Silver Wolf Clan (10 page)

Stupid Alexis. She’d accomplished exactly what she’d come to do. She’d hurt his family. “Morgan, she isn’t my old girlfriend. I can’t stand her. I told you that when you first met me. Alexis is a conniving she-wolf bent on getting under my skin, and she’ll accomplish that by saying things to hurt you. She knows it’ll hurt me, too.”

“Is what she said true? Are you ashamed of us, Grey?” she asked, a tremor in her voice. “Is that why you won’t let us meet the pack?”

Slow fury burned through him and the blood pounded in his ears. How could she even think such a thing? How could she listen to a word Alexis said? He was so proud of them. Morgan had seen his face when he walked down the street with them, how proud he was when women would stop him and tell him how beautiful his family was. The only things going right in his life were her and Lana. He was probably happier than he’d ever been in his entire existence, and he was a freaking squirrel-eating werewolf!

He set Lana down just as his legs gave out. The floor was hard and unforgiving against his body.
Oh no. No, no, no. Please, not here!

The tingling reached his arms. Black fur appeared and disappeared, and appeared again as he fought the Change. “Morgan, get the baby out of here. Please.” He groaned. Fighting it hurt so badly.

She put Lana on the bed and rushed for him. The force of her body weight slamming into him made him grunt. Her trail of kisses burned like hellfire against his elongating face.

“Grey, not here, babe. Listen to me. Everything’s okay. We’ll talk about all of this and work it out. I’m not going anywhere. Look at me.”

He turned his head, but the bones in his neck were already snapping and reshaping. Tears of agony streamed from the corners of his eyes and sweat broke across his brow as he tried to stop the Change. He couldn’t even speak to warn of the danger she was in. He looked into her eyes, pleading.

She bent closer and whispered in his ear, “Grey. Grey, I love you. Come back to me.”

Eyes closed, he fought like he’d never fought the Change before. Searing pain ripped through him as he tried to imagine his stretched and broken pieces going back together again. Finally, finally his growling turned into the groans of a man, half delirious with pain.

Morgan’s warmth left him for a moment, but she came back with a blanket and lay close beside him, trying not to touch oversensitive skin. Finally able to move again, he kissed her lightly on the forehead and dragged his creaking body to the bed, where Lana sat, frozen. She should never have witnessed the breaking of someone she cared about. She was just a child, and already she’d witnessed the death of her mother at the claws of a creature like him. He hadn’t meant for her to ever meet Wolf.

He smiled apologetically. “I’m all right. Everything’s going to be okay.”

The smell of burnt milk hit his nose. Morgan rushed into the kitchen and yanked the pot from the red coils on the stove. No hot chocolate tonight.

“Morgan,” he croaked out in a raspy voice. “Do you want to come with me to meet the Dallas pack?”

She nodded slowly.

“I was never ashamed of you. I just…” His throat was so raw his voice had faded to nothing at the end.

“Wanted to protect us?” she finished for him, and he nodded. “Are we going tonight?”

He nodded again. “I have to Change soon and it’s best if I do it near the woods. You can go with me.”

He changed from of his sweat soaked clothes to clean ones befitting a dinner at Dean’s. At least he hadn’t transitioned enough to rip them this time.

Wrapping paper crinkling came to him, and Lana said, “Look, Morgan, a bunny!”

Horror filled his chest. He raced over and picked up Alexis’s present before Lana fully comprehended the puddle of blood pooling beneath the small creature. Morgan peeked into the unwrapped box and gasped, a small, shocked sound. She picked up the card taped to the wrapping paper and ripped it open. “
Grey
,” she read aloud, “
here is a gift from me that she’ll never be able to give you. Alexis.
What does this mean?” she asked loudly. “What does it mean?”

Dammit, could anything else go wrong? “Well,” he said with an explosive sigh. “She’s giving me prey she caught while she was a wolf. She convinced herself as a wolf to save it for me. It’s a token. A declaration of intent. She wants me to be her mate.” Lying was useless. Morgan would figure things out eventually.

“And the letter—she’s saying I can’t give this kind of gift to you. Why?” she asked.

Why couldn’t he catch a freaking break? He was exhausted, sore, and nervous about the pack meeting, and he didn’t want to have this conversation now. Or ever, really. “Because you’re human, and Alexis is saying you wouldn’t understand that giving me this kind of gift would be meaningful. She is pointing out a human-wolf relationship can never be the same as a wolf’s relationship with another wolf.
She
is saying that, let’s make this clear.
I’m
not.”

“Hmm,” Morgan said quietly as she returned to putting Lana’s mittens on. “So if I want you as my mate, I need to figure out how to kill bunnies for you?” She’d spoken with a smile in her voice.

She seemed serious enough, and it loosened something inside. He pulled out his phone and called Dean.

“Hey,” the alpha answered.

“I need to set up a pack meeting. It’s time everyone met Morgan.” His voice sounded strained, even to him.

“Okay,” Dean drawled. “I agree its past time, but you don’t sound too happy about it. Is everything all right?”

“Alexis paid us a visit.”

Silence, then, “Oh. I’ll put out the call if you want to come on over.”

“Plan to stay for dinner,” Rachel sang in the background.

Morgan was already in deeper than she knew.

* * * *

Morgan wiped condensation from the window of the truck with her coat sleeve and squinted into the night. The alpha’s house was not the dark wolf den she’d expected. In fact, quite the opposite. It reminded her of a blue dollhouse her absentee father had built for another missed birthday when she’d been a child. That dollhouse had given her years of play and was still her favorite memory of him. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

Grey looked like death warmed over. He put the truck in park and leaned back with an exhausted sigh.

“You going to live?” she said low, trying not to wake Lana, who slept soundly in her car seat.

In the dim light, he looked as pale as a ghost. Even those gold flecked eyes that made him look so dangerous, so beautiful, were dimmer. His muscles spasmed and he slouched weakly into the cushion of the driver’s seat.

He reached over and squeezed her hand. Weak though he may be, his grip was steady and warm. She marveled at his large hand, compared to hers. How lucky that she was the human and he, the beast. Hands like his were made to protect hands like hers.

“I’ll live. Just need to Change, is all.”

Maybe it wasn’t the time, but she needed to know before she paraded Lana in front of a pack of werewolves. “The wolves won’t hurt her, will they?”

His eyes shone gold and steady, almost glowing in the darkness of the night. “I’d never let anyone hurt you or Lana. But I don’t think we have to worry about them. Female werewolves are sterile. Babies in a pack don’t exist, but that doesn’t mean the instinct to mother isn’t there. I’ve seen how Rachel treats Marissa. Children are revered.”

He brushed the pad of his thumb across her cheek. She repressed a shiver at his touch. Did he even know his effect on her? She couldn’t even look at him without wanting him.

“You don’t have to worry about Lana.” He hesitated. “You, on the other hand, if Alexis engages you—”

She snorted. “I can handle angry Barbie werewolf.”

The corner of his mouth turned up in a crooked smile. “I know you can. You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” she murmured, opening the car door. She waited as Grey pulled Lana from the car seat, clenched her hands against the rising flutters of nervousness, then climbed the porch stairs.

Morgan knocked softly on the door. She didn’t worry about them not hearing it. Grey had a downright disturbing auditory range. He stood straighter beside her and cuddled Lana, still sleeping, even closer against his shoulder. The sight of her in his arms brought a clenching, warm sensation to Morgan’s stomach. Though Lana wasn’t hers biologically, she and the little girl were a package deal, and Grey had accepted that immediately. To take on an instant family took a special breed of man.

His eyes blazed as the door lock clicked. She hadn’t seen blue in them in over an hour. Wolf was ready.

Dean answered the door with a pretty woman clad in a casual navy dress right behind him. Morgan waved shyly as Grey introduced them, and tried not to laugh at the open mouthed stares they gave to him and Lana. Maybe he hadn’t told them about the little girl.

Grey grabbed her hand and pulled her inside behind him. The others were watching a game on the television that served as the centerpiece in the sprawling living room, but turned it off and came to meet them. The calm outside was a stark contrast to the noise level in the house. After the pack members introduced themselves, it wasn’t thirty seconds later when Brent, a pleasant looking man with medium chestnut hair swept stylishly to the side, said, “Dean made us take the
No Humans Allowed
sign off the front stoop for the night.”

“Brent,” Rachel admonished.

Morgan snickered. “Well, you can put it right back up when we leave. I don’t want to mess with your den decor. Speaking of, this place is beautiful, Rachel. Did you hire a decorator?”

“She did it all,” Dean said proudly.

“Well,” Rachel conceded, “I found pictures in magazines I liked and made each room look similar, so I didn’t do it all.”

“I decorated my own house too,” Brandon chimed in.

“Yeah, but the pizza boxes and beer bottles make it less homey,” Logan said.

“Or,” Brandon countered, “they give it the feel I was going for.”

“College dorm chic?”

“Shut it, my place is awesome.” He swung his gaze back to Morgan. “It’s the perfect man cave.”

“Hey, maybe Dean could let you borrow his sign and you can mark out
Humans
and put
Women
,” Brent said, and as Brandon sent him a fake jab, ducked out of the way.

A grin cracked Morgan’s face at their antics and familiarity with each other. Studying the group, not a one looked related, but sometimes family was about more than blood.

Grey had stayed beside her, but the group had subtly shifted until they stood in front of only her. It was as if Grey made them uncomfortable, though they didn’t give an impression of being scared. It seemed to be the natural way of things, almost as if he repelled the other wolves with something beyond her weaker senses. She slid him a glance, but he stood stoic and relaxed, just as he had minutes before, Lana still cradled against him.

He didn’t look all that scary. Sure, he’d adopted a stronger stance though he probably felt like hell, but was quiet and subdued enough. His unnerving eyes were the only thing she could think of which would keep them at bay. The wolves clapped each other on the backs at jokes, and squeezed each other’s shoulders. They brushed each other’s hips with soft caresses as they scooted by, but no one touched Grey. Confusing, but maybe it was because he wasn’t a real member of the pack.

Alexis didn’t join the introductions, choosing instead to sit on the couch with her arms crossed. Fine with Morgan. She didn’t really want to play nice with her anyway.

Though the pack members were affectionate with each other, no one had offered to shake her hand.

“It’s not the way we normally do things,” Jason explained. “People we meet here usually get hugs, but the big bad wolf over there might rip our heads off if we get too close.”

“Big bad wolf?” What a curious nickname. Weren’t they all big bad wolves?

“She smells different,” Logan said from behind, testing the air around her. “Do you have a dog or something?”

“Are you saying I smell like a dog?” she asked with a grin.

“No, no,” he backpedaled. “You smell different from other people.”

“Dumbass,” Alexis offered from the living room. “She hangs out with a werewolf all day. She probably smells like one.”

Grey squinted thoughtfully at Logan but didn’t say anything. Rachel rubbed Lana’s back gently as the girl slept away in his arms.

“Would you like to hold her?” Morgan offered.

Rachel’s eyes grew wide and hopeful. “Yeah?” She took Lana from Grey and headed for the living room. Rocking gently, she paced with Lana in front of the warm fireplace.

Grey’s gaze rarely left Morgan as she interacted with the pack, and when he watched her like that, with pride and hunger, she found it increasingly difficult to look away.

“Grey tells us you’re a graphic designer,” Dean said.

“Yep, I get to run a small business from home. I have a room full of printers and the equipment I need to fill orders, and mail them directly to the buyers with no middleman to pay. It’s worked out well, so far. What do you guys do for work?”

“I’m a stripper,” Logan offered.

Wade shot a look heavenward as if he prayed for patience.

Brandon groaned. “If you were a stripper, you’d be making zero dollars.”

“What? I could totally make a living dancing for dollars. Watch this.” He flicked his ankle to the side and grabbed his crotch, thrusted his pelvis a few times, and did a terrible moonwalk across the carpet.

“Gaah,” Brent gusted. “Just keep going until you disappear into the kitchen. We’ll tell you when to come back out.”

“That was awesome,” Logan said.

“That,” Brent replied, “was the least awesome stripper move I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“I’d give you a dollar,” Morgan offered. “But only one.”

“And it would be in nickels and pennies.” That from Jason.

“Haters,” Logan grumbled through the sounds of their laughter.

As conversation became familiar and easy, Grey seemed to relax beside her. Twice, she heard him chuckle, and oh, she breathed for that deep, humming sound of his happiness.

The youngest wolf, Marissa, sat on the stairs, huddled into herself, as far away from Grey as possible. The ceiling lights reflected gold off her long, curly tresses. She had a slight frame. A smattering of freckles graced fair cheeks and her eyes were vivid pale green. She slunk over to stand beside Rachel as Lana woke and rubbed her eyes sleepily.