The Alpha's Choice (14 page)

"Those children as you so lovingly refer to
them aren't children at all. They're animals," Jo laughed without
humor, "and I don't mean like us. I mean animals. There's not one
ounce of civilization in the lot of them."

"All the more reason to keep them here," Kat
argued, "They're going to need examples of proper behavior and
people around them to love them."

"There you go, Jo," Hyatt laughed snidely,
"The perfect chance to exercise all those maternal instincts you've
got hidden somewhere."

Another newcomer, a handsome young man with
skin the color of rich, dark chocolate and golden flecked brown
eyes that sparkled with amusement, sputtered a laugh. "The only
maternal instinct Jo has is the one that would compel her to eat
her young."

"All kidding aside, I think Jo might be
right. Those pups should be kept isolated until they're
presentable." This was Alex, Charles' right-hand man and the one
who'd been the least friendly to Kat after the initial shock of a
human woman knowing about their race. Every time he spoke it
sounded like a news bulletin. "It would be best to follow the
original plan. I don't know why Charles decided to alter his
decision."

"Alter what decision?" Charles entered the
room carrying one end of a large flat box.

"The one that allows the cubs to come here. I
think we need to rethink this."

The other end of Charles' box was supported
by another man, older than the rest. His name was Ryker and his
looks; square cut jaw, scarred face and military bearing made him
perfect for the role of Security Chief. He frowned and grunted
after Alex's comment, but Kat couldn't tell if the grunt was in
reference to the comment or the huge flatscreen TV they were
carrying.

Seeing what they were carrying, Alex changed
the subject. "That doesn't go in here. I thought we decided that
would go across the hall."

Charles glanced over at Kat and winked. "New
plan. The lady doesn't want a television in her school room." He
shrugged and laughed. "Damn, another decision altered." He pointed
with is chin to the blank wall over the mantle. "The TV goes over
the fireplace in here. The kids will be using the other room, and
the lady should be happy."

"The lady is very happy." This, more than
anything else he could have said or done made her feel like Charles
saw her as more than a casual bed partner. He wanted her here in
his home, though how often he would be here to share that home with
her and the children was another question to be answered.

Alex looked like he sucked on something sour,
Ryker grunted, and Jo eyed Kat speculatively. Charles assigned two
of the younger men to help Kat find and arrange the furniture she
wanted in her school room.

* * *

Everything seemed to go smoothly until after
their supper of steaks on the grill where Charles and Alex shared
duties as chef. Kat was in the kitchen helping Tilda with the
clearing up along with a friendly, freckled faced redhead named
Becky and a short, round woman who said little, but whose eyes took
in everything.

This far back in the house, Kat heard
nothing, but the three other women in the kitchen did. Three heads
turned as one to the door leading to the hallway. Their movement
was followed a few moments later with someone hailing them from the
front of the house.

"Halloo-oo," a sing song voice called. "Where
is everyone? We have bags here."

Tilda, who was wiping her hands on a towel,
started for the door, but was waved back by Jo who entered by the
back door and must've heard the newcomer, too.

"I've got it, Mrs. Martin," she said. She
walked over to the door leading to the hall, opened it, and
shouted, "We're back here. Carry your own damn bags," and more
quietly but still in a voice that carried, she said to Mrs. Martin
and Kat, "Don't let her push you around."

Nothing happened for several minutes, but the
women didn't take their eyes from the door. Charles came in, looked
at the women, then at the door and laughed.

"I guess the others have arrived."

"The Queen and her entourage," Jo muttered to
no one in particular.

"Jo," Charles warned.

"I know, I know. One for all and all for one
and all the rest of that bullshit. You might mention it to her once
in a while."

"I have."

"Then you might want to get her hearing
checked because she's not getting the message."

Charles started toward the swinging door and
had to step back to avoid being smacked by it as a woman strode
through followed by three men for whom she didn't bother to hold it
open.

"Charles, darling, all the guest rooms on the
second floor are taken. Someone will have to move," was her
greeting. She gave him a swift peck on the lips and patted his
cheek with her long slender fingers. "There's a good boy. My bags
are in the foyer." She pronounced it "foy-yay" and looked pointedly
at Kat.

"There are twenty of us and only one Mrs.
Martin. Like I said you can carry your own damn bags, just like the
rest of us. Damn prima donna," Jo muttered as she turned back to
the dishes she was stacking on the island that ran down the center
of the kitchen.

"If you wanted one of those rooms, Stephanie,
then maybe you should have arrived with everyone else as I asked,"
Charles told her pointedly, but gently.

"Ah, so this is some kind of punishment for
my disobedience," the woman said, pouting, "The Alpha spoke and I
didn't listen. Consider me properly chastised." She patted Charles'
cheek again. Her voice became sensually inviting. "Put me on the
second floor, darling, and you can punish me later."

"It's not a punishment, Stephanie. Simply a
matter of first come first serve. I'm sure you'll make the best of
it. You always do." He winked. "Let me get Buddy and we'll carry
your bags up. What's still available?" Charles looked around.

"There are several rooms on the third floor,"
Jo answered sweetly.

"I will not sleep on the third floor,"
Stephanie declared.

"Buddy and I will move," Mrs. Martin said
quietly, as if that would settle it.

"No, you won't," Kat said firmly. "Those are
your rooms. The Alpha said so." It was none of her business, she
knew, but Mrs. Martin had already moved once and it wasn't fair to
ask her to move again. Besides, she didn't like this newcomer's
rude behavior. She was, however, reassessing her opinion of Jo.

The woman looked Kat up and down as if she
was something distasteful found on the bottom of a shoe. "And who,
may I ask, are you?"

"I'm sorry, Stephanie. With all the fuss I
forgot my manners." Charles held out his hand to Kat and she took
it, mostly because she sensed it would tick the other woman off.
"This is Katarina."

"And the shit hits the fan," someone mumbled
behind them. Becky was coughing into her hand so it had to be the
quiet one who hadn't spoken before.

Two of the men standing behind Stephanie had
their lips pressed together as if they too, were suppressing
smiles.

Kat could almost see the wheels turning in
Stephanie's head as she assessed the situation and Kat's position
in it. Smiling an attractive yet predatory smile, the woman held
out her hand to Kat forcing Kat to let go of Charles in order to
shake. Stephanie smile became a little wider when Kat complied.

They shook, but it wasn't a friendly
greeting. It was a there, I've-done-my-duty-now-I can-ignore-her
shake.

Unlike Alex, Stephanie didn't pull her in
with the handshake, though she did inhale deeply as the men did. It
was subtle and Kat might not have noticed it if she hadn't seen the
others do it. Were they marking her scent or did she stink?
Stephanie's slight curl of the lip led Kat to consider the
latter.

"Everyone calls me Kat."

"Meow." Stephanie gave the crowd a feral
smile.

"She's our new Kitty Kat," Buddy piped up and
Kat half hoped he'd add a reminder about not eating them.

"Great! We're all here," Alex said, entering
the kitchen, too. "Come on, Stephanie, let's get you squared away
so you can kick back and relax. We're all out on the patio,
entertaining ourselves until it's dark and the fun can begin."

Stephanie's eyes lit. "Are you taking us over
the moon?" she asked Charles. It was a simple question, but from
Stephanie, it sounded seductive. She watched Kat for her reaction.
"You promised."

"Sorry, Stephanie, only the men. Ryker thinks
we need training. Plans have changed."

"I guess they have," Stephanie said to
Charles, but she was looking at Kat.

* * *

The wine and beer and hard liquor flowed, but
no one got drunk. The night was clear and the patio was warm thanks
to the propane heaters Charles had the men carry up from the barn.
By the time the kitchen was set to rights, the group had gathered
around their Alpha. Kat, Jo, and the other two women joined them to
hear the tail end of Charles' story of Buddy and the trap and Kat's
role in his rescue. He was laughing as he told it, but she could
hear the pride in his voice.

"Here she comes, charging across the field
like an avenging angel holding that umbrella like a flaming sword.
Scared the hell out of me, she did. Scared hell out of them, too.
The girl's got a mouth on her, let me tell you."

"It's a shame you weren't there in time."

Alex's comment turned off the light shining
in Charles' eyes. He nodded in agreement.

"What do you mean he wasn't there in time?
How can you say that?" Without thinking, Kat moved into position
next to Charles. "You weren't there! You don't know!" Her voice
shook and she didn't realize her whole body was shaking until
Charles tucked her under his arm. "You don't know what they were
going to do to Buddy, what that man was going to do to me. They
wanted Buddy for dog fights. Dog fights! They were going to throw
him in a pit! They were going to… to…"

"Hey, shhh, it's all right now. It's all
right," Charles whispered.

It hadn't hit her until then how badly things
could have turned out, how close Buddy had come to dying.

"It isn't all right," she sniffed angrily,
looking up at him. "You were in time. You were," she said as if
he'd denied it. "He tried to shoot you. He would have killed you,
too."

"What's this?" Ryker asked.

Charles told the rest, again playing up her
role in fending off the attacker while playing down his own, but
Kat wouldn't let it rest.

"Buddy was dying and the Alpha used his magic
to heal him and then he brought him home."

"It could have been handled differently. I've
spent a great deal of valuable time negotiating with them," Alex
explained.

"
We
spent a great deal of valuable
time," Stephanie corrected. "And the one you were talking to wasn't
the one in charge. He was a front."

"I'm afraid this will bring attention to us,"
the Second warned, ignoring the interruption. He glared at Kat as
if she was the cause of it all.

"No it won't," Charles said. "The sheriff
called this morning while we were still in bed. Mrs. Martin told
him we were all indoors because of the rain. We heard nothing." He
nodded to Stephanie in recognition. "I appreciate what you were
trying to do, but there was no negotiating to be done out there. I
made the call. I'll take the blame."

"What else did the sheriff say?" Alex drew
the attention back to himself.

"He thanked Mrs. Martin for her time and
warned her to keep an eye out for wild dogs. She's to give him a
call if she sees or hears anything unusual."

"Like howling, snarling, growling?" someone
quipped, "There's nothing unusual about that!"

Chapter 14

Kat pointed to the gathering of men in the
field, pale shadows in the darkness. There was laughter and playful
shoving as they shucked their clothing and tossed it to the ground.
"Do they always…?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Too bad they're not
closer. It's a sight to behold." Jo topped her glass off and
offered the bottle to Kat.

Kat shook her head. These wolvers could
consume a frightening amount of liquor without showing its effects.
She, on the other hand, had already had one glass too many.

"I don't know about that." She giggled at the
thought of a dozen men running around naked in what was, in effect,
the backyard. "It's warm enough here, but out there it's cold
enough to shrivel the goods. Charles wore jeans the other night,"
she added, remembering.

"Every pack is different. Back home, good old
cotton longjohns were the norm. It gets cold in the Maine woods. As
long as it's natural fibers, it works. Synthetics come home in
shreds." She poked her chin in the men's direction. "These guys are
always measuring the size of their dicks in one way or another. It
gets old after a while. Not this, though. Watch. This never gets
old."

Light shone from the center of the group, the
same light Kat saw when Charles went over the moon in the field.
How easily the term came to her now. The light grew brighter and
another light flared and another and another until a soft glow
covered the group of men. Only they weren't men anymore, but
beasts; great wolves who yipped and nipped at one another the way
their man-forms laughed and shoved.

Two of the women, red headed Becky and her
quiet friend Nan, had already gone to bed. Stephanie and the two
others shared gossip in the warmth of the hot tub, their short
bursts of brittle laughter slicing through the stillness. Jo
declined their offer to join them. Kat remained uninvited and felt
a bit like High School all over again.

The wolves broke up into teams of three or
four. Kat wasn't sure what game they played or if it was a game at
all. It almost looked like keep-away although apparently there was
a goal in mind as they moved farther out into the field. The
snarling became more pronounced, the tackling more vicious. They
circled, pounced, and tore into one another with a vehemence that
was frightening.