Twin Alphas: Claimed (A BBW Werewolf Romance) (9 page)

              When they pulled out of the parking lot, they had to answer to the men guarding the gate at the front entrance to the festival.  They had to state why they were leaving, give the name of their pack, and promise to come back that evening before dark.

Once they pulled out, she settled in against Holt, but then sat back up. Mackenzie’s situation was still bugging her.

              “Hey, I have a question. Mackenzie got together with Ajax yesterday, and it seemed like everything was going great. When I saw the two of them, it seemed like he couldn’t get enough of her,” Amelia said. “Then they got together in the woods, and afterwards he took her to a restaurant, and then he literally ditched her there. And then, some girl came over and claimed that, basically, Ajax and his brother were going to settle down with her and Mackenzie had just been a fling. So here’s my question. Why would an Alpha do that?”

              “I have no idea,” Holt said. “I would have to say that the only reason he’d do that is if he never intended for them to get serious. Clayton and I have both had our fair share of brief encounters here over the years.”

              “Did you lead the girls on to think that you wanted anything more?” she asked.

              “Good God, no.” Clayton’s voice held genuine horror at the thought, and she actually could feel his shudder of horror running right through her body. It was like she was inside his head. She completely, totally believed him, because she really felt as if she could feel what he was feeling.

              “Never,” Holt echoed fervently.

              “I always let the women know that I wasn’t looking for anything serious,” Clayton said. “I mean, I wasn’t a dick about it, but I would tell them that I was just here to have fun, and I completely understood if that wasn’t what they were looking for. If they wanted something more serious, they’d bow out and go elsewhere.”

              “I swear to God he really seemed into her. Why would he act like he wanted more and then change his mind?” She turned to Holt questioningly.

              “It’s possible that she just thought that he wanted more,” Holt said. “I mean, sometimes women want to be with an Alpha pair so badly that they’ll just make stuff up. That blonde woman you saw Clayton with, she was one of those.”

              “Hey,” Amelia said indignantly, pulling away from Holt. “Don’t compare Mackenzie to that woman.  From what I overheard, she was deliberately trying to manipulate you guys.  And Mackenzie didn’t make anything up. I’m telling you, I saw it too. Ajax acted exactly like you guys acted when you first met me. He only had eyes for her. He was jealous of her paying attention to anyone else.”

              “That is odd,” Holt admitted. “I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe they got together and the chemistry wasn’t what he had expected, or something.”

              “Hmph.” Amelia was still annoyed. “I will use my purse for a pillow, thank you.” She leaned her purse against the window, propped her head on it, and was asleep within minutes.

              The next thing she knew, Holt was shaking her awake.

              She yawned and stretched and looked around as Clayton pulled to a stop.  They were at the end of a dirt road, in an area with broad pastures.

              “Red River Pack. Bunch of assholes,” Clayton growled. “Their property borders our property, and  the property of our Wards.”

              There were two groups of men standing and yelling at each other. As she climbed out of the truck, she saw that they were standing near a fence which had been knocked down. One of the groups of men was standing on one side, and one group was on the side closer to Clayton and Holt. A chubby, round-faced woman was standing with the closer group.

              As she followed Clayton and Holt, she saw that in both groups there were men wearing the leather necklaces, and also men with no necklaces. Humans.

              She realized that all of the wolves in Clayton and Holt’s group had a necklace with a similar pattern of animal teeth and beads. The wolves in the other group, the Red River Pack, had their own special necklace design.

              Clayton and Holt walked up to one of the humans. “Ben. Where are our dads?” Clayton asked irritably. “Why aren’t they here to deal with this?”

              “There was a big fire at the Henderson’s family barn, and they had to go deal with that,” Ben said. “Then we came up here to find our fence was knocked down and half our herd wandered onto their land.” He was a man in his fifties with brown hair shot through with gray, and a drooping handlebar mustache. He had “cowboy” written all over him.

              “That’s awfully interesting timing.” Clayton shot a look at the men on the other side of the fence.

              “Your men trespassed on our Ward’s  property. I’m within my rights to kill them,” the apparent leader of the wolves snapped. He was a tall man with a hawkish face and stringy black hair.  He spoke with an aggressive tone, face thrust forward, eyes glowing with anger. Amelia realized that there was another wolf standing in their group who looked exactly like him. Twin Alphas. They were in their thirties at least; probably already mated, which meant that they wouldn’t have to be at the Claiming Festival.

              Wards must be what the werewolves called humans.

              “Well, since you pulled up all our fenceposts so you could lead our cattle on to your property, it’s a little hard to tell where the property lines are right now,” Ben snarled.

              The hawk-faced man lunged forward, and Clayton and Holt leaped in his way and blocked him. Their faces went hairy and their jaws thrust out.  They growled and snapped, and the man’s face also lengthened. His twin ran over to join him, and both of them went through that rippling thing where their faces turned halfway hairy.

After a minute of snarling and growling, the two men took a step back, hands balled into fists. Amelia realized she’d been holding her breath, and let it out to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Timmons, Karl, if you step foot on our property again I’ll rip out your throat so it doesn’t heal up.” Clayton’s tone was harsh and menacing.

One of the wolves suddenly took a swing at Clayton, and missed. Holt lashed out so fast that Amelia literally couldn’t see his hand move, nothing but a blur of motion, and the werewolf’s nose exploded in a spray of blood. He staggered back and as Amelia stared, his nose reset itself and the blood quickly stopped flowing. So, apparently werewolves healed super fast.

Holt stood with his his fists still raised, glowering.

“Do that again,” Clayton begged. “We just got pulled out of the Claiming Festival, and I’m itching for a fight.

              “Give us back our cattle, you bunch of thieves!” Ben shouted.             

              “Finders, keepers,” one of the men sneered. “Losers, well, that pretty much describes you guys.”

              “Hey, hot stuff, want to be claimed by a real wolf?” one of the hawk faced guys said, openly leering at Amelia.

              That did it. Clayton melted into wolf form, and lunged for the man’s throat. The man shifted back, snarling at Clayton.  Holt shifted, and suddenly there were a dozen wolves on each side, circling and snapping at each other. The men were shouting and gesturing, and it was about to turn into an all out brawl.

              “Hey. Hey!” Amelia shouted, waving her hands.

              Holt, Clayton, and other wolves shifted back and turned and looked at her.  Now they were all naked, since they’d exploded out of their clothes when they shifted.

              “You should wait to see what the videos on the security cameras shows,” she said to Clayton.

              “Security cameras?” one of the men whirled to look at the twin Alphas. “Karl. You didn’t say nothing about no security cameras.”

              “Shut it, Rory.” Karl glowered at him.

              “I didn’t see any security cameras out here,” he added, shooting an angry look at Holt.

             
Nice going
, Holt said to Amelia. Except he didn’t say it out loud. He thought it. She was positive that he thought it. It was like she could hear his voice in her head.

              Holt turned back to the Red River pack and smirked at them.  “You mean, when you came to pull up all of our fenceposts, you didn’t see the security cameras?” Holt said.

              “I didn’t say that.”

             
If he could see security cameras, they wouldn’t be very secure, would they?
She thought scornfully.

              Clayton looked at her, nodded approvingly, and added to the wolf “If you could see security cameras, they wouldn’t be very secure, would they?”

             
How in the heck?
She wondered.

              “You’re saying there were cameras?” Rory demanded. He looked at Timmons and Karl. “I didn’t give no permission for cameras on my property. You can go after them for that, can’t you?”

              “I don’t have to ask permission to put cameras on my property, though,” Clayton said. “Even if those cameras are pointed at your property.”

              “We’ve been keeping an eye on this whole area,” one of the humans protested, talking to Rory. “I didn’t see anybody putting in any cameras.”

              “Now, why would you be watching this area, at the very far end of your property, unless you were waiting for a time when you could sneak over and pull up their fenceposts?” Holt asked. “And by the way, I didn’t say that we put in cameras, and I didn’t say that we didn’t. But keep this in mind. We don’t trust you.  We have reason not to trust you.  We’ve caught your people stealing from us before, and dealt with them appropriately.”

              Karl and Timmons let out angry growls at that, and Amelia had a feeling that the dealings had of a permanent and fatal nature. She shuddered. She was glad that Clayton and Holt liked her; she would not want to be on their bad sides.

“So, if we’re going away to the Alpha Claiming festival,” Holt continued, “don’t you think we’d want some kind of surveillance on any of our property that borders yours?”

              Rory exchanged glances with Karl and Timmons.

              “How about you and your brother come meet me and Clayton in the Arena?” Holt continued, his tone calm but the look in his eyes dangerous. “Or we can take this up with the Sentinels.”

              “No,” Karl said stiffly. “That won’t be necessary.”

              “So I’m sure that all of our cattle will be back on our property within the hour. And I will count them,” Rory said evenly.

              “And the fence will be repaired by the end of the day, and it will be inspected to ensure it’s done right,” Clayton said.

              “God damn it, that’ll take -  all right. Fine.” Rory said stiffly. His face was red with anger, and sweat beaded on his forehead. All the other humans and wolves with him looked sullen and beaten now, but Amelia was sure this wasn’t the last that Clayton and Holt would hear about this.

              The Red Hills pack and their human Wards turned to leave.

              “Hey! Asshole!” Clayton snapped, and Karl and Timmons turned back with a scowl.

“One more thing,” Clayton said to them.  “You look at our woman again, and I’ll rip your throat out. I would never treat you or your pack with that level of disrespect, and I will not tolerate it on my land, or anywhere else. Am I clear?”

              Karl and Timmons swallowed, then lowered their heads submissively and nodded.  They turned and left.

              “Something weird,” Clayton said to Holt. “I thought I caught the faintest whiff of silver from one of the humans.”

              “Silver? No way. That would be a death penalty offense.” Holt stared after them.  He tipped his head back and sniffed at the air. “Maybe,” he said doubtfully. “Just the faintest whiff. Like they handled it, not like they have it with them.”

              There they went with the silver thing again. Could silver kill a werewolf? She’d seen how fast the werewolf healed after he was punched – but maybe silver was like their Kryptonite.

              “If they tried to use silver against us, the Sentinels would wipe their pack off the Earth,” Holt protested.

              “If they could prove it. If silver was used against us, they’d cover it up,” Colton pointed out.

              “How have the border patrols been doing? No more smuggling attempts have been spotted?” Holt asked.

              “Not that we’ve heard, but it’s a long border.”

              Amelia wondered who would be able to smuggle anything through the border.  Were there others like her who could cross back and forth without dying?

              The ban on humans coming over was starting to make sense. Maybe they’d issued the ban specifically to prevent any silver from being brought over.

              She wondered if she should say anything in her paper about their aversion to silver. Probably not. If it was a danger to them, and people were trying to smuggle it in to rival packs, then she would be putting Clayton and Holt at risk.