There's Something About Werewolves: Seven Brides for Seven Shifters, Book 1 (21 page)

Ian took Faye by the shoulder. He pulled her away and took her place, speaking to Garrett and Lennox. “The kids aren’t physically hurt. They’re upset because they upset you, Leni.” He pinned her with a pained gaze. “And the way you looked at them killed them, sweetheart.” He shook his head. “Two of the girls haven’t stopped crying since.”

Lennox covered her face and smashed her palms up and over her hair. She’d never intended to hurt the other kids. She simply hadn’t wanted them to hurt Nox.

Garrett nodded in response to Ian. “What are you thinking should happen next?”

“Nox has to come back. You know that. He’s at an age where juvenile wolves start to express dominance or submission. I don’t think he’s submissive but he acts it when in wolfen form. He’s got to face this.”

“Not now,” Lennox interrupted.

Ian sighed. “Yes, now. And you need to talk to the kids, Leni. You’ve got to make it clear you don’t think they’re freaks. If you don’t, a few of them won’t get over it. They love you.”

“I’ll talk to them,” Lennox said. “Just give me a few days to recover.” Her jaw hardened at her next thought. “But I want to talk to Nox before you take him back to that place.”

Cash spoke up. “Nox barely knows what to do with his wolfen body. The others have had years of roughhousing to learn how to be wolves.” He ran his fingers through his hair, frustration apparent in the tense line of his shoulders. “Ian, this situation started because you recognized Nox’s education is way behind.”

Ian started to interject. Cash cut him off. “Garrett had his reasons. Ones you can’t even begin to understand. I won’t discuss blame with you because Garrett has every right to raise his son however he wants. All I’ll say is, I don’t think Nox is ready to spar with kids his age.” Cash swiped a flatten hand through the air to punctuate his statement. “That kid had no idea what he’d gotten himself into when he asked to join your pack. He just wanted to be close to the closest thing he has to a living mother.” Cash folded his arms, his lips thinning into a hard line.

Gran had gone to get Nox. The two trudged into the living room together, her hands on his upper arms.

“Are you still mad at me, Leni?” She hadn’t heard such hesitance in him before.

She shook her head. “I’ve never been mad at you, Nox.”

He smiled, relieved. Garrett called out to him, “Nox, I need you to answer a question and I want the answer true. Understood?”

Nox nodded.

“Do you want to give up on your wolf side?”

“No!” Nox shouted, rushing toward his father. “I like being wolfen. Learning how to hunt, and fight, and not to turn when I sneeze.”

Cash coughed to cover his laughter. Trust him to find the humor in any and all situations. Although Lennox couldn’t say she appreciated it at the moment.

Garrett folded his arms, his gaze intent on his son. “Then you’re okay with sparring with the other kids? It’s not too much for you?”

Nox’s gaze darted to Lennox, back to his father, to Ian and his people, swung back to her. He seemed to oscillate in place, as though time had slowed for them while speeding up for him. A tangle of emotions twisted his handsome features before he did something no one expected. Shock weakened her knees. Garrett had once said she and Nox were twins. Nox never cried. Not until now. The boy’s face crumpled and he wept. Shoulder shaking tears racked his body.

Garrett crushed his son to him—the rest of the gathering forgotten in his concern. But Lennox didn’t forget. Ian and Garrett were right. She’d never fought for anything. Today she’d do her best to fight for Nox. “That settles it,” she said to Ian, Faye, and anyone listening. “He goes back but you’ll take things slower with him. No fighting until he catches up.”

Ian nodded. Faye had other plans. She tossed her wheat-brown hair. “Listen to you. Giving commands? I think not.”

Two of the other women muttered their approval. Faye squared her shoulders. The support of her girls put extra puff in her chest. “You have no voice among us. You’re not clan.” She swung on Cash, Garrett and Gran. “None of you are. Therefore as the top-ranked female I decide issues of the juveniles training.”

A red umbrella burst open in Faye’s face. She snarled, batting it away. “Oh my goodness,” Gran said, pressing the button to retract her favorite weapon. Folding the umbrella under her arm, she continued. “That sudden hot air storm nearly blew me away.”

Cash laughed out loud this time. Gran said, “The thing is, Faye, you’re wrong.” Gran shrugged. “But who’s surprised about that?”

Faye gritted her teeth. “Old woman.”

“Shut your pie hole,” Lennox interjected. “Only I can call her that.”

“See that, Faye?” Gran grinned. “Wrong again. And here’s another thing.” Gran stepped closer to Lennox, reaching out to caress her cheek. The old girl’s eyes softened, the tortoise-brown color watery.

The sudden show of emotion surprised Lennox. Gran shook free of whatever had overtaken her. “The thing is, Faye, my Leni is stronger than you. Don’t you doubt it.”

Faye made a rude noise in her throat. Gran ignored her “Most of all,” she said, “Ian marked Leni as his mate twenty years ago. I’d say that makes her the alpha female around here.”

Silence snatched the breath out of the room, with the exception of Garrett’s rumbling growl. Lennox looked to her grandmother for answers. Gran only had eyes for Ian. “I’m so sorry,” she mouthed.

Lennox leaned on the arm of a sofa. Every time her world regained its equilibrium something or someone slapped it lopsided again. “Ian, it was you? You’re the animal that bit me. You did this to me?”

“Leni.” Ian’s voice held a plaintive undertone. “I didn’t do it to hurt you. It was instinct. I was young and I couldn’t stop mysel—”

“See that, Faye?” Gran said with far too much pep. “They both admit it. Lennox is your alpha female and I’m claiming Nox as an Averdeen. He’s our child.” Gran moved closer to Faye. “So you can just
back off
, witchie-poo.”

Lennox heard the words but they didn’t register. Nothing in her life made sense anymore. Ian, the man she trusted most, even above Garrett, had lied to her since the first. He’d scarred her permanently. He’d introduced her to fear and fenced her in. Ian, her friend, had wounded her.

A scream of frustration shattered the tension. Faye vibrated with unspent fury. Her claws elongated. Terror gripped Lennox so cruelly she nearly lost it. She stood, prepared to run and ashamed the need for flight overruled her fight instinct. That shame forced her to stand her ground. Love of Nox kept her on her feet.

“I challenge you for supremacy,” Faye said. The two other mothers stepped up behind her. “As do we,” they added in tandem. Their eyes flickered amber solely for Lennox’s benefit.

Ian spoke up, “You don’t have to take on all three of them, Leni. You can—” Lennox shushed him with a glare before turning back to stare Faye down without allowing herself to tremble.

Garrett continued to hold Nox close but growled out, “This is over. Lennox, you’re not fighting them.”

Lennox whipped around to face the man who’d broken her heart eleven different ways. Her lip curled. “How can I avoid fighting them? Huh? Explain it to me, Garrett.”

He snarled at her with the wolf so close to the surface she could see it superimposed over his body. “Because I won’t allow it,” he said.

After a moment, she laughed. It was an ugly sound. “If I’m putting things together correctly, Nox asked to join Ian’s pack and Ian accepted. Right?”

Rather than answer her question Garrett asked one of his own. “So?”

Lennox’s gaze rolled skyward. “So,” she said. “Nox is now pack. And I’m pack. And you’re not.” She hesitated before saying what she knew had to come next. “You might be his father but in this situation you have no say. Am I right, Garrett?

She thought he’d rail against her. He didn’t. Instead Garrett’s shoulders dropped almost imperceptibly. He closed his eyes and squeezed Nox tighter. Since the day Tina gave birth to Nox, Garrett had lived in in the fear that their wolfen side would take his son away from him.

Lennox had no idea what had happened to scare Garrett so badly but she could feel it in every part of her body as clearly as she felt her own fear of wolves. And suddenly she realized what it cost Garrett to be both a wolf and a father. His protective instinct was freakishly strong but Garrett had tried his best not to deny Nox when the boy had decided to join a pack and explore what it meant to be a werewolf.

Lennox wanted to pull the father and son into her arms and protect them from all of this. And maybe she could. If she put aside her own fears maybe she could help them with theirs. She walked the few feet between them and rubbed Nox’s head. Then, despite being mad at him, and more than a little afraid of his animal side, she reached up to caress Garrett’s cheek. He didn’t open his eyes but he leaned into her touch.

His voice sounded less man and more beast when he said, “Say the word and I’ll break the rules.” Garrett’s eyes slid slowly open and amber filled his gaze. “I’ll fight them all for the two of you. And I’ll win.”

Their gazes held for a long time. She didn’t know if she would ever want to see him again after this. But she did know she loved him. So much. So much it killed.

Lennox dropped her hand. “Is that what we’ve decided to teach him, Garrett?” she asked while tilting her head at Nox. “We want him to learn to skirt the rules and run away? I’m good at it, I can easily teach him to run. Is that what you want?”

“No, goddamn it,” Garrett gritted through clinched teeth.

She nodded. “Then you agree you have no say in this pack matter?” she asked and it hurt to say.

Cognac chased away the amber in his eyes and Garrett’s expression pleaded with her not to tie his hands.

She asked again, “Do you agree, that by the rules, and because we want Nox to learn to take a stand, that you have no say in this pack matter, Garrett?”

It took forever but he finally forced out an answer. “I agree,” he said, and Lennox imagined he hated them all a little bit because of it.

She stared at him a long while, begging him to forgive her with her body language. Finally she said, “Then.” And took a deep breath. “How can I avoid fighting them. I have to fight them, Garrett.”

The three women who’d challenged her cackled like hyenas. When Lennox looked at them they’d allowed their fangs to show. Intimidation tactics didn’t usually work on her, but these bullying bitches—she guessed that wasn’t an insult when it came to them—could make good on their unspoken threat. Fear sharpened her tongue. “Did we suddenly get dropped onto a movie set? You challenge me? For supremacy? All three of you? Such a big freaking performance.” She rolled her eyes to camouflage panic. “Nobody is giving out Oscars today, Faye. Sit your ass down.”

A sassy little shimmy with hands on hips. “Scared much, Leni?” Faye said. “Not accepting a challenge is the same as a forfeit. If his top ranking female guardian won’t stand up for him, I guess Nox goes back to fighting the other juveniles today.”

Nox whimpered causing Garrett to snarl. Garrett’s eyes flamed liquid amber, his fangs flashed. And Lennox remembered he wasn’t human. Not at all. A thick wave of dizziness capsized her. Gran rushed to catch her but didn’t have the strength to hold her up. They fell together in a heap. Faye snorted in self-satisfaction.

Garrett grumbled Cash’s name but the dark angel had already come to their rescue. He lifted both Gran and Lennox into his arms, set Gran on her feet, and continued to hold Lennox up. Only the thought Cash might be human kept Lennox from shrinking away from him too.

“I did not forfeit,” she finally said, imitating the strength that had all but drained out of her. “I accept.”

Her opponent threw her head back and laughed. “Then in a few days we’ll—”

“Why not tonight?” Lennox asked with an arched brow. Deep down she knew if she didn’t fight tonight she never would. If given too much time to think, she’d skip town rather than face the monsters of her childhood.

“Tonight on Averdeen land,” Gran said. “As the challenged Leni has the right to choose time and place.”

“Fine,” Faye hurled the word at them. “I choose the weapons. Wolfen form,” she said with sneer.

A combination of terror and outright wrath rumbled through Lennox. They knew she’d rather tongue kiss a python than face wolves in a fight.

“No,” Ian said. “Lennox doesn’t have claws or fangs. You fight as women.”

Faye’s lip curled. “We fight as wolves. My choice.”

“Then Lennox gets knives.” Garrett’s voice washed over her in a balm. He’d decided to support her and she loved him more for it. The feeling lasted as long as it took to remember he’d lied to her too. A lie of omission but he’d deceived her all the same. It pissed her off all over again.

“Knives are fair,” Ian said. He inclined his head at Faye. “No arguments.”

“Even if there are arguments,” Garrett intoned. “Lennox still gets knives.” The tautness of his posture combined with the dangerous slant to his eyes dared Ian to argue. Ian snarled but didn’t disagree. Garrett returned the favor.

“Done,” Lennox said. She stormed out without waiting for an answer. The air had caught in her throat. Her heart pounded hard enough to explode. When safely in her room she crumbled, sliding down the closed door. She didn’t have the nerve to fight one wolf. Let alone three. The act of defiance she’d just pulled off took everything she had.

The bedroom door pushed open, causing her to skid across the hardwood. Garrett stepped inside, closing the door behind him. They stared at each other. His eyes still burned with amber fire. She hated him and she loved him. More than anything else she needed him to comfort her. The amber in his eyes cooled, turning cognac brown.

He snatched her off the floor and pressed her body to his hardness. Heaving breaths obscured his words. “The way you stood up for my son…you…you are so fucking amazing.” He kissed her with savage hunger. Lennox had heard anger could easily turn into passion between lovers, that stress could fuel desire. Now she believed it.

She relented, giving in to his power over her. His nimble hands stripped her naked before she blinked twice.