The Alpha's Choice (10 page)

"You don't have to be strong to get me up,
just willing." He tried to wink, but it came across as more of a
squint.

"Your come-ons stink, Rover." She pursed her
lips in an effort not to smile. This guy was a master of bad pickup
lines.

"Oh come on, you know you were
impressed."

This time, Kat laughed aloud. She stroked the
air with wiggling fingers. "I was definitely impressed with the
hoo-doo. It was amazing, miraculous, like magic," she said and then
she sobered. "That's not the same as being impressed with the guy
doing it. Don't let what happened earlier fool you. I'm not that
easy to impress."

"I acted like an ass," he admitted.

He looked repentant, but Kat wasn't letting
him off the hook that easily. "I was thinking dirty dog, myself,
but ass will do."

Charles groaned. "That was low."

"So was how you treated me this
afternoon."

He let his head fall back and he blew out an
exhausted breath. "Yeah, about that. I thought you were one of
us."

"I get that. What I don't get is why you
reacted the way you did when you found out I wasn't."

The albino wolf whined and lifted his head.
He looked blearily at Kat and the corners of his mouth pulled back
to show a fringe of teeth below the thin pink again lips. He
sighed, lowered his head to the table and closed his eyes on a
contented sigh.

"Did he just smile at me?" she asked in a
whisper.

"He surely did. Ole Buddy recognized you
right off. He's got a talent for it and good taste." Charles wiped
his hand down his face, never taking his eyes from the sleeping
wolf. "Look, I need food and Buddy needs to get back to being a
man. Can we take this discussion up later?" Charles moved past Kat
to the door where he hung on to the jamb to steady himself.

"What if I said no?" She placed her hand on
his chest and looked up into his face.

"Then we wouldn't have the discussion at
all." Charles looked pointedly at the hand splayed against his
chest and then into her eyes. "Now, I suggest you take your hand,
lovely as it is, off my chest and let me pass or we may both end up
in a place neither of us wishes to be."

Kat wasn't sure where that was, because at
that moment, she didn't want to be anywhere else. The same tingle
of sexual excitement she'd felt that morning now coursed through
the fingers spread over the warm skin of his chest and sent a happy
shiver to her core. She snatched her hand back as if burned and
stared at her palm.

"How the hell do you do that?"

Charles sucked in his cheeks and raised his
eyebrows and for a moment Kat had a glimpse of the boy Mrs. Martin
must have known; full of the devil and ready to raise hell. Then
the glint in his eye faded and he sighed.

"I'm exhausted. You have no idea how
exhausted." He looked back at Buddy sprawled peacefully across the
table. "I barely have enough magic left to take care of him. I
can't tamp down the call for you, too."

"Magic? The call?" she asked, though if she
thought about it, magic was as good an explanation as any. How else
could he conjure up a fiery ball of healing power? How else could
he conjure such feelings of arousal in her? Magic.

Kat stepped aside and Charles moved past her,
not into the kitchen, but into the hall where he called back over
his shoulder.

"I'm going to shower and change into
something warm. Tell Mrs. Martin to give me twenty minutes and I'll
be ready to eat. Then I'll take care of Buddy." He shook his finger
over his shoulder. "Then and only then will I take care of
you."

"Oh how I wish you would," Kat whispered as
she watched him walk away. Charles Goodman was the stuff of fairy
tales; a sexy man/beast/prince who took her breath away and just
once she'd like to play Beauty to his Beast. It never dawned on her
how out of character those thoughts were from a woman who just
found out the sexiest man she ever met was a wolf or from a woman
who took such pride in her self-control.

Chapter 10

"I get the magic part or at least I think I
do," Kat told Tilda while they waited for Charles to return. What
she wanted to know was what he meant by 'the call', but Tilda kept
evading the answer.

"I doubt you do." Tilda stirred the huge pot
of chili simmering on the stove, releasing the aroma of peppers,
onions and tomatoes into the air. "The magic isn't just the
healing, though any pack would be fortunate and proud to have a
healer for their Alpha. His father had the gift and so did his
brothers, but Charles?" She shrugged. "It wasn't the same."

"You didn't believe he could help Buddy." Kat
winced as soon as the words were said. She hadn't meant to sound so
accusing and she tried to soften her tone. "You were so worried. I
can understand you're having doubts."

Not easily fooled, Tilda gave her a wry look.
"You make a poor liar, but I'm mindful of the attempt and shamed to
admit you're right. I didn't have faith in my Alpha when I should
have."

"Why? Why didn't you believe?"

"I forgot for a moment that the boy became a
man, maybe because my Buddy never did. That's twice I've doubted
him and twice he's shown himself to be a Wolver of his word. I
won't doubt him again. He's our Alpha and he's taken us in when we
had nowhere to go. The other pack wasn't so kind after my mate
passed away."

Tilda loaded a tray with generous slabs of
cheese and turkey and thick slices of bread and a few token carrot
and celery sticks Kat suspected were for her. Charles' penchant for
protein was a little more understandable now that she knew what he
was. Now that she knew what he was?

"Tilda, shouldn't I be more upset about this
than I am?" she asked, a little bit panicked. She was surprised
when Tilda didn't laugh.

"I've only met one other like you," Tilda
said in all seriousness, "That was Charles' mother and she spent
three days locked in the bathroom. So I'd say you're takin' it
pretty well."

"What about you? How did you find out?" Maybe
Tilda was so young she didn't remember.

"Oh, I was born this way. I've always known."
The older woman waited for Kat's reaction with a sparkle in her
eye.

"Y-you, you're not…?" She wanted to say a
human, but Tilda was as human as a woman could get. "You're a
Wolver? You can do that?" Kat pointed to the room where Buddy lay.
"You can go over the moon?"

"Only once a year unless the Alpha is feeling
generous. The men can go over any time the moon is full, but they
need the Alpha to do it any other time." Tilda stood with her hands
folded in front of her, patiently waiting for Kat to take it all
in.

"So Charles mother wasn't a Wolver," Kat said
hesitantly. "She was like me."

The housekeeper smiled and it changed the
whole appearance of her face. She no longer looked dour at all and
Kat could see a glimpse of the pretty girl she once was.

"No, not a wolver, but not full human
neither. She was a pretty thing got thrown from her horse when it
was spooked by the Alpha running as a beast. Of course, she didn't
know that then. The Alpha, he came home in an instant and came
a-runnin' as a man and a fine looking man he was, too. Emily always
said it was love at first sight. With the man that is, not the
beast. Took her a mite longer to get used to the beast." Her eyes
on the distant past, Mrs. Martin laughed.

"Three days in the bathroom?" Kat asked

The housekeeper nodded. "Yes ma'am. She did a
bit of wailing and cried some and wouldn't listen to anyone who
tried to offer comfort. She just sat in that bathroom and wouldn't
come out."

"And?" Kat rolled her hand urging Mrs. Martin
to continue. "Then what?" She'd half forgotten how this
conversation started.

"Well," Mrs. Martin lowered her voice to a
confidential whisper, "Nobody's rightly sure, but we have our
speculations. You see, the Alpha wasn't what you'd call a patient
man and he finally got tired of trying to sweet talk her through
the door and kicked it open. He slammed it shut behind him, but we
never heard no hollerin' and when they finally come out, Emily was
smiling sweet as could be and happy to be with the Alpha. We
figured the Alpha used that charm they're all blessed with and it
appeared to work. They had their disagreements as all folks do, but
they were as happy together the day me and Buddy left as the day he
handed her from that bathroom."

"Just what kind of charm are we talking
here?" Kat asked suspiciously.

"I couldn't rightly say. No Alpha ever
courted me." Tilda turned away to hide her smile.

"You're not a very good liar either," Kat
told her.

Tilda tilted her head as if listening.
Charles sometimes angled his head in just the same way and Kat
wondered if these Wolver's hearing was as good as their canine
cousins.

"The Alpha said twenty minutes and it's been
a good deal longer than that." Tilda pointed to the door that led
to the back stairs. "Why don't you go up there and fetch him down.
Your legs are younger than mine and I'd like my boy back sometime
before bedtime."

Kat was sure there was an ulterior motive in
the request, but she couldn't very well tell the woman no. She
climbed the back stairs and found herself at the far end of the
hall from her bedroom. She knocked and called quietly at each door
along the hall before opening each one to check within. She wasn't
sure which room he had chosen for a bedroom, but she should have
known it would be the largest and the best, the one she'd chosen
for herself.

He was sprawled across the bed on his back,
barefooted, jeans zipped but unbuttoned, and shirtless as if he'd
laid back to rest for a moment before he finished dressing. His
skin was still damp as was his hair and his lashes were long and
dark against the paleness of his skin.

Damn, the man was beautiful and Kat had to
dig her fingers into the door frame to keep from going to him and
smoothing the naughty boy curl back from his forehead. She wanted
to do much more than that and the thoughts that were running
through her head shocked her. Were these her thoughts? Or were they
the result of that Alpha's charm Tilda spoke of? And Kat wondered
if that charm might have a bit of magic in it, too.

"Charles," she called softly from the doorway
and when he didn't answer or open his eyes she giggled a little.
"Char-lie, oh Char-lie," she called in the singsong voice. "Wake
up, beastie boy"

Charles still didn't open his eyes, seemed to
be sound asleep and then he smiled and she knew it was the sound of
her voice that put that blissful look on his face. He looked
relaxed and happy and she wondered how often he looked that way.
She didn't think he was a happy man and the thought touched her
heart in a place that hadn't been touched since she was little
girl.

Again she had to fight the urge to go to him,
to comfort him, though why a man who could afford a house like this
and those cars in the barn would need comfort she had no idea. She
only knew that when the smile left his face, her smile disappeared
as well.

She tiptoed across the carpeted floor to the
bedside and touched his denim clad knee, thinking she was safe
enough if she didn't touch him skin to skin. She was wrong. As soon
as she laid her hand on his knee, the hum of sexual awareness
began. She closed her eyes and savored it for a moment before she
shook his knee and called his name again.

"Charles," she called softly, "Mrs. Martin
has your supper ready. You need to bring Buddy home."

He smiled again and reached out his hand to
her and slowly opened his eyes…

"I was dreaming about you," he said sleepily
and grasped her hand and pulled her to him.

For a man half asleep, his grip was
remarkably strong. Already off balance, Kat fell across that long
lean body and couldn't bring herself to resist when his other arm
wrapped around her back and pinned her to his chest. His hand slid
up her back and into her curls and held her face close to his.

She moistened her lips and closed her eyes in
anticipation of his kiss, but they snapped open again in surprise
when he kissed her nose instead. She laughed at the affectionate
gesture.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

The buzz of attraction was still there, but
subdued when compared to what it had been before. At least now she
could think clearly.

"Mrs. Martin has your supper ready. You said
you'd be down in twenty minutes. It's been more like forty-five."
She pushed herself up from his chest. "You need to let me up or
you'll need another shower. I'm filthy."

Charles laughed and it was deep and rumbly
and sexy. "Mmmm, I like my women filthy… and dirty… and a little
bit kinky, too. How about you?"

Kat laughed and it was rich and throaty and
relaxed. "Not into women, sorry." She tried, not too hard, to
wiggle back onto her feet, but Charles wouldn't let her. "And your
sexy lines aren't the least bit tempting. You'll have to work
harder if you want to attract a really good woman."

"But that's my point, sweetheart. I prefer
the bad ones."

"And that's my point, beastie boy. I'm not
interested." This time she forced herself to wiggle free and stand
between his knees at the edge of the bed. "You better get your rear
in gear or you'll have to face the wrath of Mrs. Martin. She
strikes me as a woman who doesn't like to be crossed."

"Maybe for you, but she adores me."

Kat headed for the closet where she'd stored
her meager supply of clothes and pulled a pair of navy slacks and a
light blue tailored blouse from their hangers. Jeans and a T-shirt
would've been fine, but she's had the sudden urge to look a little
nicer and put together.

"She'll be sweeping up her adoration along
with the rest of the trash if you don't get down there and fix her
son. He's beginning to get restless and we don't want his muddy
pawprints all over the floor."