The Alpha's Choice (35 page)

The younger children eyed the door, wanting
to make their escape. They, at least, were sure that Miz Kat would
come to no harm and Kat let them go.

"Wash those hands and faces first and leave
the dirt in the sink, not the towel," she called after them and
then she turned to Forest, who hadn't moved an inch. "You know
what's going to happen, after the Chase I mean."

The girl nodded and then looked up with such
agony in her eyes that Kat was brought to tears.

"No," she said, "It's not what you think,"
and then she amended, "It's not what you've seen."

Forest's eyes told her it was true.

"Wolvers are beasts and men," Kat said
gently. "The wolvers you knew chose the beast. They were cruel and
heartless and they didn't love their mates. That's wrong, Forest,
so very, very wrong. Our Alpha enjoys his beast in other ways, but
not when he makes love. That's what will happen between us,
sweetheart, we'll make love. It's still sex, but a different kind.
He loves me and I love him and we'll share the joy of that love
together. Charles won't hurt me, not ever and he'd kill any man who
tried."

"You'll have babies," Forest whispered.

"I guess I will." Kat smiled, thinking she
understood what worried the child. Fear of another abandonment was
something she was familiar with. "And when I do, I'll love that
baby as much as I do you and the others. That's the wonderful thing
about having a heart." She tapped Forest's chest with her fingers.
"There always room for one more to love."

But Forest didn't smile back. "What happens
when you don't give him a son?" she asked in a whisper.

Oh God, Oh God. Kat had hoped Forest would
one day talk about what River had blurted in the schoolroom that
day. Now was not the ideal time, but she couldn't pat the girl on
the head and send her on her way. This chance might never come
again.

There was a knock on the door. "They're ready
and waiting," Jo called.

"Then they'll have to wait some more. Forest
and I are having a chat. The Alpha will understand. You can make
something up for the guests."

Kat got down on her knees in front of the
girl and looked up into her sad and frightened face. "Is that what
happened to your mother? She didn't have a boy?"

Forest shook her head. "She had them, but
they died and he beat her. Every time one died, he beat her. He hit
her other times, too. Lots of times. Sometimes he hit her because
of me, but the worst times were when her babies died." Once
started, the girl couldn't stop and she poured out all the horror
she'd kept bottled inside. Her shoulders heaved and she gasped for
air, choking on her tears.

Kat gathered the child in her arms. "How
horrible. For your mother, for you. How horrible. I'm so, so
sorry."

Forest melted into her and Kat sat back, her
legs curled beneath her and the girl on her lap. Forest was almost
as tall as she was, but that didn't matter now. This was a child
who needed her mother's lap and that comfort had been viciously
taken from her. Kat's lap was a poor substitute, but all she had to
offer.

Forest clung to her, soaking the front of her
gown with tears. "She wanted to leave. She tried, but she was the
Mate and she couldn't. She had to go back. She had to."

"I know, honey, I know," Kat whispered, when
in fact, she hadn't known until now.

"Once the deed is done, there's no turning
back." That's what Elizabeth had said only a few hours before. The
magic and the bonding that would occur tonight was more than words,
the magic more than great sex. There was no divorce court for an
Alpha and his Mate.

"That's why we left."

"What?" Hadn't Forest just said they couldn't
leave?

"That's why we ran away. He killed my mother
and then said I was old enough. I would have to do," Forest
sobbed.

Kat gagged on the thought of a monster using
this poor child. She tried to turn it into a clearing of her throat
unsure of whether expressing her revulsion would be a good idea or
bad. Good won out.

"That monster. That beast," she cried with a
venom she never knew she possessed. "He should be put down like a
rabid dog."

"He s-said an Alpha's daughter could be a
Mate, too. Is that true? Will I have to be a Mate?"

"You don't have to be anything you don't want
to be, my precious, darling girl. I don't know if it's true or not
and it doesn't matter right now. We can ask Mrs. Martin, later.
You're young and shouldn't be worried about such things. You have
to understand that no one and I mean no one will ever make you do
what you don't want. Charles and the wolvers of this pack would die
before they let that happen. You understand that what that animal
wanted from you is wrong because you were his daughter and a child
and because you're someone of value. You have choices. Your mother
had choices and he took that away. For that alone, the monster
should be shot."

Kat picked up the edge of her gown and wiped
the girl's tears, looked around for a box of tissues for her nose
and seeing none, offered Forest the hem of her dress's lining.
"Blow," she said and at Forest's horrified look added. "It's going
to be muddy and shredded from my run through the woods. Who'll
notice a little snot? We'll blame it on your brothers."

Forest smiled a little. "They're not really
my brothers, you know."

"I know, I know, and I'm not your mother and
Charles isn't your father and Meadow isn't our daughter either, but
we may as well start thinking in terms of brothers and sisters and
daughters and sons, because like it or not, we're a family now and
our family is part of this pack. We're not alone anymore, Forest.
We have each other and we have the pack."

There was another knock on the door and Kat
helped Forest to rise. "We're in trouble now," she laughed and
wiped away the last of her tears. "They'll think the Mate's run
off." She stopped before she opened the door. "Are you all right?
Because if you aren't, I can do this Mate thing any old time. They
can party on without us."

"I'll be okay," Forest told her and Kat knew
it would be true someday if not right now. People didn't heal from
those kinds of wounds overnight.

"I know you will. Come on then. We've got a
mating to attend."

Chapter 34

The crowd parted to form an aisle for Kat to
make her way to her beloved mate. Her nose was red, her eyes were
swollen from crying and her dress was soaked with tears and the
drippings from Forest's nose. She'd stopped at the kitchen sink
long enough to wash away the now smeared makeup that Jo had so
carefully applied and laid her battered crown of rosebuds aside.
She was coming to him naked, so to speak, with none of the sleek
trappings of the women he was used to.

So be it. This was what she was, the real
Katarina Bennett. She wasn't glamorous and never would be, but
after her time with Forest, she knew she could offer Charles and
his pack something more. She had arms to comfort those in need,
laughter to share their joy, and tears to share their sorrow. If
Charles was to be the head of this pack, she would be the
heart.

There were murmurings in the crowd as she
passed, some no doubt thinking she'd had an attack of cold feet. In
truth, her heart was more determined than ever to see this through
and make it work and when she saw Charles hold out his hand and the
look of loving relief on his face, her last doubt fled.

She took his hand and with the physical
contact, the rightness of all this flooded through her. It was
beyond the sexual heat of his magic. This feeling burned in the
core of her heart. Kat kissed his cheek and the crowd murmured
their approval and relief.

Charles kissed her hand and held it high
above their heads in a display of togetherness. "You see?" He said
loudly. "I told you she hadn't run away. She couldn't," He
straightened his shoulders, tugged on his shirt cuffs and shook his
golden hair into place, a proud and preening peacock. "I had Ryker
hide her car and keys."

Kat rolled her eyes at his nonsense, but
their guests loved it.

"Family emergency. Forest needed me," she
whispered softly for only Charles to hear, "Sorry."

"Don't be," Charles whispered back, "It comes
with the territory. I think it's in your job description." He
turned to the guests.

"Before we begin the mating and the Chase,
I'd like to welcome the newest member of Wolf's Head Pack. River,
step forward and be recognized."

Kat held her breath, afraid that the River
the crowd would see would be the sullen and angry River of the
night before. She needn't have worried. The young man who stepped
forward was solemn and humble and a little afraid. And no wonder,
Kat thought. He was dressed in a loin cloth; a strip of cotton
banding around his hips with a square white flap fore and aft to
cover his nakedness.

"Is it your wish to join Wolf's Head Pack?"
Charles asked, loud enough for all to hear.

"It is," River answered quietly, his voice
shivering with emotion.

"Will you swear to uphold Pack Law no matter
the cost?"

"I will." River's voice gained strength and
he nodded his head as he spoke.

"Will you swear to place the needs of the
pack above your own and follow your Alpha in whatever he may ask of
you even unto death?"

"I will." River's answer was loud and
clear.

"Who stands for this man?" Charles called to
the crowd.

"I do," Ryker shouted immediately. "I stand
for this man."

"I do." Tanner's voice came with Ryker's last
word.

"I do," shouted another and another, each
voice coming faster than the one before until the tent rang with
the voices of the Wolf's Head Pack.

Whatever River expected, it wasn't this. His
eyes went wide in his surprise. He squared his shoulders and stood
tall.

When the voices subsided, Charles spoke
again. "Who do you stand for?"

"I stand for my Alpha and the Wolf's Head
Pack."

"I stand for those who stand for me," Charles
shouted and his power rolled over the crowd. "We stand for those
who stand with us.
We
are the Wolf's Head Pack."

A roar went up from the members of the pack
and Charles raised his arms and spread them wide. Light surrounded
the supplicant, so bright Kat could barely see the twisting and
reforming of limbs. Where once stood a young man, a new made wolf
emerged, long and rangy just like the man. A child's voice called
out in awe and was quickly hushed.

Charles placed his hand on River's dark head.
"Henceforth you will be able to run under each full moon and at
your Alpha's behest. Welcome, River, member of Wolf's Head
Pack."

This time, the whole crowd roared their
welcome.

Clearly bewildered, River looked around at
the crowd.

"Come stand beside me, son, until you get a
feel for it," Ryker ordered and River obeyed.

Unused to walking on four legs, he stumbled
through his first few steps. There was another quick flash of light
and Ryker now stood as a massive gray wolf beside the new
member.

"That, was amazing," Kat breathed.

"It will be more amazing when it happens to
you," Charles laughed and then sobered. "You still want to do it,
right?"

"As long as I don't have to do it in a loin
cloth in front of a crowd," she laughed.

"In front of a crowd? No, but I was counting
on a little less than a loin cloth." Charles wiggled his eyebrows
suggestively.

The crowd had hushed and were waiting. "This
is it," he said and took her hand in his.

"This is Katarina Bennett, the woman I have
chosen to be my Mate. She came to us by accident…"

"No accident if Eugene Begley sent her!"
someone shouted and the crowd laughed.

"Maybe unannounced is a better word," Charles
laughed and the crowd laughed with him. "But she took to us like a
duck to water or a wolf to his pack. The first time she saw me go
over the moon, another woman might have cowered and cried. Not my
Katarina. She stood beside me and fought."

"She saved my life. She saved my life," Buddy
told everyone around him until Tilda told him to hush.

"She did indeed and mine, too," Charles went
on. "She has a kind heart," and here he gave a nod to his brother's
Mate, Elizabeth, "Something I've been reminded is important in a
Mate. She's intelligent and wise and loyal and beautiful. Most
beautiful when she sacrifices her dress to comfort one of my
own."

He smiled down at her and murmurs of approval
rippled through the crowd. Kat kissed the air to blow him a kiss.
He'd made her excuses to the crowd without betraying Forest.

"But most of all, I love the woman. She makes
me who I am and who I will be and I'll spend the rest of my life
telling her so." Charles took both of her hands in his. "Katarina
Bennett, I take you as my mate and as the Mate of the Wolf's Head
Pack. I take you into my bed so the pack will flourish and into my
heart so that I may flourish as their Alpha."

One more, he turned to the crowd. "I give you
Katarina Bennett, The Alpha's Mate of Wolf's Head Pack."

A cheer went up and Kat blushed. "Can I say
something?" she asked.

"They always do," someone called from the
crowd.

"Make it quick. The moon is rising," yelled
someone else, but it was all in fun and Kat wasn't offended.

"I haven't had a family of my own for a very
long time now," She told the guests and the pack to which she would
belong, "I have one now, because you took me in. This is all very
normal for you, but for me, it's a fairytale come true. Bless you
all for being here to welcome me and bless this man for loving me
the way I've come to love him. I know I have a role to fill as the
Alpha's Mate and I'll try my best to do it right and Tilda Martin
will be there to tell me if I don't." Kat smiled at the crowd's
chuckle. "But I want it made clear that I would follow Charles
Goodman anywhere, not because he's a wolver, not because he's the
Alpha of Wolf's Head Pack and not because he's the Prince of my
fairytale, but because he's the man I love more than anything on
earth." Her eyes found Forest on the edge of the crowd, watching
silently. "I freely choose to take Charles Goodman as my mate."