of us, and he seemed even bigger than usual.

“If you challenge my mate, you challenge me,” he said. He’d heard her speak before he’d come to the room. Fear wrapped around me like a blanket, but Reid and Sarelle both seemed calm. Whatever it was in the air, it didn’t bother them.

“It’s different now, Reid,” she said. “If you fight me, you challenge my alpha. And if you do that, you’re offering your pack against mine.”

Reid nodded slowly. I knew that, too. Ted had explained the politics. But it seemed ridiculous to do that when it was just a grudge between me and Sarelle.

“Don’t do this,” I said, looking at Reid. “It doesn’t have to be about everyone.”

Sarelle laughed, and my skin crawled with the sound of it.

“Do you really think he’s going to let you fight me? He’s too scared I’ll win.”

Reid didn’t fall for the bait, but he looked at me, and I knew she was right.

“Full moon,” he said to Sarelle. “The lake.”

She nodded, turned, and left. Reid closed the door and looked at me.

“Two days, Allegra. We have to get as many wolves as we can ready for this.”

“Why did you do that? It’s me she wants, and you’re sacrificing all of them. This is going to be a pack fight. None of the others deserve this.”

“If they don’t get involved and it’s pack against pack, you die. This way we all stand a chance. We might win.”

I took a deep breath, tried to calm down the hysterics that pushed up in my throat.

“You say might like you’re not sure.” He shrugged and turned away from. And I was suddenly scared. He hadn’t reassured me. He hadn’t argued his fear. So it as real. It was true. We could lose.

If we lost the entire pack because of a stupid girl fight I wouldn’t forgive myself.

Full moon came quicker than any moon I’d ever experienced. We drove Kurt to the werewolf medical center where he was born, and asked for Dr. Amelia. She was there before the nurse had a chance to look for her.

Reid explained our situation. Kurt was going to change. We were going to war. He couldn’t come with us, and Charlene couldn’t watch him. Amelia was the only other wolf that understood what he was.

She agreed to watch him, but Kurt didn’t want to stay with her. He was on the verge of tears when Amelia forced a change. As a medical doctor and not part of a pack her reaction to the moon was different, but she was still a wolf. Kurt stilled and watched her change until she was a large white wolf. He frowned and held out his hand. Amelia sniffed him and pushed herself up into Kurt’s arms. He giggled.

He looked up at Reid, a question on his face that I didn’t catch. Reid did, and he nodded. Kurt changed, too. When he was a wolf, he pushed his nose against Amelia’s and walked through her front legs the way a cat does with a human.

“He’s happy to stay with her,” Reid said to me, watching him. “He’s identified with her wolf. He’ll be okay.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“The bond,” Reid said to me like it was obvious. I nodded. I crouched down and Kurt came to me, licking my hand. I cuddled him and he licked my face.

“Be good, okay? We’ll come for you in the morning.”

He ran toward Amelia. We turned away. Leaving him was hard, but we had no choice. Here he would be safe.

“Come on, we don’t have much time,” Reid said and we hurried to the car.

Reid drove out of the base and to a part of the woods I didn’t know at all. He drove as far as the car could make it so I didn’t have to walk so far, and then he parked and got out. He took my hand and we walked into the trees. It was dark despite the full moon, and the forest around us was alive. I didn’t believe in fairy tales, talking trees and things like that, but tonight it felt like everything had a soul.

And everything held a collective breath, waiting for the bloodbath.

“It’s going to be okay,” Reid said, squeezing my hand. “Just breathe.”

I hadn’t realized I’d been holding my breath, and I blew it out and inhaled deeply. A shadow made me jump, but then Ted appeared from the trees.

“You’re here,” I breathed. He wasn’t pack. He wasn’t any pack, I’d found that out a short while ago. But he didn’t have to fight for us.

“I am,” he said, and we carried on in silence. Once by one our pack joined us. They appeared from the trees like ghosts, and even though they were in human form still, there was something animalistic about them. Their eyes were fierce. Their faces were hard and it promised death. The fell into step behind us, flanking Reid, Ted, and I. They accepted Ted as part of the leadership tonight. We were suddenly a triumvirate of sorts.