Summit of the Wolf (12 page)

Marcus gestured for Morgan to sit back down. Grey put his arm around her shoulders and rubbed the outline of her brand absently. Wolf wanted to hoist her over his shoulder and run from the pain, but this had to be done. He kissed her hand softly. His brave little wolf.

“From the research we have gathered,” Marcus said, “and I’m sure many have been able to find texts, as well, so please add your knowledge if I leave anything out, the Silver Wolves were an ancient and thriving clan up until the early eighteenth century. They had outgrown their sanctuary in France and started branching out to other packs. Some of the females were able to bear full-blooded werewolf offspring, making them the only breeding werewolves in our known history. They were slaughtered by humans, and any who fled were hunted by vampires to rid our race of breeders. They were all white, even the males, and the females had light blue or purple eyes to signify they were born of this Silver Wolf Clan. They were thought to be completely extinct until Morgan was Turned.”

“So the important question is, can she have children?” One of the alphas mates asked.

“Of course, she can,” one of the men said. “Can’t you smell her? I haven’t ever smelled another female like her. She’s ripe.”

Wolf thought of nine ways to make him die.

“We can’t be sure until she does or doesn’t have a pup,” Marcus interrupted.

“Yes, but obviously she has a responsibility to carry on the line. Is she even planning on trying for a baby?” another woman shouted over the crowd.

Marcus looked to Morgan with his eyebrows drawn up in silent question. Grey was wondering the same. Of all of the conversations they had, this wasn’t one of them. They had only been married a week, and they had both done a bang up job of dancing around the subject.

She remained seated but nodded her head. “I’m willing to try for a child. I understand the importance of having children to better our future, but I want a child for many more reasons than that. I want a child who looks like my mate, who can be a sibling to my ward. That is, if I’m able to have them.”

Her brilliant eyes searched his face, but she needn’t worry. He nodded, and Wolf howled his approval.

“What about your niece? She would have the silver wolf genetics also, right?” A short, stout man with a beard asked.

“When will she be turned?” another alpha called out. “And who will be able to claim her when she is old enough?”

Grey stood up so quickly it stunned the questions into silence. “Lana will only be turned by her choice when she is old enough to make a decision like that. Anyone who tries to force the issue will have me to deal with.”

He glared into the audience, meeting the eyes of those who dared to stare back at him. Power and anger radiated from his skin and into the crowd like a hailstorm, and his dominance cowered many a wolf close enough to feel the heat.

Morgan’s soft voice came from behind. “We have to know Lana is safe. Surely, you can understand where we are coming from. The Change could kill her now, and it has to be her choice when she has the knowledge and insight to make a decision like that. You have to see you can’t Turn a child. She is just a baby, and it is cruel to even suggest it. We have agreed to try for a baby, which is something we hadn’t originally planned on or talked about. You will all have to be patient on what my niece decides about being Turned until she is older. We will not negotiate or discuss this anymore.”

“I have a question,” Alexis asked from the back row.

Shit. Wolf judged the distance from where he sat to the tripping pulse of the artery in her neck. No good. He wouldn’t be fast enough with the other wolves in the way.

Alexis stood with a raised hand as if she was in kindergarten. She waited until everyone stopped talking. “What if Morgan can breed, but Grey cannot? I mean, what if Demon Wolf isn’t able to have children? Has anyone considered that? Are we to put the fate of an entire werewolf super race into the hands of one male? If he isn’t able to get her pregnant, should they be allowed to give up on the entire Silver Wolf line?”

The crowd murmured quietly amongst themselves as the implications of what Alexis said sunk in. A slow fury overcame him. Too much. He had simply endured too much. If that conniving she-wolf was wise, she would go into hiding immediately following the meeting.

Morgan’s gaze was stunned as she stared at the Old Ones on the front row. They were the leaders and enforcers of the werewolves, and whatever they said would be law. And now, for the first time since they had started the meeting, the Old Ones were talking amongst themselves. Not a good sign.

Alexis continued as a wicked smile spread across her face. “I move that Silver Wolf should be bred by multiple males to ensure she gets pregnant.”

“Never!” Morgan growled, face contorting and taking on wolfish features. Grey stood so fast the chair flew out from behind him and crashed into the wall. Jonathan put himself in front of Alexis, but it wouldn’t save her from Wolf.

In a low, gravelly voice, Grey bit out, “You would defend her?”

The whites of Jonathan’s eyes showed. “She is making a point. Now, I agree it isn’t coming from the right place, but it is still a point.”

“You,” Grey bit out, his gaze focused on Alexis who was now cowering behind her mate. “You would listen to Morgan tell you what happened to her, about that monster and his plans to take her body against her will, and you suggest we make it into pack law. What if she told you she didn’t want any more children?” he yelled into the crowd. “Would you lock her in a basement and have turns with her until she gave you what you wanted? You act shocked when she tells you her story, but then you’re actually considering giving her to multiple men? You people call me Demon Wolf. You call me Monster. I’m not the monster here.” He pointed at Alexis. “You are.”

He had to do something to stop Morgan’s tears before they consumed him. Before he burned up like a dying star and exploded into a billion pieces. Marcus rapped the gavel on the podium to quiet everyone down, then he leaned over the stage and spoke in a quiet discussion with his fellow Old Ones. Grey listened, tuning out everyone else to get a feel for which way they were leaning. None of the suggestions they were throwing around would be good for his and Morgan’s future together.

“Give me six months,” Grey ground out, defeated.

He couldn’t accept what they were about to suggest. Wolf would give a go at killing off the entire species before he let another man touch his mate. For the good of everyone, they had to give him time. The room grew quiet, and Marcus stood back up at the podium.

He drew his tortured gaze to Marcus. “Give me six months to breed her. If I get her pregnant, this is never to be brought up again. She will be mine always, and anyone who questions it will die. If I can’t breed her in half a year, other wolves can start giving formal challenges for her again.”

Morgan’s eyes went wide, and her lips parted as if she wanted to say something, but no sound came out. Dean got up with a loud snarl and left the room. Grey shot his mate a warning look. She obviously hadn’t heard the alternative the Old Ones were about to suggest. She remained quiet and still as a stone while Marcus looked to the other Old Ones, and after a quick discussion, the one on the end nodded his head in affirmation. The old leader rapped his gavel on the podium and claimed it done. Chaos ensued from the crowd, but Grey only had instinct for escape. He grabbed her hand and led her immediately out of the building.

Dean and Rachel waited in a fog of despair just outside the door. The pained noise that came from Morgan’s throat was enough to rip his guts out. She slammed an iron door on the bond between them so quickly and unexpectedly that it made him queasy. Rachel caught her as Morgan slid to her knees sobbing. Lana clung unsteadily to Grey’s leg, and he patted the little girl’s hair. He needed to take his eyes away from his mate’s pain but couldn’t.

Dean gathered Lana into his arms. “Those wolves in there are going to be coming out of those doors any second now. They don’t need to see her like this.”

Numbly, Grey picked Morgan up. He held her tightly against his chest and walked her straight to the cabin.

“I had to do it,” he gritted out, desperate for her to understand he wasn’t trying to hurt her. “They were going to take you away from me if I didn’t buy us some time.”

Morgan’s quiet crying gutted him.

When they were inside, Rachel followed Morgan into her room and crawled into bed with her. Grey kept his distance. The last wisp of emotion he had received just before she shut their bond down was the sharp crack of betrayal.

A knock on the door pulled him out of his thoughts, and Marissa stuck her head inside.

“Can I talk to you?” She had been crying, too.

“What are you doing back so soon? Are you all right?”

Marissa nodded and wiped her face. “I have to tell you something.” She looked worriedly over at the bed where Morgan was crying and Rachel was rubbing her back. Grey shook his head. Best for her not to ask right then.

“Um, I might need to tell Dean, too. It involves his new wolf.” Grey rubbed a hand over his face and nodded, opening the door into the joint living area. Dean sat at the table with his head in his hands while Lana devoured a chocolate chip granola bar.

Marissa took the seat across from him. “When I was running with everyone, the boys did a good job of staying close to me. I don’t think they can tell where I am without seeing me since I’m not in their pack anymore. They got ahead of me, and these two wolves separated me from the rest of the pack. I was trying to get back, but they worked together to steer me farther and farther away. They were rubbing against me and nipping at me, and I was so scared. But all of a sudden Levi jumped in between them. I mean, it was pretty dumb of him because they were both way more dominant than him, and they were really big. Anyway, he fought them off long enough for Wade and Logan to figure out I was missing and come find me to help.”

“Geez, are you all right?” Grey was patting her arms as if he could fix it by touching her.

“Yes, I’m fine, thanks to the new wolf. The point of this is that I know the wolves who did it. They are the ones who were stalking you and Morgan in the woods this afternoon.”

Grey frowned. “How do you know?”

“I was out with Rachel and Lana when we heard some of the packs talking about Morgan. Rachel took Lana back to the cabin, but I was pissed at how they were talking about her, so I stuck around to listen. I heard the two wolves who were spreading the gossip. They were giving first-hand accounts, and I smelled them so I could remember them. These were the same wolves that came after me, Grey. They stalk women. It’s a game for them.”

He shook with the overwhelming rage inside of him. Berserker. Wolf was about to go completely out of control. The past hour had gone so horribly wrong. He wanted to roar as loud as he could and pound his fists against the table until it was nothing but tiny splinters and dust. Lana was looking at him curiously now, and he had no outlet for his rage.

Dean’s eyes shown bright gray, and his face flushed red. “Grey, the fights start in a couple minutes. I was waiting to tell you so it would give you less time to think about it, but I signed you up yesterday.”

Dean, that wise old wolf, was giving him his outlet.

“I don’t know if I should be fighting right now,” Grey growled.

“Right now is exactly when you should be fighting. Challenge those animals. Beat them. Fight the next one and the next one and the next one until they are all defeated. Teach them a lesson, and then show every single son of a bitch who thinks he has a chance of challenging you in six months that you will murder them. Be Demon Wolf, Grey. Let. Him. Out.”

“Marissa, do you need to see it?” Grey asked. Marissa was still a child, but did she need to see her alpha defend her?

“Of course, I do.”

Grey grunted. Both members of his pack could be bloodthirsty little creatures when they wanted to be, and Wolf approved.

“Take care of my family?” he asked Dean.

Dean nodded. “Of course I will, brother.”

Grey clapped him on the shoulder before he led Marissa to the mess hall.

When they arrived, Marissa immediately found and pointed out the men who had attacked her. Grey called them out in challenge, and Marissa scrambled to the wolf with the sign-up sheet to set it up. As she passed them, she flipped them off, letting her eyes slide into an eerie light blue. Grey smirked. Morgan was definitely rubbing off on her.

When she was safely seated next to Sarah, Grey turned his cold gaze onto his first challenger.

And then he handed Beast the reins.

A bell rang, and Grey ran straight for the sneering face of the man. He grabbed his throat and hooked a foot behind his legs just before slamming him to the ground. He pummeled his face until the referee called it. The gray-eyed man wasn’t sneering anymore.

The second man had taken notes. He was smarter about his approach, ducking out of the way immediately and landing a few punches in between getting hammered by Grey’s unrelenting fists. Grey spat red after getting punched in the face and offered the rangy shifter an empty smile. The blood that flowed from his nose and lip were only a minor nuisance. Black Wolf didn’t feel it. Other than to mock the second fighter, Grey never flinched or reacted to the furious fists he absorbed. The man drew back farther to hit harder, giving Grey more time to work him over. It wasn’t long before he had handled him like the first one.

“For my pack,” Grey snarled as the man lay gasping for air on the ground.

His next fight was against the man who had won the first round. The referee had asked Grey if he wanted a rest, but he declined.

Better to get it done with.

Wolf was ready.

* * * *

“Where’s Grey?” Morgan asked Dean quietly.

“Mess hall. He’s gone to fight.”

She stared vacantly at the stone fireplace for a moment. She had to see him, to be there for him as he had always been there for her. She was angry and felt betrayed, but he’d done this for a reason. She hadn’t heard the Old Ones’ plans like he had. She could only imagine what they’d suggested doing with her. Grey had done what he did for a reason, and there was no doubt in her mind he’d done it to protect her. She couldn’t fault him for that, no matter how scared she was over the deal he’d struck. “When do they start?”