The Alpha Claims A Mate (7 page)

“Nice one,” the sheriff said in a low voice.  “You have a way with people, Miss Ginger. You really do.”

“Sometimes.”

“Yep, sometimes. When you put your mind to it.” Was it her imagination, or did he look a little hurt when she said that? Like he wished she’d put her mind to it for him?

His cell phone rang, and he glanced at the number and scowled. He grabbed the phone and answered it. “I’ll be right back,” he said to Ginger, and turned and walked to the edge of the yard.

Ginger walked over to Cletus. “So, is everything else going all right?”

“Sure is. I’m saving the other brownies for my brother and sisters.” He smiled shyly. “You sticking around town, then?”

“
Ahhh…” Ginger felt a sudden flash of guilt. She had a feeling that Cletus and his family really needed a friend.  “I don’t know. Maybe.” 

“Really?” His face lit up. “That would be nice. Not too many people around here will talk to me.”

Crud. She’d gotten his hopes up. Why had she lied? She couldn’t stay here. She had a job waiting for her back home – maybe. She had an overpriced apartment with a view of another apartment building’s air conditioning unit.  She had an aversion to walking in fields full of cow patties.

“You know, when I put those coins back in the fount
ain…I made a wish,” Cletus said, staring down at the ground.

“Oh? What kind of wish?”

“I can’t say or it won’t come true.” His face wrinkled anxiously. “You think the wish will still work if I was using stolen coins?”

“Well, you were
actually returning those coins at that point, so, uh…maybe?” Ginger’s heart ached for Cletus. What would he wish for? Clothing without holes in it? Food in the refrigerator?

“I better get back to work.” He set the box of brownies down on the bench and grabbed the hoe.

A couple of well-dressed women walking by glanced at him, and one of them clutched her pocketbook closer to her chest.

“Isn’t he that dirty Arbuckle boy?” one of the woman said loudly.

“Certainly is. I don’t think he’s had a bath in his whole life.”

Cletus’ face fell and he turned and began raking the dirt again, without a word. His eyes glittered with hurt and humiliation.

“Of course he’s dirty, he’s working in a freaking garden!  Where there’s dirt!  Maybe if you ever did a day of work in your life, you’d have room to talk!” Ginger yelled after them.

They flashed her a shocked lock. “What are you looking at?” she snapped, and they turned and hurried off.

“Don’t tell the sheriff I said that,” she told Cletus.  “I’m already in enough trouble with him.”

“Join the club.” Cletus was smiling now.

The sheriff strolled over to them, tucking his phone in his pocket.

“What was that all about?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Cletus said.

“What he said,” Ginger added. He gave her the skeptical eyebrow raise, but didn’t say anything.

Ginger followed him to his car. “You looked a little perturbed by that phone call.”

“It’s nothing. Call from the council.”

“The shifter council?” The wolf shifter council was a big deal. They oversaw all matters for wolf shifters in their respective state.

“Yes, that’s right.  Nothing to worry about.  Anyway. We got to head out. There’s trouble at the dig,” he said.

To reach the dig, they drove down a joltingly bumpy country road for a mile and a half, until they finally reached a clearing by an old, dried up creek bed. There were several tents set up there, and outside the tents were tables and folding chairs, and a cluster of SUVs.

There was already a patrol car on scene when they arrived.
Jax and another deputy were arguing with a group of panther shifters who were standing by a cluster of pine trees. The students were in the creek bed, sifting through dirt.

“You’ve got no damned authority here! None!”
Jax was yelling at them. The shifter he was talking to, a tall muscular man with black flowing hair streaked with gray and white, who wore a traditional loincloth and buck skin boots, looked as if he were about to change form and throw down. Hair was bristling from the tips of his ears, and his eyes glowed yellow, as Loch and Ginger rushed up.

“Settle down, everybody. I’ll handle this. Montgomery, what’s going on –“

“These damned panthers”- Jax rushed in.

Loch spun on
Jax with a growl, and his claws shot from his hands. His eyes blazed amber, and  the bones in his face rippled and lengthened.  Within seconds his face was covered with hair and his teeth sharpened into fangs.

For a brief second,
Jax’s eyes sparked with fury, but then he quickly backed down and went down on one knee, bowing his head.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt,” he muttered.

“You’ll wait in the patrol car.”

“Yes, sir.”
Jax didn’t look happy about it, but he obediently climbed to his feet and loped over to his patrol car without a backward glance. His deputy glanced at Loch for guidance, and Loch inclined his head towards Jax’s car. “Go,” he said in a low growl, and the deputy ran after Jax.

He turned back to Montgomery and made a polite incline of his head.  “My apologies,” he said. “My
lieutenant spoke out of turn.”

Professor Reese was standing there, arms folded, glowering at Montgomery. “No he didn’t,” he said petulantly. “Your deputy was right. This man has no authority over me. He can’t tell me to do anything.”

Montgomery glanced over at Ginger. “Who’s this?”

“Ginger Colby.” 
She thrust her hand out to shake hands with him. “I’m delighted to meet you. I’ve heard so much about the Panther nation.  I teach a unit on them to my fourth grade class in New York, you know.”

“I’m always happy to meet people who are respectful of our culture.” Montgomery inclined his head politely.

The panther shifters who were standing with him came forward and made a point of shaking hands with Ginger, while eyeing her appreciatively. “Tommy Deerkiller,” one of them said. “I own the souvenir shop. Come by any time.”

My God, Ginger thought, I love it here. I am going to call all of my fat friends and make them vacation here with me, so help me God.  This is chubby chick heaven.

She heard a low rumbling growl and glanced over at Loch, who seemed to be struggling to contain himself. Quickly, she stepped back. He wasn’t actually jealous, was he? He couldn’t possibly be jealous.

Although she found herself oddly flattered at the thought.

“These are my pride mates, Richard Iron Claw and his son Jason Strikes True.”   Montgomery nodded at two panther shifters who were standing by his side, muscular men with the shining black hair of their tribe pulled back into pony tails.

“Perhaps we could give her a tour of our property.”  Tommy smiled at her lasciviously. “Since she’s so interested in our history.”

“If she can go on your property, why can’t a legitimate scientist?” snapped Professor Reese.

“Because you’re not a legitimate scientist. You’re a treasure hunting looter with no respect for indigenous people’s customs,” Montgomery snarled.

“So,” Sheriff Armstrong said quickly, cutting them off. “What brings you out here today, Montgomery?”

“I demand the right to inspect his site and all of his vehicles for stolen artifacts,” Montgomery said.

“Absolutely not.  He may rule his Nation like a demi-god, but the second he steps out of the Nation’s territory, he has no authority.” Professor Reese folded his arms and looked smug.

“Why doesn’t he want us to look at his dig?
Has he got something to hide?” Montgomery glowered.

“Let me on your land, a
nd I’ll let you inspect our dig,” the professor smirked at him.

“
Panthers don’t make deals with humans!” Montgomery roared, fangs descending.

“Show some respect for our leader, or pay the consequence!” Richard Iron Claw’s eyes blazed with rage.

“This whole expedition is a fraud! He’s not even a specialist in Mastadon fossils!   He’s a specialist in early Native American tribal lore, and he has a reputation as a thief of priceless artifacts!”

“I gather artifacts for museums! You
’re selfish! You hoard them and hide them from the world!” The professor sounded like a two-year-old who’d been denied a new toy.

“They’re our heritage!
They’re not trinkets for people to gape at!”

“
I’ve never stolen an artifact in my life!  Keep flinging false accusations at me, and I’ll sue!” Professor Reese actually stamped his foot on the ground.  He stood several steps behind the sheriff as he did so.

Ginger bit her lip in frustration. She was dying to jump in and yell at them as if they were all a bunch of kindergarteners, which is exactly what they were acting like, but to do so would be to undermine the sheriff’s authority.

The yelling grew more heated, and she turned and walked away.

As the shouting reached a fever pitch,
Jax and his deputy leaped out of the patrol car and came trotting back to stand behind the sheriff. Both groups of men glared and bristled at each other.

Several minutes later, the panthers turned, shifted into
panther form, bellowed out a series of threatening roars, and turned and loped away.

The sheriff joined Ginger a few minutes later. He left behind
Jax and the other deputy, parked in their patrol car.

As they drove away,
Ginger said, “Okay, I get it now. You can’t have anyone challenging your authority as an Alpha because then people like Jax think they can step up and challenge you.”

“I’m glad you see that.
Jax has been making rumbling noises, coming near to challenging me, for months now. He thinks that being diplomatic is the same as being weak. He wants to do everything by force. If I let him have his way, he’d start a war with the panther nation.”

“Did I make things worse for you that night at the Hoot Owl?”

“Not too much.”

“I promise I won’t openly challenge you again.”

“Openly?” he was smiling now.

“Oh, come on. I just don’t have it in me to never give you a hard time. And it’s even more fun when I’m being subtle about it.”

“Speaking of giving me a hard time…did you yell at two old ladies who were walking by the community center? Portia called to inform me of it.”

Ginger winced. 
“She really doesn’t like me, does she?”

“She doesn’t, but that’s not the point.”

“They were yelling insults at Cletus! Did she mention that? They totally made fun of him. And he didn’t even say anything back to them; it was all me.”

“No, she did not mention that.  However, there are probably ways that you could have responded to them that would have set a better example for Cletus and reflected better on your pack.”

She pouted as they rode in silence. She was right, damn it! She wished he could have seen the look on Cletus’ face when they mocked him. Grown women, making fun of a skinny young boy.

Finally
, grudgingly, she said, “If it will help maintain your authority, you can punish me for it publicly. However you see fit. ”

His eyes lit up with a gleam.

“However I see fit? You sure about that?”

Her face flushed, the blush spreading all the way down to her toes.
Her private parts were probably blushing.  What did the devious sheriff have in mind? Nothing good, she was sure, but it was too late to back out now.

“
Ahhhh….yes. I am a woman of my word.  However you see fit,” she choked out.

“All right.
” His smile turned sensual and his eyes had a gleam to them that worried her.   “The punishment will take place tonight, after work.”

Did this count as a date? Her mind flashed back to what Marigold had said about punishment and
seduction…and how there was a fine line between the two of them.

Damn it! She hated it when Marigold was right.

She spent the rest of the day at the office, filing and answering phones, and trying to ignore the feeling of Portia’s angry glare burning holes in the back of her head. At least Jax just ignored her, while Lola came and sat on her desk and peppered her with questions about New York City.

That evening, Loch dropped her off at the boarding house so he could go home and change.

Ginger was just in time to help Marigold pick out an outfit for her date with Henry. Marigold deliberately chose jeans and a tank top, to let Henry know she didn’t think the date was any big deal.

Ginger looked her over and shook her head, frowning. 
“I hate to tell you this, but you look sexy as hell in that outfit, and Loch also told me that Henry really likes a girl in jeans. What he doesn’t like is frou-frou city girls.”

“Really?” Marigold stared down at her outfit in dismay
. She quickly ripped her clothes off and threw on a low cut, clingy red dress that molded to her slim figure. She climbed into a pair of high heels and put on some sparkly lip gloss, and topped off the look with big gold hoop earrings.

“Ha! That’ll repel him!” she said triumphantly, watching from the window as his car pulled up out front.

Ginger walked downstairs with Marigold. “By the way, I made all that up about the jeans,” she told Marigold as Marigold stepped out on to the front porch. “And you look
hot
in that dress. Ay, caramba! Oops, he’s already getting out of his car, you don’t have time to change.”

“What?” Marigold’s eyes went wide with shock. “
You conniving bitch!”

“You’ve known me for 8 years, and you’re just now figuring that out?
Heh heh.” Ginger cackled an evil laugh and ran back inside the boarding house, leaving Marigold alone as Henry walked up the flagstone path to the porch.

A rustling
in the hallway behind her made her start, and she turned.

Winifred was standing there, looking perturb
ed.   As usual, she had her hair pinned up in the pencil-bun.   “I was wondering…” she said, wringing her slim hands. “That new person employed by Miss Imogen to assist her with the daily tasks at this domicile…”