Untamed Force (Force of Nature Series) (23 page)

“I was not hiding the wound, but my
belly.” The second shirt slipped over her head and she put her hands on her
middle. “I had hoped we would touch him, speak to him in our bed, but you have
not been there for many weeks. And now look at me. Large and without a mate to
share it with.”

She was too. He wanted to reach out and
run his hands over her swollen belly, but was afraid that he’d somehow ruin it.
He watched her as she rubbed it, rubbed their child. He wanted to look away,
but Dallas simply couldn’t make himself. “You could have told me.” He did reach
out then and she pressed his hand to her. Movement, very slight, brushed
against this hand.

“I could have. But I had hoped you would
come to me.” She took a step back from him. “Dallas, you must come to our home.
I’m lonely there without you.”

He looked down at his leg. It had healed
too much for them to do much more than break it and hope it would set on its
own. It had, but not properly. Clint Burris, the pack doctor, told him he’d
been lucky. Lucky? Not from where he was sitting.

“I can’t walk without falling on my ass.
And even though no one has said anything I can see that they’re laughing at me.”
He watched as a little girl came across the way toward them. Stacy put her
shirt back on and they both waited for Luna.

“Hello. I was wondering when you were
going to come to my new house.” She crawled up into his lap and settled herself
in his arms. “It’s a very lovely house. My mom keeps turning on the water. And
she makes me take a bath every day.”

“You should. It will keep you healthy.”
He wrapped his arm around her. “I will come to see your new house when they get
the cart I need to walk.”

“You’re just being a poop head. My mom
said that you could walk if you wanted to. She said you were being a poop head
because there are a lot of people out there that have no legs and you act like
you have it worse.” Luna sat up and looked at him. “Are you a poop head?”

“No, I am not.” He tried to take the
heat out of his voice, but she stiffened in his arms anyway. “I’m just a man
who was hurt, that’s all. It’ll take time for it to heal and it’s not been
nearly long enough.”

She turned in his arms and then looked
at Stacy. “You think he’s a poop head, Stacy? I think he is. Nobody can sit
around all day and not want to play. You never play.”

Dallas looked at Stacy and thought about
how much he missed playing with her. It had been weeks and he was missing her
body next to his. He moved Luna off him and pulled the pillow over his lap. He
wasn’t going to explain how hard he was to a six-year-old.

Stacy moaned softly, but he heard it. Luna
was talking a little more, but he was beyond hearing her. His mate was aroused.
As soon as Luna moved off to play with her new friends Stacy stood up.

“Come here to me. I want you.”

She shook her head at him.

“Please, Stacy, I need you, want you.”

She moved back from where she’d come
from. “Then come home. I will be naked in our bed awaiting you. If you do not
come to me tonight, I will leave you, Dallas. I do not have the time to raise a
second child as big as you are. Come to me tonight or we go our separate ways.”

“And our child?” He was sick to death of
people trying to get him to do things by blackmailing him. And he’d expected
more from her. “What will you tell our child?”

“That his father gave up on himself.”

Dallas watched her walk into the woods.
She would come back anytime now and he knew it. After several minutes he
shouted for her and she didn’t come back. It wasn’t until it started to rain
that he realized she wasn’t coming back for him. The movement of the chair next
to him had him look over at his mom.

“She’s stubborn, isn’t she?”

Dallas nodded, too pissed to speak to
his own mother.

“I would imagine she’ll need to be if
she has to raise that child on her own.”

“She wouldn’t have to if she came back
here.” He looked over at his mom just realizing what she’d said. “You knew
about this? You knew she was going to leave me?”

That damned wooden spoon hit him square
in the forehead. And he reached up to snatch it from her when she hit him again.
He frowned at her and counted to ten. Then twenty. He was nearly to fifty when
she spoke to him.

“Are you just going to let her go? Are
you going to sit here on your lazy, sorry ass and let her walk out of your
life? With your child?” She put the stick on the table between them. “And here
I thought of all my children, you would get it the most.”

“Get what?” He glanced at the spoon
wondering if he could get if before she did. “And in case you didn’t get it,
she’s leaving me.”

His mom stood up and looked down at him.
“I wouldn’t have ever thought it possible. A son of mine that is no better…no
better than the monster she killed to save you.”

“I’m nothing like her sire. He murdered
for money. He took and took until there was nothing left to take, then he took
more.”

“And you are so different how? Did you
take her love? Did you take her heart?” She picked up the spoon. “Yes, you did.
At least he had reasons for leaving his daughter. You’ve simply given up.”

“I’ve not given up anything.” He rubbed
his hand over his aching heart. “She and everyone else wants more from me than
I have to give.”

“Do they, Dallas?” She looked at the
forest then spoke softly. “Did you ever know that your father lost his thumb?”

“No. He had all his fingers, Mom. What
are you talking about?” Then he remembered his dad not being able to do some
things the way he’d done them. He’d figured out different ways to— “Yeah. Yeah,
I remember. He lost it when he was still a pup.”

“Yes. But you think it stopped him from
doing things he wanted? Do you ever remember seeing him act like he wasn’t a
whole man?” She looked at him with a tear in her eye. “Did you ever once hear
him say he couldn’t because he wasn’t all there?” She walked back to the house.
She closed the door behind her. His crutches were still far away and the misty
rain had turned to a downpour.

“Mother fuck,” he shouted to the sky. “What
the fuck am I supposed to do now? Crawl to you?”

He glared at the spoon and thought about
how many times over the years he’d wanted to burn the sucker. Chop it up into
little pieces and toss them in the trash can. He reached out and picked it up.

She only hit them with it when she was
trying to make a point. He realized that long before now. It didn’t make it any
less irritating, but he didn’t have to like it. Dallas looked at the forest
then at the house. Both the women in his life were set to piss him off.

His dad had been a great man. He’d been
a wonderful father. But he’d been hurt. Dallas leaned back in his chair and
thought about his dad. When he’d been wolf, he’d been unable to run like the
others; his lack of thumb had hindered him. It didn’t stop him, but it did slow
him a little. But there was never a time when his father said “I can’t.” Never
in all Dallas’ young life had those words ever crossed his lips.

Dallas stood up and held the spoon in
his hand as he held onto the chair. He’d not been putting weight on his leg
like he’d been told because…well, he hadn’t. He looked at the crutches and
realized that he would need them if only to get started. He needed them to get
around for now.

Moving slowly he made his way to them
when suddenly, there was a shadow over them. He looked up to see his brother
Connor. He waited for him to start on him and didn’t say a word.

“You want me to follow you for a bit? It
might be a little rough at first.” Connor handed him the one crutch and laid
the other on the chair. “Let’s start with this one and work our way down.”

Dallas nodded, moved beyond words. His
brother wasn’t going to make fun of him or try to bully him into anything. Dallas
moved slowly forward and nearly fell over. Austin was there to catch him.

“Come on, buddy. We can do this.” He was
leaning heavily on Austin, waiting for the pain to subside. “Take one little
step at first. If you lean on me, I’ll catch you. Come on.”

He took a smaller step and felt the
sweat start to run down his back. Pain shot up his leg and into his hip. And if
his steps got any smaller, he’d be going backwards. He looked at Austin, ready
to give up.

“You want to play ball with your son? With
both our sons?” Dallas nodded at Austin’s question. “Then I suggest that you
get your ass in gear.”

He took three more steps when he felt a
hand at his back. Turning so as not to fall, he looked at his brother Gordon.
The smile on his face was radiant.

“You didn’t think we’d let you do this
on your own, did you?” Gordon held onto his belt at the back of his pants. “Alexis
said if you make it halfway there, she’ll bake you her famous cake. Frankly, I
hope you don’t. I love that cake and don’t want to share.”

“I don’t even like cake and I love it. Hello,
big guy. You ready for the last mile?”

Dallas looked at Phil and Myles. They
were both standing in front of him with their arms crossed over their chests.

“Don’t just stand there gaping like a
fish, get your ass in gear.”

Dallas couldn’t move. He held onto his
crutch and looked at the men in his life. Family. They were all his family. He
cleared his throat three times before he could speak.

“I was thinking about Dad just now. And
how he never said ‘I can’t.’ I’ve been such a wuss the past three months.”

Austin nodded.

“I just didn’t want to…I wanted to be
the big, bad enforcer, and now…I’m not anything to anyone now.” He raised his
hand when they looked ready to argue. “I’ve changed my mind. I am someone. I’m
going to be a dad. And I’m going to be the best dad I can be.”

“Sure you will. If you get to your
house.” Austin helped him move, as did the rest. They were halfway to the
house, about a mile, when he couldn’t go any further. They helped him sit
against a tree while Phil stepped away to make a call.

“I can take it from here, boys. Provided
you can help me get him in the car.”

He looked up to see Stacy.

“I can get him out, but getting him in
might pose a problem for me.”

In ten minutes he was buckled into the
new SUV she’d gotten them. He’d wondered why she needed something so big, and
now he understood. He realized how much he’d missed staying at the pack house
to heal. They were driving along when he reached out to take her hand.

“I’m so sorry.”

She nodded, tears running down her face.

“I love you, Stacy. I’m so sorry for all
I’ve put you through.”

“You can make it up to me if you let me
take you to bed when we get home. I know you’ll want to rest, but I simply want
to hold on to you.”

He nodded and laid his head against the
head rest.

He needed to hold her too, he realized. He
was going to make this work if it was the last thing he did. When they pulled
up in front of the house he swallowed his pride and asked her to help him. Leaning
on her felt good. Needing her felt amazing.

Chapter 19

Four months later

“Pack law states that in order for you
to be an alpha in your own right, you have to…”

Stacy growled at the man in front of
her. Nigel Briggs had been a pain in her butt since she’d filed a claim to the
property that her mother had left her. Briggs took two steps back. She was
nearly nine months pregnant, hot, and tired. And this idiot was quoting bylaws
at her. As if she had not read them a thousand times over the past several months.

“If you say to me once more that I have
to be claimed by my sire, I shall hurt you.” She took a deep breath. “I have
told you many times that he is deceased. My mother is deceased. They are all
dead.”

“But you have no claim that says you are
who you say you are.” He opened the book again then closed it quickly when she
growled again. “If you had but a birth certificate, then I could simply file
what needed to be filed. As it stands now, there is—”

“Sorry we’re late.”

She looked up at Phil and her uncle.

“We had to find a few things before we
could make this meeting.”

Dallas walked into the room at that
moment and she wanted to scream. He leaned down, kissed her forehead, and sat
next to her. He’d been in a meeting when this idiot showed up forty-five
minutes late for their meeting and had not been able to join them. She wanted
to take a nap and her back was hurting her again.

“Sir. As I have said to your mate,
without proper identification, or someone that can verify that she is who she
claims she is, then I’m sorry, but the council has no choice but to claim the
property as its own.” He started to stand and sat down when Dallas stood as
well. “There are people who know where I am.”

Phil laughed and she glared. “I’m sure
we can finish this without resorting to whatever mayhem is running through her
mate’s mind right now. You said she needed proof. Would her birth certificate
be enough?”