Alphas on the Prowl (48 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

Lana swung her legs off the bed and stretched to her feet. Maybe Ty was right about easing off work a little, because she hadn’t taken—or needed—a nap in ages.

The kitchen was spotless, and Ty had left out a plate of cookies and a glass. He’d also laid one of his flannel shirts over a chair. She pulled it on over her T-shirt, flipped the collar high—more for his scent than warmth—and padded outside, cookies and freshly poured milk in hand. The glow that filled her wasn’t just a product of the clean desert air or the last golden rays of sunlight washing over the hills. It was the sight of her man, sitting on the porch with his long legs extended and his back to the wall. He was so engrossed in whatever he was reading that he didn’t look up until she leaned over him to see.

You’d think it was a book on nuclear fusion and not parenting by the way his forehead creased. Then she caught sight of the page header and grimaced. Why did he insist on rereading that part about all the things that could go wrong?

She leaned in to kiss his brow. “Do you have to obsess about that chapter, my love?”

He lowered the book slowly, eyes still skimming the words. She took it out of his hand and climbed into the vee between his legs to sit as his arms encircled her from behind.

“Make you a deal,” he said, and the bass notes worked into her back like the massage his fingers started on her shoulders. “I’ll stop reading chapter six if you cut back on work.”

Not that again. There was no way she could cut back, not with so many unresolved issues hanging in the air. The wolfpack needed her to keep plugging away at those documents. No one else could do it.

Her stomach twitched at a welcome distraction. “Oh! Junior is jumping.”

Ty’s hand shot out and touched down before he missed his chance. He put both his broad hands on her taut belly, feeling the baby inside. Apart from a little sound of wonder, he was silent. Reverently so. She put her hands over his and concentrated on burning the memory into her mind. The way his warmth pressed against her back; the way he exhaled in little bursts, like he’d forgotten about breathing for a while. The blazing colors in the sky, the nighttime chorus of the desert starting to warm up; the perfect end to another gorgeous day. The only thing she might have wished for was the chance to shift into her wolf form and run with him in the night. But shifting while pregnant was out of the question; the danger to the baby was too great.

Anyway, watching the sun set with Ty was enough of a treat. They hadn’t had time for that in far too long.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“For what?” His lips tickled her ear.

“For bringing me up here. For this.” She squeezed his hands onto her belly. “For everything.”

He kissed her ear then shook his head. “You got it all wrong, lady. I’m the one doing the thanking.”

She smiled at the sun just before it slid out of sight and decided to let Ty have the last word. Life was good when the biggest source of friction between two partners was who felt luckier.

“Lana,” he started up after a few minutes of contemplating the layers of color painting the sky.

His voice had that I-need-to-talk-to-you tone, and suddenly she remembered their other source of friction.

“I really think you should cut back on work.”

Yep, there he went again.

“Ty, the documentation is a mess, and the water rights…” She pictured the files stacked on her desk, plus the overflow on the extra table under the window of her office. “I hate seeing the paperwork in such a mess, and it won’t get any better if I cut back my hours.”

“And it won’t get any worse,” he cut in. “The paperwork has been a mess for a century, at least. And no one’s contested the water rights—”

“But if they do—”

He put a finger to her lips. “If and when they do, you can get on top of it then.”

“I promise I’ll cut back after the baby is born.”

“You need to cut back now.”

She wanted to glare at him, but all she managed was a sigh. Her mate was doing his best for her. Looking out for her and the baby.

“I know you can handle anything, Lana, but you don’t have to, not all the time. Right now, you should be kicking back a little, not cleaning up my dad’s mess. You need to…what’s that word?”

“Rest?” she spit it out like the four-letter word it was.

“Incubate.”

A bubble of laughter breached her lips.

“I’m serious,” he went on, and he looked it. “You deserve it, and the baby does, too.”

She sighed because the baby was his ace, and they both knew it. “But what am I going to do with myself all day?”

“Sleep in a little. Kick off work early.”

She could already picture him, tapping his foot at her office door at three on the dot every afternoon, ready to hustle her out.

“Maybe take Wednesdays off,” he added.

“A day off?” What would she do with a whole day off?

Incubate
, her wolf yawned then purred at the image.

“The next thing I know, you’re going to tell me I need Fridays off, too.”

“Lana, you take care of everything,” Ty went on. “So how come I can’t take care of you?”

He sounded so eager, so sad, she had to cave in. “You can take care of me. Just don’t treat me like I’m incapable.”

“You’re more than capable,” he growled and hugged her tighter from behind.

“And what about you?”

“What about me?”

“If I have to slow down, you have to slow down too, Dad.” Now she was playing her ace, because Ty was a sucker for that. Him, a dad.

He gulped a little; she could feel it against her shoulder. “Tina’s right, you know,” she went on. “You have to delegate. Let Cody do more.”

“I already have Cody doing more.”

“I don’t mean busywork. I mean real responsibility. He’s up for it.”

Ty made unhappy noises. Getting him to trust anyone—even his own brother—with real responsibility would be an uphill battle all the way.

“Okay, how’s this,” she tried another tack. “I’ll cut back on work…”

He nodded in approval.

“…if you quit reading chapter six.”

His protest turned into a wry grin she could see out of the corner of her eye, and the grin turned into a sultry smile and finally a kiss. A kiss she was all for, because they’d done enough talking for tonight. Time to make good on that promise of making things interesting all over again.

His thumbs rolled over her skin, and she leaned back into him.

“So, what do you think it will be?” she sighed while his hands started to roam, and not just over her stomach.

He arched an eyebrow. “Uh…a wolf?”

She play-slapped him, but the light blow just bounced off the solid steel of his forearm. “I mean a girl or a boy? Seriously, I mean.”

“Girl,” he said without hesitation. “A perfect little girl who takes after you.”

She snorted. “Then she’ll be far from perfect.”

He growled next to her ear, and a shot of lust went straight to her sex. “Don’t insult my mate, lady.”

“Oh, yes?” she teased. “What will the punishment be?”

“This.” He started exploring her sides, and she went to putty under those insistent fingers. “And this,” he whispered a minute later, sliding his hands around her waist, then lifting toward her breasts.

She cooed out loud and arched shamelessly into his hands.

“And this.” He nibbled on her earlobe.

She was about to turn in his lap and straddle him—somehow, she’d work around the baby bump because the need for him quickly overpowered everything else—when Ty froze. His head popped up, his eyes focused on the downslope of the hill. His nostrils flared; his ears perked at exactly the same moment as hers.

There was something out there. Something more than the wind, and it was crashing directly toward them at a hammering pace.

CHAPTER FIVE

Before Lana could react, Ty pulled her to her feet, pushed her behind the protection of his body, and released his inner wolf in a furiously rapid shift. His wolf ripped out of his body as he dropped to four feet, snarling into the hills.

She wanted to huff and jump to his side.
Shift! Fight! Defend!

But instead of howling a battle cry, her inner wolf whined as she scuttled backward to the cabin door. This wasn’t about pride: it was about the baby. Her wolf part understood; she could lose the baby if she shifted forms. All she could do was shelter behind Ty as the approaching mass grew closer and louder. Something massive and uncompromising was crashing through the scrub. More than one something, and they were big.

Ty formed a wall in front of her, all canine power and rage.
My territory!
his snarl announced.
My mate!

The ground drummed with heavy steps as three massive shadows shot out of the brush and skidded to a stop in front of the cabin. Black, crouched, and bristling, they stood in stark contrast to the blood-red sky. Hoofed feet pawed at the ground as a jumble of grunts rang out.

Lana’s mind spit out one word: javelina.

Javelina?
her wolf countered.
When’s the last time you saw wild pigs this big?

The three creatures snorting and grunting at the foot of the porch were huge—the size of well-fed heifers. A stripe of spiky fur razored down each spine, accenting their size and brute strength.

Ty bared his teeth right to the pink of his gums and glared so hard, his coal-black eyes seemed to spark with rage. The foremost boar snorted back, and the two of them faced off, swinging their heads left, then right, looking for an opening to attack. Ty’s growl was so low, she could feel the porch rumble with it.

One step closer and you die
. His whole body said it.

Lana clamped her jaws tight before her wolf canines could come out. She balled her hands into tight fists, fingernails biting into her palms. She should be at his side, on four feet, defending her turf just like her man.

Ty snarled at the boars, looking twice his normal wolf size.
Back away. Now.

The next moment stretched on for an eternity, tension hanging in the air like a thunderclap about to burst.

Ty belted out a single, uncompromising bark. An order.
Now!

The three boars edged forward instead, and Ty roared so loud, it echoed off the surrounding slopes.
Back off or die!

Even Lana shook from the force of it, and the three boars scuttled back. The two outer ones swung their heads toward the leader in the middle, who advanced, sniffed, then finally grunted and gave in. All three dipped their heads in a grudging sign of respect, and Lana nearly sagged against the wall in relief. Ty didn’t let up one bit, though; his rumbles reached deep into the shadows of the night, which seemed to rumble back.
Alpha wolf,
they warned;
cross him if you dare.

When the boar in the center—the obvious leader—straightened, the
it
became a
he
as a man took shape out of the beast.

Lana’s mind raced. A javelina shifter?

The beast’s slow, awkward shift suggested that he didn’t change forms often. He reared up on two legs, threw his shoulders back, then slowly worked his neck from side to side. The joints cracked, just as his knuckles did when the hooves gave way to fingers that flexed, straightened, and flexed again. Lana kept waiting for the shift to finish—for the points of his curved canines to recede behind his lips, for the tangle of black hair to disappear from his chest and arms. But that appeared to be as far as it went: two steps up from Neanderthal Man.

He was built like a champion weight lifter: not incredibly tall, but broad and muscled, with fists the size of sledgehammers and huge feet. Huge other parts too, as his naked body revealed, though Lana didn’t let her gaze do more than a quick sweep before focusing on his face.

Ty, she realized in the ensuing silence, had stopped snarling, though he didn’t let up his fighting stance. His wolf fur stood on end, his legs braced.

Lothar
, she heard him think.

You know this guy?
She shot the question into Ty’s mind.

He gave a barely perceptible nod. Apparently, he knew the man well enough to be willing to listen before launching into an attack.

The man cleared his throat in a series of phlegmy grunts and started to speak. “We are—” He coughed and worked his jaw as if he wanted to free the rust. “We are of the Walderstein pack.” His voice was deep and gritty, centuries old.

Ty glared, every scrap of gentle and soft that she’d coaxed out of him minutes earlier replaced by steely resolve. Lana reclenched her fists and cursed inside. This was the part of being mated to an alpha she hated—the part her mother always warned her about. It didn’t matter that Ty had long since established his credentials in the pack and with neighboring shifters; he’d have to do it all over again with these shifters. It never ended: the challenges, the constant pressure. Didn’t Ty deserve a break?

She glanced at her bristling mate, who showed no sign of shifting into human form and answering Lothar. Not that she blamed him, considering the three massive shifters standing two steps away.

My woman
, his solid footing declared to the world.
My child. My pack. One step closer and you die.

Lana cleared her throat loudly and stepped forward. If she left the men to their own devices, there was no telling where this encounter would go.

“And you’re here because…?” she prompted the javelinas.

The shifter—Lothar—regarded her with narrowed eyes then focused on her protruding belly. She held back an exasperated sigh. Yes, she was pregnant. Yes, Ty was the father. Yes, the two of them shagged each other silly whenever they got the chance. So? They were wolves. Lovers. Mates.

Lothar’s gaze labeled her
helpless female
, and she itched to show him her warrior side.

Her wolf bristled inside.
Tell him to come back in a couple of months.

Lana let out a low growl but held her tongue. Time to exercise diplomacy, even if she wanted to fight.

“We have come to talk to your alpha.” Lothar’s words were more demand than request.

Lana folded her arms over her chest and nodded toward Ty. “So talk to him.”              

The man’s hesitation said he’d been expecting her to point the way to the pack’s previous alpha, Ty’s father. But the old man was retired; a new generation was working its way through the ranks.

Ty growled in a lower note.
Tell him he can talk to us.

Us.
God, she loved her mate. To him, power wasn’t a drug, it was a heavy responsibility. One he rarely entrusted to anyone else.

“The alpha of Twin Moon pack is listening.” She folded her arms across her chest. “Waiting.” She tipped her head slightly toward Ty. Lothar might be the alpha of his own pack, but he stood on Twin Moon territory now.

The boar shifter gave a little grunt and let his eyes rove over Ty in an inch-by-inch inspection. Ty showed another inch of ivory teeth, not backing down one bit, and Lothar leaned away, ever so slightly. His nose lifted as he sniffed, studied, and judged while Lana ground her teeth. No matter how hard Ty worked or battled, he’d never finish proving himself. That was an alpha’s fate, but she’d be damned if she’d let him carry the burden alone.

Lothar glanced at her, then at Ty, then at his companions. Judging by the scars across his snout and back, the javelina on the left was the grizzled veteran of one too many campaigns. The one on the right looked younger, less jaded. He kept his eyes down, and though he reminded Lana of a muscled bouncer at a city bar, his hooves scraped the ground nervously. Younger for sure, and less experienced. He was probably the son, shadowing his father and uncle until the day he was ready to take over his pack—if he was deemed worthy. A little like Ty before she’d met him, she supposed.

Men
, her wolf grumbled inside.

Lothar grunted something too low and garbled for her to make sense of, but it seemed they had reached some conclusion. All three javelinas dipped their chins once more, paying respect to the alpha of Twin Moon Pack.

Ty growled on, dissatisfied until they dipped deeper. He had one chance to make an impression on them, and one alone.

The boars obeyed, dipping their stubbled chins nearly to their chests.

Now that’s more like it
, Lana’s wolf growled.

When Lothar looked up, his stance had a little less edge to it, a little more respect. “In generations past, we were allied with your pack,” he started.

Ty nodded ever so slightly, acknowledging the statement. Knowing Ty, he’d be happy to extend the alliance…if the javelinas proved trustworthy.

“We have been away a great many years…” Lothar continued.

That much, Lana could tell. From the looks of it, they’d spent those years in animal form. Every different shifter species had its own balance of man and beast. Clearly, javelina shifters were far over on the
beast
end of the scale.

“We come to pay tribute to the great Hunter who has come to live among you,” Lothar finished. The other two nodded in eager agreement.

So that’s what they were after. Lana glanced at Ty and sensed the tension in his body ease. The javelinas meant no ill will, or so it seemed, because his voice made
Hunter
a formal title and pronounced it with reverence.

Lana knew exactly who Lothar meant, of course. It wasn’t the first time visitors had come through Twin Moon territory, wishing to pay tribute to that special member of the pack.

“When may we see him?” Lothar asked, leaning forward in anticipation, just as his companions did.

Lana hid her smile and decided not to blurt out that their legendary Hunter was a she, not a he. A woman who’d joined Twin Moon pack not long before Lana came along.

Ty stalked the edge of the porch like the balustrade of a castle that guarded his greatest treasure, drawing out the silence, letting them wait.

Do they always turn up out of the blue like this?
She sent the question quietly into Ty’s mind.

Usually.
Ty let out an internal sigh.
Make that always
.

Have you met them before?

He nodded.
They came through once when I was a kid.

She hid a grin. If Lothar remembered Ty as a little boy, no wonder he was taken aback by the alpha wolf facing him now.

Javelinas aren’t known for good manners but they’ve always allied with us when we needed them.
Ty said, and his next breath came out a sigh.
Crappy timing, though.

Which was exactly the problem. Rogues, vampires, and even humans posed a danger to the pack’s fragile peace, and the javelinas would make valuable allies. On the other hand, Ty had gone to a lot of trouble to get away from work for a couple of days. Business had barged in on the pleasure side of the equation once again.

Ty paced, his displeasure evident as Lothar held his ground and stared back with eyes that glowed red.

The standoff was a ritual: the equivalent of a couple of gorillas beating their chests, establishing a hierarchy. Lana had witnessed the same kind of encounter countless times with her father, alpha of the Berkshires wolfpack. The posturing could go on forever, and her patience was wearing thin.

“Look, we’ve just gotten here for a little break,” she said, trying to break the impasse. “And you look like you’ve been traveling hard. Why don’t you come back in three days when my mate is back on the clock?” She sighed, knowing that clock would run twenty-four hours a day if she let it.

She pushed the thought over to Ty.
Tina is right. You really need to give Cody more responsibility.

The javelinas continued to grumble, though, so she put her hands out in a placating gesture. “You look like you could use a break, too. Why don’t you head over to town for a few days?” She tilted her head west, where the closest settlement lay hidden behind the hills. “Enjoy yourselves.”

Clean up a little
, her inner wolf threw in, wrinkling its nose.
Find some clothes. Because I really, really don’t need to see any more naked javelina shifters this close.

The comment tempted Lana to dip her eyes for a second look, but it wasn’t all that hard to resist. Lots of women would have ogled that impressive sight, but she only had eyes for one man—the indomitable alpha wolf bristling just in front of her.

“What are we supposed to do for three days?” Lothar spread his muscled arms wide. His tone, though, lost some of its edge. Maybe he, too, pined for a little off-duty time.

She shrugged. “What have you been doing for the last three days?”