Wolf and Punishment (The Alaska Princesses Trilogy, Book 1) (23 page)

She took a deep breath and turned around. “I just received some disturbing news from Alaska. Apparently Alisha went into heat a few days ago and Rafe mated her.”

“Wait…” Mag looked back over his shoulder at Sofia, who was now standing at the dinette’s window watching both of them. Her face was expressionless. If she was feeling any kind of way about sleeping with another woman’s husband, you never would have known it. And Janelle once again found herself working hard not to let her wolf take over. She might look like a delicate china doll on the outside, but she was still a were. She had superman strength and she could tear that human woman from limb to limb if she wanted to. She could—

Mag turned back to Janelle, his brow knitted with anger and confusion. “You came out here to talk about Rafe claiming Alisha?”

Janelle tore her eyes away from the human woman and forced herself to answer. “Yes, I was very surprised to hear their mating had come to pass, especially considering Alisha’s feelings on the subject.”

“Yeah, she could have had all the feelings she wanted about that, but Rafe wasn’t going to let any other wolf claim her,” Mag said with a shake of his head, like he totally expected what had come to pass.

His nonchalant tone made Janelle turn her full focus back to the subject at hand. “So you knew he was still planning to mate her, despite her turning down his pledge offer?”

Mag shrugged. “I know Rafe. If he wants something, even if it’s a she-wolf with a bad attitude, there’s not much that’s going to stop him from getting it.”

Janelle actually felt her gag reflex go off then, just thinking of her sister being set up to mate with Rafe against her explicitly stated wishes.

“She’s not an ‘it,’” she whispered to Mag. “She’s my sister. And now she’s out there, running from Rafe. Probably really scared and no one can find her.”

But all Mag seemed to hear was, “She ran? Even after Rafe mated her? She ran?” He cursed and took his phone out. “Okay, thanks for telling me. I’m calling Rafe right now.”

“That’s not why I—”

But he was already walking back toward the guest house. “Rafe, it’s Mag. No, she’s not here. Janelle just told me what went down. I can’t believe it, man…”

Janelle watched him go, her heart broken open like an egg. The truth was, she no longer knew whether she should be scared for her sister or jealous that she'd gotten away from the wolf making her life hell.

23

E
VERYTHING was going straight to hell. First Janelle caught him with Sofia, which was the last thing he needed after the hella-awkward three months of marriage he and Janelle had just enjoyed in no way whatsoever. And now his best friend’s mate had been missing for three days. The first day Rafe had called him every couple of hours or so, wanting to know if Alisha had shown up there. But by the third day, Mag had felt compelled to give it to Rafe straight.

“Rafe, man, you know I’ve got your back, but truth is, this is probably the last place she’d show up. She knows her sister walks the party line, and she knows I’m going to call you as soon as I set eyes on her. If she’s anywhere near as smart as I think she is, she ain’t coming here, dude.”

“I know, I know… I just…” Rafe sounded broken, his words so slurred, Mag could almost smell all the Scotch he’d been guzzling since Alisha ran out on him.

Mag couldn’t fault him for drinking. That protection instinct was a son of a bitch for real. Mag could barely stand to leave the property since mating Janelle. He’d be going out of his mind if she ran away with his cub. He’d fucking lose it.

“I want to go after her. I keep thinking I should be out there, tracking her myself,” Rafe said over the phone. “But I don’t even know where to look. She’s covered her tracks every step of the way. I have no clue where she is. My wolf is off the chain, man. If I could turn, I’d be running down I-70 right now.”

“Naw, just keep drinking, man. You notified all the state packs, yeah? Most of us have people looking for her and it ain’t going to go easier if you get missing, too. She’ll turn up. Just do what you got to do to keep that wolf on its chain.”

His call-waiting beeped, interrupting his inspirational speech. “Shit, it’s my brother,” Mag said after glancing at the caller ID.

“Take it,” Rafe said.

“Naw, we’re talking man.”

“Take it,” Rafe insisted. “I have to go down to the resort bar anyway. Ran out of Scotch.”

Mag reluctantly switched the call. “Hey, Kang,” he said.

“You know, I’ve been sitting up in Alaska all this time, nearly a year, wondering when the hell my little brother’s going to invite me down to Wyoming. I mean he’s been the king for a minute longer than the last guy who held the position anyway. And he’s married to the Alaska princess. You’d think the brother who used to fly me out for most of his games would want me down there with him. But instead, he left me to rot in Freedom Town, even after I agreed to bring us under Lupine law, and do you know how hard it is to tell a pack of Freedom fucking wolves they can’t have sex with unheated she-wolves anymore? Or put a silver bullet in any dude who tries to hook up with their mate—even if he succeeds?”

“I know it’s hard, man,” Mag said, feeling like a little brother again, even though he was now the king of a much bigger pack than Freedom Town now. “That’s one of the reasons why I didn’t want to bother you. I know you had your work cut out for you getting the Freedom Town pack under control.”

“I should have put that a different way,” Kang said. “Should have said, do you know how hard it would’ve been for any other wolf but me? But I’m Kang, and you know I don’t mind putting a few more lines on my face to get shit done. The pack’s all leashed up. Would’ve given you a progress report if I could ever get you on the phone.”

“I’m sorry, man. I know I should have been better about calling. But I’m going to send you a plane ticket real soon. I promise.”

“No need, little bro. Took out some money from the checks you’ve been sending since you went pro, and I bought my own plane ticket to Wyoming. Got sick of waiting on you.”

This news sent a straight chill down Mag’s spine, but he did his best to keep his voice even when he answered, “All right. Tell me what day you’re getting here. Maybe I can rearrange my schedule.”

“Fuck that. I’m here now. Just landed. So you need to come to this airport and finally deal with me, bitch.” Then Kang hung up.

“JANELLE, I NEED TO TALK TO YOU.”

Janelle looked up from her monitor. She’d just been typing an email with some last minute requests to one of the Alaska party vendors when Mag appeared at her bedroom door.

She turned in her seat, surprised to see him in her room during daylight hours. He was dressed in a zip-up cardigan and jeans, which would have looked boring on any other man, but in contrast to his face tattoos and heavily muscled body, somehow the ensemble came off as more sexy than practical. Like an Eskimo warrior playing the part of a suburban dad.

Her wolf flipped inside her stomach at the sight of him. Pathetically begging Janelle to go to Mag, press her body against him, touch her nose to his. Anything to get him to be with her as a male should be with his mate.

But for all Janelle knew, Sofia was still installed in the guest house. No, she scolded her wolf with a thought. There was no way she would lower herself to begging Mag for any crumb of affection he could spare her, just because her wolf had no human sense of pride.

“Yes, Mag?” she asked him, trying to keep her voice all business.

“I…” he rubbed a hand over the back of his head. “Where are you with your Christmas plans? You still planning on going up to Alaska?”

“I was waiting for you to make the decision either way. You told me to stick close to home until further notice.”

“Yeah, I did say that. But now I’m saying buy a ticket. You don’t have to spend Christmas here with me. In fact, it’s probably better if you go back to your family til after the holidays, yeah?”

Was he seriously dismissing her? Sending her back to Alaska so he could spend Christmas with Sofia without his wife interrupting?

She was dying. And for many moments all she could do was stare at him.

“Meanwhile, I’m gonna need you to sleep in my room until you leave. My brother’s in town. He sprung it on me, so I have to let him stay here until I can find him an apartment or something, and us in separate rooms—well, he won’t understand.”

Like he was stabbing her in the heart again and again.

“I understand,” she choked out, pretending that every word he’d just uttered hadn’t wounded her. His brother was in town. The brother she’d never met. But he was more interested in keeping up appearances than introducing her to his family. “I’ll set up a pallet in your room as soon as I’m done with this email.”

“You don’t have to sleep on the floor. You can have the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“How chivalrous of you,” she barely managed to whisper. She could actually feel her heart becoming a black lump inside her chest. A lump of coal that had once burned bright, but now sat mottled and used up, all of its fire gone.

“Okay,” he said with a nod. Then he left, leaving the perfect Stepford princess behind like an expensive toy he’d decided he didn’t’ want after all.

A few moments later, she heard the door open and close downstairs. Mag going to get his brother. Or maybe he was going to see Sofia again. Who knew?

The doorbell sounded a couple of minutes after Mag left and Janelle sat there, her fingers poised over her keyboard, her email still unsent as she waited to hear the sound of Mrs. Coates sending the visitor away. “The king isn’t here,” she might say, even if he were still on the premises. Or maybe a more vague but appropriate, “The king isn’t currently receiving visitors.”

But instead, Janelle heard a familiar voice say, “Hi, I’m here to see the queen. Could you go get her for me?”

“Who may I tell her is calling?” Mrs. Coates asked, her voice sounding rather suspicious.

But the bedraggled she-wolf standing on the other side of the door didn’t have to answer, because Janelle was already running down the stairs, calling. “Alisha! Alisha! Oh my God, you’re here!”

24

“Y
OU ain’t getting none are you?” Kang said halfway through the drive back to the Wyoming kingdom town.

Mag kept his eyes on the road. “I’m not talking with you about that, man.”

“You don’t have to talk to me about it. I can’t hardly smell her on you. Either you’re having problems getting it up or she’s freezing you out. Which one is it?”

Mag gritted his teeth, refusing to let his brother goad him into a conversation he didn’t want to have.

Kang let a few beats of silence go by before he nodded and said, “Yeah, she’s freezing you out, and she probably wasn’t that good in bed anyway. See that’s why I don’t mess with those rich girls. If I wanted to fuck a starfish, I’d go to the aquarium.”

“Kang, you’re my brother. But if you say another word about Janelle, I’m going to pull this car over and beat the shit of you.”

Of course, Kang’s answer to this threat was to burst into laughter. “So she do got your nose open. Nice to hear. Still don’t explain why you ain’t been fucking her, though. Dad didn’t let two days go by without laying his scent back down on Ma.”

Mag’s hands tightened and untightened around the wheel. “Well, I’m not Dad. And I’m not talking about that with you, man.”

Kang repositioned himself, turning sideways in the Bugatti’s small passenger seat. He draped his large arm across the back of Mag’s headrest.

“Then what do you want to talk about? How about why you ain’t sent for me? You ashamed of your brother, now you moved on up? Living in Wyoming with the other richies make you forget where you come from?”

Mag shook his head. “Don’t try to act like I’m that dude who forgets where I come from. I never forgot. I never will.”

“Then why’d I have to fly myself down here?”

Mag tried to shrug it off. “Nobody’s been challenging me. And seriously, even if they did, I could probably send them your picture, and they’d back down, yeah? You wouldn’t even have to live in the kingdom town.”

Kang let out a low cackle, the many tattooed lines on his face smiling upwards at the thought of his image alone being enough of a boogeyman to keep would-be challengers away. “Maybe. But I still would have appreciated an invite to your wedding, you know. Hurt my feelings.”

Mag rubbed a hand over his head. “I don’t… I don’t know how to do this.”

“Do what? Send me a plane ticket? It’s easy. You just go online, give them your credit card. Bam, I’m in Wyoming. Beta-wolfing the hell out of this town. What’s so hard about that?”

“No, I don’t know how to… I don’t know how to talk to you. I mean when it’s not about stupid shit, like football or what drama’s going down in Freedom Town this week.”

Kang shifted in his seat again, and out of the side of his eye, Mag could see his brother lean forward, like they were finally getting down to business. “How about you just tell what the hell is going on. This got something to do with your girl?”

“Yeah.”

“You think she going to think less of you when she meet me?”

“Kang. No… God. Okay, here it is: the reason I didn’t invite you to the wedding or send you a plane ticket here is because I’m not Dad. I don’t ever want to be Dad.”

Silence filled the car then. So thick and heavy, Mag was sure they could both feel the full weight of their family history pressing down on their shoulders.

“So you understand why—”

“Yeah, I get it. It’s fucked up. But yeah, I get it. Can’t say I wouldn’t be in the same canoe if it was me all mated up. Maybe that’s why I’m all about the human broads. Why I ain’t claimed nobody yet. Cuz of Dad.”

“If she hadn’t gone into heat, I probably never would have claimed her. But my wolf took over, and now it’s too late. And I’m not going to lie to you, I’m scared, Kang. I’m a straight pussy when it comes to this situation with Janelle. That’s why I didn’t send that ticket. I need you to believe that.”

“I believe you. But now I’m even more sure I made the right decision coming down here. Lonewolfs don’t pussy out, especially over girls.” Kang clapped his fist into his other hand, like his younger brother’s fears were something he could and would clobber. “I’m here now, so I guess this situation’s about to come to head, yeah? We going to figure out one way or the other how much Dad you got in you.”