Alphas on the Prowl (46 page)

About the Author

Annie Nicholas writes paranormal romance with a twist. She has courted vampires, hunted with shifters, and slain a dragon’s ego all with the might of her pen. Riding the wind of her imagination, she travels beyond the restraints of reality and shares them with anyone wanting to read her stories. Mother, daughter, and wife are some of the other hats she wears while hiking through the hills and dales of her adopted state of Vermont.

Annie writes for Samhain Publishing, Carina Press, and Lyrical Press.

Website:
www.annienicholas.com
       

Blog:
www.annienicholas.blogspot.com
    

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Annie-Nicholas#!/pages/Annie-Nicholas/162716537103705
     

Twitter:  @annienicholas

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Books by Annie Nicholas

The Angler series

Bait  (FREE)

Catch

Hunting Colby

Release

Chronicles of Eorthe

Scent of Salvation

Scent of Valor

Scent of a Scandal

The Vanguards series

The Omegas

The Alpha

The Beta

Omegas in Love

Sigma

Prima

Lake City Series

Ravenous

Starved for Love

Sinful Cravings (releasing Aug. 11, 2014)

Stand Alone Books

Irresistible

Koishi

No Refuge

A Twin Moon Ranch Short Story

by Anna Lowe

CHAPTER ONE

Ty strode across the central square of the ranch, heading for his mate’s office while making ticks on his mental packing list. Had he forgotten anything?

Food for three days? Check. Cozy pillow for Lana’s quirky back? Check. The book his sister gave him five months ago—
The Expectant Dad’s Pregnancy Handbook
? Check. He needed another look at chapter six:
Complications
—
the Myths & the Realities
. It scared the shit out of him, but what about all this didn’t?

He’d learned that six months ago, because
making
a baby and
having
a baby were two completely different things. The making part was easy, fun. Thrilling, even, knowing that coming inside his gorgeous, perfect mate meant more than just another high for him and her.

Just another high?
his inner wolf snickered.

Yeah, okay, the highs were pretty damn high. The way it always was with Lana. That feeling of one plus one being a lot more than two.

Except now they were a couple of months away from being three, and Christ, along with the wonder of watching Lana’s baby bump grow came a whole mountain of worry. What if something went wrong? What if Lana or the baby weren’t okay? Worst of all was the nagging question: What good would he be as a father? There didn’t seem to be a book on that one, and his packmates’ encouraging slaps on the back didn’t quite cut it.

You’ll do fine, man,
his brother kept saying. As if Cody knew about anything except chasing skirts.

Ty kept up his quick pace over the ever-changing patterns of light and shade cast by the mighty cottonwoods overhead. Trees that had stood there for more than a hundred years and would still be there long after he moved on. The leaves rustled in the barely perceptible breeze.

You’ll do fine,
they seemed to say.

Right, fine. Except fine wasn’t good enough, not for his child. And that was the problem. No—
he
was the problem. Ty had the desire to be a good dad but hardly the right resume. He barely remembered his mother, and his father had been more of a drill sergeant than a dad. Then there was that depressing nature documentary Lana had on the TV one night—the one that concluded that monkeys with good parents went on to become good parents while monkeys with bad parents were pretty much doomed to failure. Christ. Where was the inspiring documentary about little monkeys who overcame the odds?

But he damn sure wouldn’t let on to anyone about his fears, especially not Lana. He’d have to take things one step at a time. And today’s step covered a different part of the agenda: convincing Lana to slow down a little. With six months down and three to go, it seemed like a good time to downshift into a lower gear. Lana sure as hell deserved a break. The question was, would she ever give herself one?

“Hey, Ty, about the cattle auction…” One of his packmates came up—and immediately withered away at the look he got in response.

Ty knew what the man saw: a smoldering mountain of muscle and alpha pride, eyes as black-brown as his hair, glowing like embers the way they always did when he got worked up. But hell, the guy deserved it. Why did everyone have to come to him with every little thing? He wouldn’t have minded if it were something serious: a report of rogue activity, or a marauding pack of shapeshifting puma or grizzlies or one of the other shifter species they rarely saw these days. But cattle auctions? As pack alpha, he didn’t have to micromanage every little detail. Lana was right about that. The problem was finding a trustworthy second-in-command.

It was the same for Lana. She was so goddamn good at her job that someone or other was always barging into her office with what they considered urgent business. But just because Lana could handle anything didn’t mean she had to handle
everything
. Worse still was her stubborn insistence that she get as much as possible done before the baby arrived. Didn’t she know that the more she worked her way through dusty ranch documents, the more space it cleared for new work to come in?

That’s what we get for picking such a perfect mate
, his wolf said, and there was more smile than sigh in that inner voice.
Perfect for us.

Yes, she was perfect, but every body had its limits, and a pregnant body had different priorities. Couldn’t Lana see that?

So he figured he’d start with a little break for the both of them and steal Lana away for a couple of days. Have her to himself for a change. Then somehow, he’d have to get her on board with the idea of slowing down a little: shorter office hours, longer lie-ins in the morning. She deserved it. And the baby did, too.

He climbed the three stairs to her office, scowling as he sniffed the air. The ranch supply shop next door was being painted, and the fumes carried this way. Wasn’t that bad for a growing baby? He’d have to check the maintenance schedule as soon as he finished here. See what other paint jobs were penciled in and cancel anything within an…oh, ten-mile radius.

He pushed the door to Lana’s office open then stopped short. What the hell was Audrey doing there?

“Hello, Ty.” Audrey breathed his name and batted her eyelashes as if he were a swinging single on the market for some after-hours fun. As if he’d ever been interested in her type: bleached blond hair, pouty lips, scandalously low top. Audrey was a packmate, and he’d respect her for that—but only that.

Audrey squeezed her shoulders together and dipped to show off her mighty rack, but his eyes were fixed on
his
woman. His gorgeous, smart, and incredibly stubborn woman. Long brown hair, sky-blue eyes, and a lean, athletic frame despite the baby bump hidden behind the desk.

Mate
, his wolf growled.

Mate
, hers hummed in a higher note.

In two steps, he’d crossed the office, found her lips, and hung on for a long, slow kiss. Who needed food, air, water? He had his mate.

“Hmm-hmm!”

Damn. He’d forgotten about Audrey. But Audrey wasn’t the type to let anyone forget her for long, no matter how hard they tried. Not with her clearing her throat and clicking her inch-long nails on Lana’s desk.

“About the upgrades I need for my hair salon…”

The pack owned a piece of commercial property in the nearest town, thirty miles away, and Audrey ran a beauty salon in one of the smaller units. To her credit, the business was doing pretty well, last he’d heard.

“You’ll have to see Tina about capital investments,” Lana said with that flat note of finality she nailed down perfectly. Respectful but no-nonsense and right to the point—that was his girl. “Not my area.”

Audrey gave Lana a grumpy goodbye glance and Ty a long, hungry look. “You know what my salon offers these days, Ty? Old-fashioned razor shaves for men. Exactly what you need.” She swept her tongue over her overpainted lips. “A real close shave. Just imagine.”

He could imagine it, all right. Audrey’s fingernails jabbing near his eyes; her tits pushed up against his chest.

“No, thanks.” He tried copying Lana’s even tone, but a grumble still came through.

He didn’t need a close shave, not from Audrey, not from anyone, except maybe his mate. That, he could picture. Him, Lana, some shaving cream, and a little privacy. They’d start slow and sweet on the back terrace of their place and end hot and hard in the cool shade of the bedroom. That, he could do.

The lines under Lana’s eyes, though, told him she might not be up for any elaborate kind of fun—not anytime soon, anyway. He’d save the thought for later. Now was all about her.

And about getting Audrey the hell out of that office, then opening a couple more windows—on the south side, away from the fresh paint. Audrey was almost as toxic, what with her dense veil of perfume, hair spray, and nail polish. Those chemicals had to be as bad for his baby as paint fumes.

He’d barely shooed Audrey out the door when his siblings Tina and Cody whisked in.

“Heya, Ty.” Tina barely nodded as she passed, making a beeline for Lana. “Lana! Baby! How are you two?”

Lana grinned and put up with Tina’s cooing and hands all over her belly while Ty growled a silent message to his brother.

Don’t even think about it, bro.

Cody put his hands up as if the soft look in his eyes hadn’t come from wondering what it felt like to touch a growing baby through its mother’s skin.

Not my department, man
, Cody assured him.

Ty grunted and felt a little stab of pity for his bachelor brother. Would he ever grow up and see the light?

“So, I wanted to go over the accounts we talked about,” Tina started.

Cody chimed in, too. “And Dad wanted to know if you figured out the east side aquifer lease yet.”

Yet? The old dog had probably dumped the files on Lana yesterday. And anyway, couldn’t they see how tired she looked?

“I’m on it,” was all she said.

With greedy developers gobbling up ever-bigger chunks of Arizona, Lana’s expertise in land rights was crucial in helping the ranch protect their turf, their way of life. She’d spent the last three years closing any possible chinks in their legal armor, and now she was hell-bent on creating as big a buffer zone around the ranch as possible. That meant shifting through endless documents: land surveys and deeds from the 1800s. Water rights from the 1930s. Mining licenses from the 1980s. It went on and on. That and endless meetings with neighboring property owners and environmental groups.

It was a hell of a lot of work, even divided among three: Lana, plus Tina, with her organized mind and accounting skills, and Rae, with her inborn knowledge of the land. The three of them made a formidable team, but even they had their limits, much as they pretended otherwise.

Ty jabbed a finger toward his brother’s chest. “Aren’t you supposed to be putting speed bumps in? That’s the priority.” It was infuriating how fast some people drove on the ranch. A kid could crawl out of nowhere and get hurt.

“I put Steve on it, don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried,” Ty said through gritted teeth. “I just want it done. Yesterday.”

Lana, meanwhile, pulled out a second chair for Tina, game as always to tackle yet another job.

“Are you sure you have the time?” Tina asked.

“Sure.” Lana nodded, ignoring the folders stacked all around the room.

“No,” Ty barked, and three heads whipped up in surprise. “You and you,” he pointed at his siblings. “Out.”

“But Ty, we just have to—”

“Out,” he snapped. He’d had enough of everyone making demands of his mate.

“But—”

“Out!” His voice had an edge of thunder in it, but he didn’t care. Enough was enough. He glared at both his siblings until they scurried out. Then he closed the door and leaned against it before anyone else could storm in.

“Ty,” Lana sighed.

“Lana.”

They looked at each other from across the room, the silence stretching long and loud.

“You’re working too much,” he started.

“I’m fine.”

He waved an impatient hand. “Even superwoman needs a little down time.”

She tossed her pen down and waved her hands at the reams of paper cluttering the perimeter of her desk. “Do you know what a mess these files are?”

“They’re better than they were yesterday and the day before.”

“But still nowhere near finished.”

“It’ll never be finished. For every job you cross off the top of your list, two more get added to the bottom. You know that.”

She squeezed her lips into a thin line.

“Lana, the files will survive for three days.”

“Three days?” Her eyebrows lifted.

“Three days. The two of us are going away.” She looked about to protest, so he held up a hand. “Zack, Tina, and Cody will take care of things here while we go to the cabin.” He knew she couldn’t say no to that. She was always after him to delegate more responsibility to the others.

“The cabin?” Her voice cracked a little and her eyes misted over. The place was full of memories for both of them, starting from their very first night together, almost three years ago.

He let out all the breath he’d been holding in, circled behind her chair, and closed his arms around his mate and his child. Closed his eyes, too.

“Just you, me, and baby,” he whispered.

“I like the sound of that.”

“Yeah,” he exhaled. “Me, too.”

Step one: check. On to step two.