True Alpha (3 page)

April laughed. “It was the perfect cover-up.” She winked. “They had no idea that I spent my off-days on four legs.”

“April is great at target shooting,” Clarissa said.

April shrugged modestly. “It’s a hobby of mine, though I’ve never hunted with a gun. Who would want to do that when they could hunt with the pack?”

Mandy smiled, unsure whether April’s statement was a joke or not. Had their old pack in Alaska really hunted together, bringing down wild animals as a team? She didn’t know. She didn’t know anything about living with a pack – even this conversation felt strange. “What about you, Violet?”

“No baby-delivering or target shooting for me. I waited tables at a bar.”

“I worked as a waitress for a while during college,” Mandy said, the ache in her feet flaring up in remembrance. “It was hard work.”

“Yeah. It is.” Violet stared down at her glass, looking sullen again.

The sound of a snapping twig saved Mandy from having to come up with a new conversation topic. The noise had been so slight that she probably wouldn’t have heard it if she hadn’t been so desperate for distraction. “I think the guys are back.” She leapt up from her seat on the couch, careless of her aching feet.

The other women followed quickly – they were probably even more uncomfortable than she was. What must it feel like to have come all the way from Alaska to a remote mountain range in Tennessee? Probably like entering a strange new world. As she pushed open the screen door, Mandy thought of her old apartment back in Nashville and how it had felt to drive out of the city, knowing she’d never return to her lifelong home for anything longer than a visit.

Jack’s husky voice greeted Mandy as she descended the steps from the front porch. Smiling, she rounded the cabin with his name on the tip of her tongue. When she saw him, it turned into a gasp of dismay. “Jack! What happened?”

The left side of his face was livid with a fresh purple bruise, his cheekbone brushed with an angry red scrape where his skin had been broken.

“I’ll tell you later, sweetheart.” Jack stepped up and pressed a quick kiss against her cheek. “How are you and the girls gettin’ along?”

“Fine,” Mandy said dismissively. “We had tea and talked for a while. What in the world were you three up to?” Daniel’s lower lip was swollen to roughly twice its normal size, leaking a trickle of blood down his chin. Clarissa hurried to him and reached up to tenderly touch his face, frowning.

Jack settled a hand on Mandy’s shoulder and squeezed, his full, perfect lips parting as he donned a stubborn expression she knew well. Drawing herself up straight, she prepared to put her foot down if he tried to skirt her question again. Just as she was wondering if he and his cousins might have gotten into a fight with a wild animal, the phone rang from inside the cabin.

“Better get that,” Jack said. “Could be one of those companies you interviewed with.”

“Yeah, right,” Mandy huffed, struggling to fight down the small spark of hope Jack’s words and the sound of the ringing phone had kindled within her.

It
was
one of the companies she’d interviewed with. “Moore and Son?” she repeated into the receiver, hardly daring to believe her ears. She’d interviewed for a senior accounting position with the commercial landscape supply company over two months ago and had never heard back from them. “I thought you filled the position.”

“We did,” the female voice on the other end of the connection replied, “but another has opened up. It’s not the job you interviewed for, but you’re qualified for this position as well. If you’re still available, we’d like you to consider taking the job.”

“I’m still available. What’s the position?” Mandy gripped the phone a little tighter, her heart fluttering.

“We’re looking for someone who can work from home as a part-time accountant. We have more work than our accounting staff can handle, but frankly, we don’t have the office space to hire anyone new. Hours will vary from week to week, but we can guarantee at least twenty and no more than thirty. Is that something that interests you?”

Mandy relaxed her grip on the phone, biting her inner lip. The job offer certainly wasn’t what she’d been expecting. But then again, she hadn’t really been expecting to be offered a job at all. Glancing down at her belly, she considered what it would be like to work from her and Jack’s little cabin. It would definitely save her the trouble of having to commute out of the mountains and into a relatively nearby town every day. She’d get to spend more time with Jack than a typical job would allow, and it would be something she could swing even after the baby came. “Yes, I’m interested.” Best of all, she wouldn’t have to squeeze her feet into any torturous heels.

“We’re glad to hear that. You’ll need…” The woman told Mandy she’d need phone service and a reliable computer and that the company would supply their standard accounting software. Mandy agreed, and before their conversation ended, she’d set up a time to meet with the HR manager at Moore and Son’s main office to fill out new hire paperwork.

“Well, was I right?” Jack materialized from thin air at Mandy’s shoulder, wearing a sneaky smile.

Mandy couldn’t help but grin back. “Yes!” She told him all about the job, then frowned. “The only problem is, I really should have a better computer. My laptop is on its last leg and getting slow as a dinosaur.”

“We’ll get you a new one.”

Mandy frowned and pressed a hand to her belly. “I’d feel bad about spending money on a new computer with the baby on the way. We haven’t even bought a crib yet.”

Jack shrugged. “It’ll be all right. You need the computer to do your job, and you’ll earn back the money.”

Mandy chewed her inner lip, eschewing guilty thoughts as she mentally tallied the items she’d purchased so far for their baby – one cute outfit and a pair of booties she hadn’t been able to resist picking up soon after she’d first discovered she was pregnant. They’d been waiting to buy furnishings because Jack and Ronnie planned to build a small extension onto the cabin – a room that would serve as the baby’s nursery. “You’re right.”

He grinned. “I know it. Come on, I’ll take you into town.”

“You want to go shopping right now?”

“Why not?”

Minutes later, she was cozily ensconced in the cab of Jack’s old pick-up truck. Despite the fact that it was well past its prime and more rusted than not, Jack loved the thing. “So, are you finally going to tell me what the heck happened in the woods today?” Jack’s bruise hadn’t faded – if anything, it looked worse.

“Daniel and I had a fight.”

Chapter 2

“What?” Mandy could practically feel the bones in her neck creaking as she leaned in for a closer look at Jack’s wound. “He
hit
you?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?” What on Earth could either Jack or Daniel have said to each other within a few minutes of their reunion that could have caused a fist fight?

“Seems he came back from Alaska with some ideas – ideas about being alpha of the Half Moon Pack.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I’m serious as can be.”

“What a…” Mandy mumbled an obscenity as she glared out the window, staring daggers at the rugged terrain that belonged to the Half Moon Pack – Jack’s pack. “What the hell was he thinking?”

“I asked him that. That’s about when he hit me.”

“And then you hit him back.” A smug sense of satisfaction rose up inside her as she remembered Daniel’s busted lip.

“Yeah. And I made it clear there’s no way I’m stepping down as alpha.”

“Can an alpha even do that – step down, I mean?”

“It’s not common, but it can be done if there’s another pack member who wants to take the alpha’s place.”

Mandy crossed her arms above her belly and sighed. “So is that why they came back – because Daniel wanted to take over the Half Moon Pack?”

“I don’t think Alaska agreed with Daniel and Noah much. They found their mates, and they wanted to come back home.”

“And they still want to stay?”

Jack nodded.

“Are you going to let them?”

Jack tore his gaze from the road and fixed Mandy with a golden-hazel stare. “Of course I am. They’re family.”

“Right.” Mandy’s insides wiggled with guilt – or maybe that was just the baby kicking. “I know you’ve been hoping for years that they’d come back, and I’m glad you got what you wanted. It’s just so … weird. I didn’t know what to say to Clarissa, April and Violet today.”

“Won’t you like having friends though? We’ve only got Ronnie, and I know you’re used to life in the city, even if you put up with the mountains for my sake.”

“I like it here,” Mandy said defensively. “And I guess it’ll be nice to have some other women to spend time with, but… I don’t think Violet likes me.”

“She seemed friendly enough this afternoon when they first arrived.”

Mandy rolled her eyes. “That’s because she was
flirting
with you, Jack.”

“Well, if that was the case, she was barkin’ up the wrong tree.”

Mandy’s lips twitched, hinting at a smile. “I know. But that’s not the point – I won’t put up with it. You’re
my
mate.” She leaned across the seat and pressed a light kiss against his bruised cheek. “And I won’t put up with Daniel hitting you, either. You tell him that if he does it again he’ll have to answer to me.”

“I’m sure that’ll scare him straight.” He pulled the truck into the parking lot of the only electronics store in the small town at the foot of the mountain and put it into park. His lightly-stubbled jaw scratched Mandy’s cheek in a way that made her entire body heat up, and his lips were soft when he brushed them against hers.

“Damn right it will,” Mandy teased, staying close and breathing in his delicious scent – a combination of fresh pine and masculine, woodsy musk. He always smelled that way, had ever since she’d first met him. The aroma was like a siren’s call, drawing her closer and closer to him, until her belly bumped his side. “I’m full of pregnancy hormones. With their help, I can easily beat the tar out of a full-grown werewolf.”

Jack laughed. “I know you can. That’s why I’m gonna need you to be real nice to me when we go inside the store.”

Mandy pulled back just a little, meeting his gorgeous eyes and giving him a questioning look.

“Or else people might see this bruise—” he tapped his cheek lightly “—and think that you beat me.”

“Ha ha, Jack. I just might do that if you get into any more fights.”

“It’s no big deal,” Jack said as he slipped out of the cab, shut his door and rounded the truck to open Mandy’s for her. “I’ll be good as new after a few minutes of moonlight tonight.”

“Still,” Mandy said, taking the hand he offered her and letting him help her out of the truck, “I can’t stand seeing you hurt.” Her chest seemed a little too tight for her heart as a not-so-long-ago memory struck her. She could see blood running down the muscular grooves of Jack’s side in perfect clarity, leaking from a bullet hole.

“It’s just a bruise, sweetheart, and this ain’t the first time Daniel and I have fought. I reckon we beat each other half-senseless at least once a week when we were kids.” Her clasped her hand and drew her close to his side as they crossed the parking lot. “He’s always been too bossy for his own good, and he never liked that his bratty little cousin was destined to be alpha of the pack.” He shot Mandy a grin. “But he’s all right. Most of the time.”

The little bell above the electronics store’s door jingled cheerily as she and Jack stepped inside, immediately putting their conversation on hold. Here, in public, they were just another human couple, happy to be together and certainly not pregnant with a little werewolf cub. When the girl behind the counter stepped out from behind the cash register and asked them if they needed help, Mandy told her exactly what she was looking for and temporarily abandoned her mental catalogue of ways to kick Daniel’s ass, should the need arise.

****

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into buying all that,” Mandy said as she slipped from the truck cab, gripping Jack’s hand. “As an accountant, I’m obligated to tell you that you’re a terrible financial influence.” She reached for the handle of a large shopping bag, but it slipped and tumbled from the seat.

Jack caught it just in time. “I couldn’t help it. You looked so pretty in that dress. Besides, the pay for your new job ain’t bad.”

It wasn’t nearly what she’d been making in Nashville, but Mandy’s pretend-sternness wavered anyway. “Well, I guess it
is
almost a miracle to find a maternity dress that doesn’t make me look like a tent.” Maybe she’d been too uptight. Living in the Smoky Mountains wasn’t as expensive as living in Nashville, and Jack’s income closed the gap between what she’d be making from her part time job and what she’d made in the city.

Jack shut the truck door and pressed her against it, leaning with his hands on either side of her shoulders, his flat belly just barely bumping her round one. “You’ve never looked like a tent. I would know – I spend most of my time staring at you.”

She giggled as he leaned in and nipped at her neck, his stubble rasping against her jaw. “Well, don’t look now, but speaking of staring, we have an audience.”