Caleb (27 page)

“Sweet
thing, if you don’t know that, for the brothers, everything’s changed, then you
don’t know your men.”

“Nothing’s
definite.”

“Sometimes
potential means as much as reality.”

Again
that subtle tension entered Caleb’s muscles as he asked, “But not for you?”

Derek
shrugged. “I don’t have your upbringing. To me, her pregnancy just makes her
more attractive.”

Caleb
set her aside. He came to his feet in a slow, deadly uncoiling of muscle and
intent. “That kind of honesty will likely get you killed.”

Derek’s
right eyebrow cocked up. “Or that kind of honesty could just make me a
werewolf.”

Caleb
held out his hand. She took it. He pulled her to her feet and to his side.
Derek continued to stare and the tension continued to build. Against her, Allie
felt the rumble begin in Caleb’s chest. Dead. The wolf was going to be dead.
Caleb’s talons pressed into her hand. Across the room, Derek sat and watched,
no equivalent tension in him, which could only mean one thing. He was testing
Caleb. For what? There were so many undercurrents here that she didn’t
understand, so many layers to the relationships to which she didn’t have a
clue. She didn’t look away, just kept her eyes locked on Derek’s. “Caleb?”

“What?”

“You’re
jealous for no reason. Derek would never betray a friend. He’s just not the
type.”

“And
you know this how?” It was Derek who asked, a barely detectable flicker in his
lids betraying his surprise. Surprise at her direct action or for knowing what
he was up to?

“The
same way Caleb does once he gets past his first emotional response. Instinct.”

“You
think Caleb’s emotional?” Jared asked, a level of amusement in his voice she
recognized from dealing with her brothers. He was working up to harassing
Caleb. She could put an end to it, but Caleb deserved harassing for a lot of
things and payback could be a bitch.

“He
has a tendency to lean that way.”

“The
hell I do.”

“I
think that growl just might count as exhibit A,” Slade offered.

“I
definitely think so,” Jace tossed in.

“Never
thought of it before, but he is prone to yelling.”

“Jared,
shut the hell up.”

Derek
caught her eye and gave a little nod, and then she understood. It wasn’t Caleb
he was testing, but her.

She
shook her head. Another layer to add to the growing pile. “You are all nuts.”

Caleb
loosened his grip, his hand reaching up toward the feathers bouncing on top of
her head. “Says the woman with feathers on her head.”

She
stepped quickly away, the sense of inadequacy coming back. “Feathers or not, we
need to talk.”

He
smiled, a humor-the-little-woman smile. The one that set her teeth on edge.

“I’m
going to have a hard time taking you seriously with those feathers waving
about.”

“Oh,
I don’t know,” Slade interjected. “She looks a bit like a hurdy-gurdy girl from
the good old days.”

“Hurdy-gurdy
girls?”

Caleb’s
expression went from amused to cautious in one blink. There could only be one
reason for that. Allie put her hand on her hip and sashayed a step forward.
“Did you like hurdy-gurdy girls, Caleb?”

“Like?
Hell.” Jace laughed. “He kept them in feathers.”

She
had a hard time picturing that. Allie simply could not see a man like Caleb
having to pay for sex. “Really?”

“Jace
is exaggerating.” The glare Caleb shot Jace said the opposite.

Jace
just shrugged. The grin tugging his lips lightening his expression, giving her
a clue to how he must have been before the whole conversion happened. Bold,
reckless, and a good time on two feet. “Big Red was always real happy to see
you.”

“The
way I remember it,” Jared cut in, crumbling the edge of a pastry, “Caleb was
always paying her to stay off his lap.”

“The
woman weighed about three hundred pounds.”

Allie
dodged Caleb’s hand again. The gleam in his eyes didn’t bode well for her
continued success. “You don’t like big women?”

“Don’t
go there,” Derek warned.

“Wasn’t
planning on it,” Caleb drawled. She scooted past him to the stove, secretly
disappointed when he didn’t lunge, her heart beating as if he had.

“Seriously,
if I get big as a barn, are you planning to push me off your lap?”

“If
he does, I’ll be there to catch you.”

She
gave Derek a sweet smile. “Thank you.” She turned back to Caleb. “You didn’t
answer my question.”

“Probably
because it’s not relevant.” He folded his arms across his chest, the biceps
bunching with the move. “Vampires don’t get fat.”

“You’re
always telling me what vampires can and cannot do, one thing being that
vampires don’t get pregnant.” She spread her hands wide, jumping back a step
when he straightened. “Yet, here I stand, potentially knocked-up, unwed,
undead, and with no visible means of support.” She shrugged. “Go figure.”

Hands
caught her from behind. Masculine laughter surrounded her shriek. She had a
glimpse of Jared’s face before he passed her to Slade who then passed her to
Jace who in turn passed her to Caleb, who accepted her weight with a very
superior smile and a soft kiss. “You’ve got lots of support.”

Allie
relaxed into Caleb’s hold, and glared at Jared. “That was so unfair.”

“What
Caleb wants, I tend to see he gets.”

“That
doesn’t make it right.”

“I’m
not overly concerned with right.”

She’d
remember that for future reference. She tilted her head back to look at Caleb.
He was looking at her, making no attempt to hide his smile. “And it’s very
uncool to gloat.”

“I’ll
remember that.”

He
might remember it, but she didn’t think he intended to do anything with it.
Just like she didn’t think he intended to put her down anytime soon. Which
wasn’t a good thing, as this close, she couldn’t avoid the temptation of his
scent.

Her
stomach clenched and the familiar pain resumed its slow inner grind. Her ears
hyperfocused on the slow beat of his heart, the whoosh of his blood through the
valves, the steady in and out of his breath. Humor fled with the intrusion of
reality. She was a vampire. She might be having a vampire child, and she was
completely dependent on this man. And she had no idea what that meant. She
needed answers. “Put me down.”

“What’s
wrong?”

“I
just remembered that I’m totally screwed.”

Caleb
shifted her weight, but he didn’t put her down. “You’re not screwed.”

She
shrugged, working her arm deeper against his side, seeking a bit of leverage.
“That’s a matter of opinion.”

Her elbow
anchored on his hip bone. With a push and a twist she threw herself out of his
arms. Unfortunately, without the grace she would have preferred. She landed in
a heap at his feet.

As
one, the men swore, Caleb’s “Son of a bitch” louder than the rest, or maybe
just more audible to her ears. She’d noticed over the last week that her senses
seemed to focus in on him. He was beside her in an instant, fingers pressing
along her hips as he searched for breaks. “That was a damn stupid thing to do.”

She
waved his hand aside. “I’m fine. And it’s not as stupid as tossing me about
like a sack of grain.”

He
tipped her chin up and looked her in the eye. “The difference is I’d never drop
you.”

No he
wouldn’t. She touched his wrist, her finger on his pulse. “I know.”

His
boot scuffed the floor as he shifted position. “Do you hurt anywhere?”

She
couldn’t look away from his eyes. There was something different about the way
he was watching her. “My pride’s smarting.”

“Want
me to kiss it and make it better?”

“At
the risk of ruining my chances with you, I’m going to agree with the Johnsons
on this.” Derek stood apart from the brothers. Just one step back, but it was
an important foot. It marked him as an outsider. “That was dumb.”

The
hunger writhed within, diminishing her retort to a squeaky gasp. This time
Caleb didn’t bother with a hand. He grabbed her upper arm and hoisted her up.
She twisted her arm free as soon as she found her feet. Her immediate stumble
was a bit of a setback in her capable-woman moment, but she caught herself
without any further need for assistance. Thank goodness. She might be a klutz,
but she didn’t want to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt with five hunky men
in the room. She was dead, but not that dead. “We need to stop fighting among
ourselves.”

Caleb
folded his arms across his broad chest while he watched her like a hawk. “I
wasn’t aware we were.”

She
tried to cock an eyebrow at him like he did to her, but it didn’t work. From
the quirk of his lips, about all she’d accomplished was to contort her face
into an amusing caricature. So much for that. She waved her hand, the gesture
encompassing all the men in the room. “Everyone here is family, including
Derek, and I think we need to keep that knowledge above the weird emotional
stuff going on.”

Caleb
didn’t immediately agree. Did he disagree with her statement or was his
objection routed in her inclusion of Derek into the Johnson family circle? She
folded her arms across her chest. “Whether it goes with your code or not,
Caleb, Derek and all the weres that are here are family. You treat them like
family. They treat you like family, so you might as well call them family.”

Still
no response. “I mean it, Caleb.”

Caleb
cocked up his hand, stopping her argument. “I’m not arguing with you.”

“You’re
not agreeing either.”

“Probably
because the objections to Derek being family aren’t mine.”

Across
the room, a board squeaked, the only indication Derek had moved. Allie couldn’t
believe it. But the answer was there on his face. “You’re the one with issues?”

“Our
friendship with the Johnsons has already put our pack on the fringe of
ostracism. An allegiance would not be accepted.”

“By
whom?”

“Other
weres.”

“You
socialize with other werewolves?”

“Yes.”

“As
in there’s a hierarchy of werewolves, a network beyond the Circle J?”

“Of
course.”

A
flicker of movement in her peripheral vision warned her. “Don’t you dare tell
him to shut up, Caleb.”

He
palmed her buttocks. The fingers lingered way past casual. “You’re getting too
big for your britches.”

“Impossible.
You just told me I couldn’t get fat.”

The
fingers pressed. “Damn convenient time you picked to get literal.”

She
flashed him a smile, liking the way his eyes smiled back with that certain
difference she couldn’t quite place. “Just trying to follow the rules you set
out.”

The
pressure grew and she took a step closer. Closer to that smile. Closer to that
certain intriguing something.

“I’m
thinking any sign of cooperation on your part is a reason for a man to start
checking for ambush.”

His
right hand joined his left.

“Oh,
puh-lease.” She rubbed her stomach, pressing her knuckles against the spasms.
“So if the werewolves have a hierarchy, do the vampires?”

Slade’s
“No” was way too quick. The way a man bent on hiding something would answer.
She stared at Caleb, waiting. He cocked his eyebrow. She pressed harder on her
stomach, suppressing the pain through sheer force of will.

“In a
minute I’m going to start puking, and if you don’t tell me what’s going on,
you’re going to be the first to take the brunt of it.”

His
second eyebrow joined the first. His hand covered hers. “I’ve been puked on by
the best. As threats go, you’re going to have to do better.”

As
always, under his touch, the pain grew more manageable. “Is that a challenge?”

He
moved her hand aside, sliding his beneath. She almost groaned with relief from
the heat that radiated inward.

“Merely
a statement of fact.” She squeezed Caleb’s fingers, holding on as she unleashed
the fears eating her alive.

Fingers.

“I
don’t really have any threats.”

“Then
what do you have?” Slade asked, his eyes narrowing.

“A
lot of fears and a need for answers. A lot of them.”

“What’s
your main concern?” Derek asked.

“That
if you don’t make peace with the D’Nallys, form strong alliances with the others
around you, that the something that’s out there, whatever it is that controls
the voices that invade my mind, is going to get in here. Get to my child.” She
took a breath. “That terrifies me.”

Caleb
swore. His arm around her tightened. She hated putting pressure on him, but at
the same time, it couldn’t be helped. This couldn’t continue.