Untamed Force (Force of Nature Series) (8 page)

“How do you know? Are there some markings
that gave that away?” Dallas flushed when she cocked a brow at him. “I’m sorry.
I’m having a shitty day.”

“Yeah, heard about that.” She grinned. “Anyway,
the guy still has the shovel in his hands. Wrapped around it like he was still
in mid-dig when he was shot in the back of the head.”

Holly was a former hit man…woman for the
government. When she’d retired Connor, Myles, and she opened an investigations
firm. Their business had been doing very well. In fact, they now had any other
member of the family working for them when they were too busy to do it on their
own. Dallas didn’t much care for his sister being anything but a mate, but he
knew better than to say anything.

“Let’s get them out of here and call
whoever we need to so they can get claimed.” Dallas pulled out his cell phone
as he walked away. “I’m calling the were brigade to see what they can do for
us.”

Eight hours later they were just heading
back. Dallas wanted to do nothing more than take a long, hot shower and crawl
into bed. He was met at the door by not only Alexis, but Stacy, his mom, and CJ,
who grinned at him.

“We have to talk.”

Christ, would this day never end?

Chapter 6

“The council said that Sterling has been
a problem for some time. But as they didn’t have any proof they decided to
wait.” Austin was pacing as he spoke. He had his family sitting around the
large pack table and couldn’t seem to think past the bodies in the grave.

“Why? I mean, I’ve been there. How can
they not think the guy is abusing his people?” Connor handed out the pictures
that he’d shown Austin when he’d gotten back. “Those alone should show that he’s
not a good pack leader.”

“But the council didn’t see those
places.” He tossed a folder on the table. “They saw those houses. With clean,
well fed people in them. People who couldn’t say enough good things about their
leader.”

He watched them spread the pictures on
the table and see what they’d been told. When Austin had tried to tell the
council what he’d heard from Georgia he’d been reprimanded for taking in
another wolf’s fold without permission. After today they had a different story.

“So what do they think now? Do we go in
and…shit. Look at this picture.” Phil tossed the picture in the middle of the
table and then stood up. He went to the file that still lay on the counter. “Yeah,
I thought so. It’s the same woman. Here.”

Phil pointed to the woman in the front
door to a very lovely two-story home and then to the driver’s licenses they’d
found in the box. It was the same woman. And her identification said she was from
this area.

“Is he taking people from other packs
and setting them up in these homes…to what? Make a good impression? Then he
kills them off when they’ve done what he needed?” No one answered Myles. “That’s
just sick. Not only that, but isn’t there some sort of pack law that prohibits
abuse of your subjects?”

“Very good, grasshopper,” Phil said
sardonically. “That’s pretty much the law for any group or species. When our
kind is caught treating people like this he’s staked to the ground, pissed on,
and then watched from a safe distance as the sun takes care of him or her.”

Myles flushed. “Sorry. Still thinking
like a cop. What I don’t understand is how did he know to set this up? Did they
tell him they were coming?”

Austin nodded. “Pretty much. It’s
considered ‘uncivilized’ to go to a pack without announcing yourself.”

Austin noticed that Stacy was looking at
the pictures with more interest than he thought necessary. When she looked up
at Dallas he knew they were talking and wondered if it was something they all
should know. When Dallas nodded she turned to him.

“I know where this is. It’s about four
or five miles from where the bodies were found.” She looked down at the picture
with the woman in the doorway. “This is someone I’ve seen on this land. She
said she wasn’t poaching, but she was just…she said she had gotten lost. I
thought she was afraid, but she left before I could speak to her about it.”

“When did you see her? It would help,
love, if you could remember.”

Everyone looked at Dallas who had growled
low to the vampire when he’d asked.

“Oh sorry. I keep forgetting how
possessive you wolves can be. Would it help if I said ‘Where did you see her,
bitch, tell me now?” Phil shook his head. “Morons.”

“Oh like you blood suckers aren’t. And
that’s my mate you’re calling “love” and I’d appreciate it if you’d back the
fuck up.”

No one spoke. Austin had forgotten that
Dallas had found his mate and, now that he thought about it, he realized that
Alexis hadn’t spoken a word since they sat down.

“Ah, so that’s what’s so different about
you. My deepest apologizes to you, kind sir. Congratulations, my dear lady,
though I think you could have done much better.” Phil took Dallas’ hand and
shook it. “I am sorry, but it is a bad habit I have.”

“You can call me whatever you want if it
will get us back to the subject at hand. I—”

“Wait. I have something to say as well.”
Alexis stood up. “I owe everyone here a heartfelt apology as well. I wronged
Dallas today and I was cruel and heartless to him. I also hit him.”

Austin watched the room around him,
especially Gordon and Dallas. This could be bad or it could be extremely bad.

“He came to me today to tell me that he’d
hit Stacy and that he and she had bonded. I acted like a banshee and I acted
without getting all the facts. I hope that you both can forgive me.”

Dallas stood, as did Gordon. Neither man
moved for several seconds until Gordon sat down. Dallas moved to Alexis, knelt
before her, and took her hand into his. He kissed her gently and Austin held
his breath. Okay, very bad to completely fucked up now.

“I’m sorry too. I should have come to
you immediately to tell you what had happened. But…” Dallas looked at Stacy,
who flushed. “But I got sidetracked. Will you please forgive me as well?”

She started crying and helped him stand,
then wrapped her arms around him. Dallas looked a Gordon, who nodded once
before Dallas wrapped his arms around her. They held each other for a few
minutes before Gordon slapped him on the shoulder.

“Don’t push your luck. Let go of my
mate.” They parted and each of them hugged Gordon before Dallas went to his
seat, but didn’t sit.

“This is my mate, Stacy Force. We have
bonded and mated in the way of our people. Alpha, I know it’s a little late,
but may I take a mate and, Alexis, may I take a mate in Stacy?”

Austin sat down and nodded. Alexis said,
“hell yes” as he let out a long held breath. Things in this family were never
going to be dull. He looked over at his own mate and pulled her into his lap.

“I call this meeting back to order. Tell
us what you’ve found, Connor.” Austin watched the play between the other
couples and wondered when Connor would find his true love. He nearly missed
what Stacy said.

“What do you mean you’ve met all these
wolves? On this property?”

She nodded.

“Why wasn’t I made aware of it?”

“They were only on the outer edges. You
said that so long as they didn’t move into the perimeter it would be fine if
others came close.”

He nodded. Damn it, they’d made that
rule hoping to interact with others of their kind when they’d taken over this
land. Now he might have to rethink it. “But how close to the dig site did they
come? Any of them within the five miles from the Sterling boarder?”

He saw her thinking and then she nodded.
“But not much more, if that. Most of them were…they seemed to think that you
were going to kill them. At least the first few.” She looked thoughtful again.
“You don’t think they were trying to get away, do you?”

More than likely
, he thought. “I
want to expand the patrols to all around the perimeter. Whatever we find,
report. I know we’ve absorbed the pack into ours, but we can’t take the chance
that he’ll come gunning for them." Austin actually hoped he would. That
was why he’d left the note. He wanted to make sure he came. And when he entered
his territory, he was as good as dead.

~~~

Dallas was dead on his feet. When Stacy
had gotten them home. He’d been dozing in the car when she finally pulled into
his driveway. She really was nervous about what to do now. She reached over to
touch his shoulder and he jerked awake and grabbed her hand.

“It’s me. It is all right. It is just
me.” His breathing calmed and she could feel the tension go out of his body. “Are
you all right?”

“I’m exhausted. I’m sorry, love, to have
made you drive home, but I couldn’t have made it.” He opened the door and she
sat there. “Aren’t you coming in?”

She looked at his house, one she had
been in a thousand times over the past year, and then at him. “I do not know
what to do. Do I live here? Do I go to the house that I have? I do not know how
this is supposed to work.”

He closed the door and looked at her. “You’re
my mate Stacy and, as of now, we live together. Forever. I thought you
understood that.”

“I did. I do. But what…are you sure?”
She hated to sound whiny, but she was afraid he would get tired of her and want
her to leave or, worse yet, he would beat her. Well, that really was not
something she was concerned about, but she was afraid.

“I’ve never been surer of anything in my
life. I need you. I love you. I want to spend the rest of our lives together.” He
kissed her forehead. “Does this have anything to do with your father?”

“He said those same things to Mom before
he killed her. He told her that he would never tire of her, never leave her. I
do not want to lose you, but…well, I do not know what you expect of me.”

“I don’t either other than to love me
back. I do expect you to tell me if I do something that pisses you off. I
expect you to tell me when you’re not satisfied.” She flushed at his statement.
“I meant in the house, the car, whatever. But I don’t expect you’ll have any
complaints about me satisfying you. I’m a phenomenal lover, as you already
know.”

She pretended to think about it and
squeaked when he yanked her over the seat and onto his lap. She was straddled
over his legs and he held her to him. She was sure he was asleep when she
pulled back, but his eyes were wide open.

“I love you, Dallas. I think I have for
a long time.” She laid her head on his. “And if you take me inside your house,
I will show you.”

The swat at her ass hurt and she yanked
his head back, ready to take a bite out of him. Before she could speak, he hit
her again. Then he began rubbing the bruised area.

“Our house. Say it. Our house. Our bed. Our
car.” He licked her throat. “Our bodies. Say it so I can take you inside our
house and make love to you on our bed.”

She kissed his nose. “Our house.” Then
his eye. “Our car.” Then the other one. “Our bodies.” She leaned back on his
lap.

“You forgot our bed.”

She leaned down and kissed him full on
the mouth, putting her entire being into it. “No, I did not. Take me there and
I will prove it.”

He opened the door and set her out of
the car. When he slid out as well he turned her to the vehicle and set her on
it.

“It’s much too far. What if I show you
how much we own this car?” He pulled her to the edge and nipped at her mouth. “Out
here where we are among out kind. Where we were meant to make love.”

He pulled her light jacket off and then
pulled her shirt off and dropped it to the ground. While he bit at her neck she
pulled him between her legs and wrapped herself around him. His low groan made
her bold.

“I want to undress you then I want to
take you into my mouth. I want to feel you inside of me.” She ran her hands
over his hard male nipples. “Do you have any idea how much I want to touch you
right now?”

“I’m getting an idea.”

She pushed him back and then turned him
to the place she had been sitting.

“What is it you think you are going to
do to me? I want to make love to you.”

“My turn. You get to call the shots in
the bed. Right here, right now, I’m going to be in charge.” She looked up at
him and saw his eyes darken. “Will you let me try?”

He nodded and leaned back on the car and
let her undress him. First she unbuttoned his shirt, then she worked at his
jeans. The button came undone, but the zipper was giving her fits. She looked
up at him again and watched as she ripped the sucker off him.

“You’re going to replace those. I love
those pants.” He grinned at her. “Of course I’m willing to let it go if you
show me how sorry you are.”

Dropping to her knees before him, she
pulled his pants the rest of the way off. She left his boxers where they were, tossed
the ruined jeans over her shoulder, and sat up on her knees so she could reach
him. His cock was right where she wanted it.

Running her hands up his thighs then up
over the elastic of the shorts, she watched him. Every time she came close to
the head he would rock toward her mouth. She was not ready for that yet; she
wanted to play. When he growled at her she felt her own juices begin to flow
and rubbed her cheek over his shaft.