PackRescue (4 page)

The woman growled subtly and the sound was more subharmonic
than substance. It was obvious it was the wolf inside Fina who answered, “My
name is Fina Whitesage. That’s Ryan Upton. He’s the son of my father’s Beta…or
was before his father was…was killed.” Fina swallowed hard.

She looked like a big part of her wanted to hold the words
back and her throat convulsed like it was stretched and achy with the effort.
But her wolf couldn’t run forever. They had to find a pack willing to take them
in. The small and the young didn’t survive on their own. There were too many
rogues out there just waiting to pick them off.

“We’re from Eastfield, Tennessee.”

Cutler’s head snapped back. “
Eastfield?
” he blurted
out, loud enough for everyone in the café to hear. The place fell silent.
Shock, even horror crossed the face of every adult. They looked to Cutler and
when he didn’t respond to them, their expressions dimmed and they looked away
nervously. They glanced at Fina then back at Ryan, still playing and unaware of
the change in the mood of the place. Looked at them with pity and disbelief
then looked away again.

“What do you know?” Fina asked Cutler in a small voice.

He exhaled slowly. “Only word of mouth. An entire pack in
Eastfield, Tennessee was wiped out by rogue wolves. Their pack lands taken
over. They didn’t leave anyone alive, not even the breeding females,” he added
with disgust then touched Fina’s arm again. His wolf voiced its approval of the
contact. “I’m guessing word of mouth got some of the details wrong.”

Fina smiled wryly and the humor shaping her mouth surprised
Cutler.

“I was away that day. I’m going back to college in the fall,”
she stated calmly even though she had to understand the impossibility of going
back to the life she’d planned. “Housing is tight so if you want an apartment,
you’ve got to pick the rent up in the spring when the previous students move
out. That’s where I was…getting the paperwork and…and measuring for curtains,”
she added with a dull laugh.

Cutler shifted uneasily in his chair and let go of her arm
when she leaned away from him. He hated the pain in this woman’s voice…hated
any pain she might feel and the ferocity of his sense of possession. His
protectiveness for a wandering stranger startled him.

Fina threw her napkin on the table and laid her forehead in
her palms. “I was so stupid, preoccupied with a dozen stupid things that didn’t
mean a damn thing.” She sighed, trembled and stared up at the ceiling. “It was
nighttime when I got home. I just walked in like I didn’t have a care in the
world and they were there.”

“Who?”

“The rogues.” Fina trembled again. “I could smell the blood…”
Her voice trailed off and when Cutler laid his hand back on her forearm, this
time, her trembling stopped.

“Excuse me, miss, but my husband and I were wondering…”

Trudy, a member of Cutler’s pack and the mother of the boy
playing with Ryan, stood beside their table. She glanced back at her husband.

“We’d be real pleased if you’d consider staying with us.
Maybe for a little while,” she added with that warm, open smile Cutler had
almost fallen in love with back when they were in grade school together. They’d
played with each other so much as kids it felt like they were brother and
sister and Trudy had never held back on speaking her mind around her Alpha
because of it. “Motels are fun for a while but there’s nothing like a home. We’ve
got three little ones of our own,” added the tall, harried-looking woman,
glancing back at her mate with open affection. “Room might be a little tight
but we’d be thrilled to have you stay…for as long as you like,” she added,
lifting a dark brow in Cutler’s direction and heading back to her table.

Cutler hadn’t offered the stray wolves sanctuary—not yet
anyway. Trudy obviously had an opinion on the matter. Cutler shot her a look
then turned his attention back to Fina. He ran his thumb over her forearm,
enthralled by the smoothness of her skin and the delicacy of the muscles
beneath.

“What happened then?”

She stiffened beneath his hand. The scent of numbing fear
rolled out of her pores and coated the insides of his nostrils like oil.

“I walked out early the next morning. They must have thought
I’d…that I’d bond with them because they’d killed everyone else. Bonded females
stay put,” she added unnecessarily.

Cutler smelled the missing pieces in her story. Some pretty
nasty scenarios came to him but he decided to respect her silence on the
matter. For now.

“I just got in my car and drove. I spotted Ryan sitting in
front of his school. He says his father hid him up in a tree house. Ryan spent
the night there then when nobody came to get him he just headed to school on
his own when the sun came up.” Fina laughed hollowly and brushed tears out of
her eyes. “Brave kid, huh?”

“He’s not the only one.”

Cutler leaned back from her and let his fingers slip away
from her arm when Dorothea Pike stepped up to the table. She poured coffee in
their cups without asking.

“It’s Fina, right?” Dorothea asked with a brightness that
almost masked the concern in her eyes. “My husband and I have a house not far
from here. Just a small spread with a couple head of cattle. Does your little
one like to ride horses? Reason I’m asking is we’ve got space now that our own
kids have grown up. I know he’d be tickled to have a young’un back around the
place. Maybe teach him how to feed chickens… Ours loved helping out when they
were little,” Dorothea added with an infectious grin. “If you’d consider
staying, we’d be thrilled to have you. Sheriff,” she added with a touch of
frostiness, slapping the check down on the table in front of him before she
stepped away to see to her other customers.

Cutler rubbed his temples. “Okay. Here’s what we’re going to
do.” Cutler Powell was used to giving orders and having his pack obey them, not
the other way around. This wasn’t a democracy. Their willful and not-so-subtle
hints that he take in these strays, not giving him a chance to do it on his own
when he’d had every intention of doing that about two seconds after he’d
smelled Fina, smacked of dissention. He glared at every eye in the place that
dared meet his and kept glaring until they looked away. “You and Ryan will stay
at my place. I’ve got more than enough room.”

“We can’t—”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass about what you think you can do,
woman,” he snarled. “Your pack’s gone and I wish to god I could change that for
you but I can’t. You’re a female and he’s a child. You need a pack to take you
in. I’m offering mine.” He picked up his hat, the check and Ryan’s backpack. “Stay
for a week or stay forever, your choice.” Cutler stood, looked at the check and
slapped a few bills on the table. “If we’re not a good fit, move on. I can tell
you where to find two other packs less than a day’s drive from here. Until
then, you’re one of us,” he added loudly enough for everyone in the café to
hear. He touched Fina’s elbow and held it with remarkable gentleness,
considering, until she stood up.

Cutler ignored the looks of approval he got from the members
of his pack when he and Fina went back to the play area to collect Ryan. What
he couldn’t ignore was his wolf’s demanding certainty that this woman was his.

Despite his offer to direct her to another pack, Fina
Whitesage wouldn’t be going anywhere. Not while he was alive to say anything
about it.

“What do you think, Ryan?” Fina asked as they followed the
sheriff’s marked Expedition down a long, unpaved driveway dotted with trees.

“About?” Ryan replied with a shrug. His fingers were moving
over his game with their usual intensity.

“About Sheriff Powell.” The driveway opened up in front of a
low, rambling ranch house clad in cedar. A stand of pine trees stood on the
north side and the lawn in front was tidy and separated from the drive by a
neat picket fence. There was a large red barn maybe a thousand feet behind the
house. A herd of black cows grazed in a fenced paddock to the south.

“He’s scary,” Ryan answered evenly then his fingers paused
on the controls. “Maybe not
that
scary,” he added thoughtfully and
looked around. When he spotted the cattle he stared at them raptly.

Fina hadn’t known Ryan liked animals.

“He’s bossy,” Fina added.

“So was your dad.”

Ryan’s words struck Fina hard. He’d referred to her father
in the past tense. He’d never asked and she’d never said but it was obvious
that despite their denial and running, Ryan knew his Alpha and his pack were
dead.

Fina pulled up behind Cutler’s marked SUV and turned off her
ignition. As soon as she did, Ryan jumped out and ran over to the fence
separating the yard from the cattle. Fina stared after him in astonishment. It
was the first time either of them had spoken about their pack in two weeks. She
realized they’d been living like they’d been dropped out of the sky—with no
past or future and no ties to anyone or anything. Ryan had never asked where
his parents were or where Fina was taking him. The two of them had shut
themselves into their private and perverse little worlds—him with his
electronic games and her with her online banking transactions.

She barely reacted when her door opened.

“You okay?” Cutler looked down at the beautiful little woman
he was going to make his mate. The sure realization of that fact staggered him
but he held himself upright by hanging onto the roof of her sporty little SUV
and forcing a smile.

Fina looked up at him. As frightened as she was—for her and
Ryan—he was pretty sure she’d felt better sharing her story with someone.
Anyone. Despite that, her smile looked forced.

“Hmm? Oh. Yes, I’m okay,” Fina replied absently and undid
her seatbelt. She took his hand when he offered it. She stepped out of her
vehicle but Cutler didn’t step back. Instead he laid his hands on her waist and
stood so close their toes touched. The bulky ends of his steel-toed boots
pressed against the tips of her dainty, strappy little flat sandals.

“You’re part of my pack now, Fina,” he said gently. His eyes
moved over her face, liking everything he saw. “This is your home. Yours and
Ryan’s. You’ll always be safe here.”

Fina trembled.

Cutler’s brow furrowed when she seemed to shrink in size. He
smelled her fear again. He hated it, wanted to tell her she was being foolish
and irrational but in his work he’d seen the aftereffects of trauma too many
times to be that callous. Offering Fina what he hoped was a reassuring smile,
Cutler stepped away, took her keys from her and opened up the back of her
vehicle to retrieve the luggage.

He whistled loudly in the direction of the paddock. “Hey…Ryan!
Give me a hand with this stuff, buddy.”

Ryan stretched his arm through the fence, offered up the
grass he was holding to an interested heifer then ran back to them.

As he unloaded the vehicle, Cutler looked at Fina. She had
her back to him, scanning the house with its wide, inviting porch and big
windows. She was wearing a pretty little outfit—just a sleeveless blouse and a
pair of modest shorts that ended above her knees. But her ass had that very
fine, sculpted look to it and her legs were long for a woman who stood maybe
four inches above five feet.

Again his wolf reared its head and looked over its mate with
raw desire. It said two words this time.

Mine. Wait.

Cutler and his wolf were in complete agreement on the first.
It was the second directive that threw him. His wolf was more primitive than he
was. It was an instinctual creature and powerful enough to never have to deny
its desires. It was a hallmark of the privilege and responsibility of an Alpha.
So why when this sexy little waif was standing only a few feet away from him
and smelling like a wet dream come true was his wolf willing to wait to claim
her? Willing? Hell the thing was telling
him
to wait. It had always been
the other way around, mostly because single, pretty women didn’t much care for
being thrown onto the hoods of their cars and fucked like animals. Even if they
did want to get out of a speeding ticket.

Shaking his head, Cutler led Fina and Ryan up to the house.
He noticed the look she gave the empty urn-shaped iron planters flanking the
door. He kept forgetting to pick up flowers to replace the ones that had died
off in the fall. Cutler opened the wide front door and stepped aside.

“Oh it’s lov—” Whatever compliment Fina was about to pay the
broad entryway that ran straight through to the back porch died in her throat
when she got her first whiff of the interior. “There’s another wolf here,” she
whispered with dark fear. Ryan had already dropped his pack and was trying to
climb up her back, clutching at her for protection. She grabbed onto his leg
and hoisted him up, obviously keeping him close so she could run if she had to.

“Damn, I forgot to tell you. My—”

“Brother?” Fina whispered harshly after she’d inhaled again.
This time he watched her look past the specter of an unknown, prime male and
realize the man was a member of Cutler’s pack and a blood relative. She exhaled
shakily but she didn’t tell Ryan to climb down.

“Yes.” Cutler was disturbed by his woman’s fear but not
surprised. He knew she’d need time to get over whatever had happened to her and
him ordering her to wasn’t going to help matters. “
Nath,
” he called out
loudly, directing his voice toward the back of the house. “Come out here, will
ya? We’ve got guests.”

They could feel the weight of the second man’s steps through
the wide-planked pine floor before they saw him.

“Who—” Nathaniel Powell stood stock-still in the hallway of
his home. All six-foot-two of him straightened up suddenly as he caught a whiff
of the most exciting female he’d ever come across. Exciting? He was surprised
he wasn’t running toward the smell, salivating and whipping it out. Lust dug
into his belly hard and he was glad he was wearing underwear beneath his jeans
or he’d have busted out the zipper.

His mouth dropped when he got his first look at her, small
and scared, with a scrap of a child clinging to her back, waves of fear pumping
out of her little body like sweat off a mill worker’s ass. Her heart-shaped,
perfect little face was framed by a luxuriant fall of reddish brown, wavy hair.
She had a small waist, slender hips and breasts that were a little too big for
her frame…although he’d always thought they
couldn’t
be too big. His
wolf recognized her as its perfect mate but it wasn’t lust that moved its feet,
it was the smell of her fear.

It propelled him forward and, without a word, Nath obeyed
his wolf’s instinct. He laid his forehead on the woman’s and let it rest there,
breathing her in and letting her breathe him in. He suppressed his inner
fuck-urge and projected as much calmness as he could. The child clinging to her
whimpered at his closeness. Nath lifted his head then ran his jaw slowly and
gently across the child’s temple. After a few seconds the child whined—a small,
plaintive sound—then tipped his head so he could nuzzle the side of Nath’s face
before pulling back.

One corner of Nath’s wide, sensual mouth quirked up. “So I
guess this means you’ll be staying for dinner.” Deliberately not paying
attention to his big brother’s impressive, angry growl, Nath reached for the
woman—and was surprised when she backed away from him. Again his wolf invaded
his consciousness, instinctively chasing after anything that ran from it—especially
when that anything was going to be the mother of his children. This time Nath
didn’t listen to it. Instead he dropped his hands and took a step back,
respecting her need for space. He looked up when his big brother snarled
ominously.

“This is Nath Powell, my kid brother. He’s my Beta. Feel
free to ignore him,” Cutler added curtly and, with his hand firmly planted in
the small of the woman’s back, led her down the hallway toward the bedrooms.

“Just what the fuck are you trying to do?” Cutler stormed
into the office where Nath was pretending to work. Cutler knew better. His baby
brother was lurking, waiting for Fina to emerge after unpacking.

“Hey, back down, Sheriff,” Nath shot back testily. “I don’t
know how you managed to poach her but I gotta say thank you for finding me my
mate.”

“
Your
mate?” Cutler roared. He slammed the door shut
behind him and advanced on his brother. “The woman’s already been claimed.
Little
brother,” he added with a sneer.

“Who— Oh.” Nathaniel’s ruddy, sun-darkened cheeks puffed
out, momentarily obliterating his dimples. “I guess that complicates things.”

“No shit.”

The two brothers fell silent, glaring at each other and
considering the ramifications of their mutual attraction to their newest pack
member.

“So how come you haven’t marked her?” Nath asked suddenly.
As Alpha, his brother had the right to mate with any female in their pack. He
nodded in the direction of the door. “She’s out there and you’re in here. I don’t
see you rushing out to slobber all over her.”

“Nice mental picture.”

“Nice avoidance technique. They teach you that one in the
military or is it a police academy special?”

Cutler snarled, revealing the tips of his upper canines.
Nath had grown up watching his big, bad brother pitch conniption fits like
this. Unless Cutler backed it up with a left hook, Nath wasn’t going to sweat
it. His brow did go up however when Cutler dug his fingers into his short hair,
walked around him and flopped down in the chair behind the desk they shared.

“I’ve never met anyone like her and she confuses the hell
out of me,” Cutler admitted grudgingly. He rubbed his temples. “I saw her and
it was like being kissed by the bumper of a Mack truck. I was just spinning
around up there and didn’t give a damn if I ever touched the ground again.” He
waved his index finger in the air in a vague circle. “One damn sniff of her and
I knew…I just knew she was my mate. Didn’t know her name. Didn’t know the first
thing about her. You know she tackled Dorothea Pike when she got between her
and the kid down at the café?”

“No way.”

“Most definitely way,” Cutler replied with a grin and a nod.
“Well, shoved her is more like it. Point is, instead of arresting her ass or
handing her over for trial as a rogue, all I could think about was claiming
her. Hell, my wolf was all over that one like wet on water.”

“I’ll bet,” Nath snorted.

“Only he…”

“He what?”

“Well
you
know how the damn things think. Everything
goes into one of three categories—you either eat it, pee on it or fuck it.”

“Let me guess which door yours picked.”

“Yeah but it wasn’t that,” Cutler insisted hotly. He dropped
his hands onto the wood desk. “Bastard took one good whiff of Fina and said two
things. The first one was
mine
.”

Nath cocked a dark brow at his brother that clearly said
I
told you so
.

“The second one was
wait
.”

“Wait?”

“Is there a fucking echo in here? Yes, Nath. The damn thing
said wait. It wants her so bad I’m sporting a woody that could bat one out of
the park. But it also knows there’s something about her that needs me to wait
before I claim her.”

“You know what it is?”

“No. Her scent confuses the hell out of me. It’s…contradictory.”

“Well, what
do
you know?” Nath demanded irritably.

“I know she and that boy are the only survivors of the pack
from Eastfield, Tennessee.”

Nathaniel Powell’s jaw dropped slowly. He closed it just as
slowly, nodded, and followed his brother when Cutler stood up and left the
office.

“You two getting settled in all right?” For the second time
that day Cutler dredged up his friendly-guy smile as he knocked on the open
door of the bedroom he’d assigned to Ryan.

Fina lifted a final two pairs of socks out of Ryan’s
suitcase and slid them into the room’s chest of drawers. “We’re good,” she
replied brightly. She glanced back at Ryan, who was sitting on the bare mattress
with his legs crossed, playing with one of his electronic games. “Ryan can see
the cows from his window. Can’t you, Ryan?”

“Huh? Oh yeah.” Ryan jumped off the bed and crossed over to
the window. It looked like he was making sure the cattle were still there. “They
yours, Cutler?”

“It’s Sheriff Powell, Ryan,” Fina corrected him gently. She
grabbed the hem of his striped t-shirt and tucked it back into his shorts.

“Cutler will do fine,” he said with a grin and his grin only
dimmed a little when Nath stepped around him and walked into the room. His
brother was carrying an armful of bed linens.

“Let’s get you squared away, big guy,” Nathaniel said with
that easy, natural charm Cutler had always envied. “Maybe we’ll take a trip out
to the barn after. Check out the rabbits and shit…” His vivid blue eyes dimmed
when Fina shot him a look.

“Um, rabbits and other animals,” Nath corrected himself
quickly. He was saved from further embarrassment when the police radio hanging
from Cutler’s belt started squawking.

“What?” Cutler barked harshly into the radio as he stepped
out into the hallway.