A Pack Family (7 page)

Chapter 9

Decker came awake slowly, disoriented, where was he? He poked his head from under the covers and saw bright light coming through the window. He got up and checked his phone which said it was nine in the morning. He had thirty four missed calls, from Tara, Jake, Shana, Paul, and even little Trevor. There was no one that he wanted to talk to right now. He went to the window, pulled the shades closed and went back to bed.

Decker woke a couple hours later when he heard the door to his room slam.
“Good morning Mr. Decker. Rise and shine, the coffee is quite tasty this morning.”

Really?
He was depressed, pissed, and just wanted to be alone and this old woman was waking him up for coffee. “Go away.”

“
Oh Dear, not a morning person I’m guessing. I’m sorry but you’ve had quite a few people call to inquire on whether you’re here. What shall I tell them?”

“
Just don’t pick up the phone, that’s what I’ve been doing.”

“
But that would be rude.”

And waking him up wasn’t?
“Okay then, tell ‘em I’m not here.”

“
But that would be an untruth my good man, and a woman such as myself, does not lie.” She sounded outraged.

“Fine then tell ‘
em that I’m here but I’m in bed and don’t want to be interrupted.” Hopefully she got his meaning.
Go away.

“
That will be fine, sir. Shall I make you breakfast?”

Nope, she didn’t get it.
“No thank you, I’m quite tired though since I was up all night. Do you think I could sleep a bit more before eating?”

She cocked her head to the side.
“No, I don’t think that would be at all well done. Hop up and out of bed, time to shower and start your day.”

She pulled back the covers and that’s when he felt the cool air hit.

“Oh my, nice tushy.” She smacked him, none too lightly, and said. “Up and at ‘em young man.”

He stayed lying on his stomach but brought his head up.
“Unless you want another show, you should leave.”

She flushed and began to walk from the room.
“Do not linger. Breakfast will be ready in thirty minutes. Well, it’s really more of a lunch at this hour. Chop chop.”

How could one harmless old lady be such a bother?
He snickered to himself knowing Quinn probably drove Katie insane. He got up from the bed and went into the bathroom to relieve himself. He had no doubt that Quinn was being bombarded by phone calls, but he really didn’t care. He had no desire to be anyone’s bad guy, he’d always been the hero and it really rankled that with Tara, he was always to blame.

He was going to be an adult and do the only thing he could, ignore them all.
He was going to start work today even though he still had several days off. Decker called Paul. “Hey boss, I was hoping all the paperwork was done and I could start on the job today.”

There were several beats of silence before
Paul’s response. “Sure, whatever you want. What time can I expect you?”

“
Maybe an hour and a half. I really appreciate you letting me start early.”

“
No problem man. Great job last night by the way, you’ll be a benefit to the force with your deductive skills. We’re proud to have you.”

Yeah whatever, he didn’t want to talk about last night.
“How are Tara and the kids?” What the hell was he doing? He didn’t want to know, he was still pissed. “Never mind, see ya soon.” He disconnected before he heard the answer.

Goddammit!
He needed to push Tara to the back of his mind. He was starting a new job and needed to be at the top of his game.

Decker was in the shower and running on autopilot.
He’d woken up, and simply wanted the day to be over, so he could go back to sleep. He dried off, went into his room and heard a crash coming from down the hall. He pulled his weapon and got into a defensive position. The door slammed open and Katie ran in and engulfed him in a bear hug.

Decker heard the growling from the doorway and attempted to pull
Katie off of him. She was stuck like an octopus. Decker stood there while Katie was wrapped around him. “A little help.”

Conner’s eyes had turned golden which Decker knew was bad, really bad.
Conner stopped growling a moment so he could yell at Katie. “Motherfucker Katie, have some restraint, release the naked Decker. I don’t want to have to tell you again, you can hug him, but not when he is naked. Or wet.” He turned to Decker. “I won’t be able to control the beast if you don’t get her off you, now!”

Katie
quickly released Decker. “God Conner you’re so dramatic. Relax.” She looked over at Decker, “you smell different.”

Conner pulled
Katie to him and kissed her senseless. When he came up for air he approached Decker sniffing furiously. “Wow, who knew.” He held out his hand to shake. “Welcome back, I assume you’re staying for good.”

Decker pinched the bridge of his nose and took a calming breath.
“I’ll talk to y’all later. I need to get dressed and go down to lunch before that Quinn lady comes back.”

Conner was pushing an angry
Katie out the door. “What’s going on? Stop pushing Conner! I want to stay and talk to Decker, I missed him.”

Decker was surprised that he could hear Conner’s whispered words.
“Not now Katie. Let him be for a while.” Decker could hear her Katie protests all the way down the hall.

Instead of staying for the show he knew was to come, he got dressed and headed straight to the station.
He was halfway to the station when his cell phone went off in his pocket. Looking at the screen he laughed knowing Katie was going to be pissed he’d left. He felt a little sorry for Conner, but not enough to go back.

He parked at the station and went to find
Paul, who was supposed to be his mentor of sorts. Decker signed in and picked up a radio. He had just tuned the radio and heard a call going down, ‘assault on pack’. He sighed knowing what had happened.

Decker supposed he deserved this by trying to ignore everything that was going on.
He wasn’t being very honorable by running away from his problems but he never expected it to explode into this. He ran out to his car and saw Paul climbing into his cruiser.

“Are y
ou going to Alpha house?”

Decker responded with a clipped.
“Do I have a choice?”

Paul
shot him a sympathetic smile. “You don’t have to go if it’s going to cause more problems.”

“
It’ll be fine. Let’s go and get this over with.”

*****

They pulled up to Alpha house and it was chaos. Jake was holding Shana by the back of her shirt, Conner was face down on the ground and Katie was walking away from him and towards Tara. Tara had a dumbfounded look in her face while she watched Katie approach her.

Paul
yelled, “Everyone, stand down.” No one listened.

Decker knew that look in
Katie’s eyes, unfortunately. He ran full out until he was between a feisty Katie and a flustered Tara. “What the fuck Katie? Stop it right now. What are you doing?”

Katie
looked into his eyes and she began to tear. “I’m defending your honor, so get out of the way.” She tried to push him out of the way but he didn’t budge. So she tried to go around him but he anticipated her moves and stayed in her way.

“
Are you kidding me? I can defend my own honor. You should pick up Conner and take him home.” What the hell happened to Conner? Damn, it must have been the right hook Decker had taught her.
Oops.

Katie
turned around to look at her mate. “Great, now I’m going to have to apologize. This is all your fault.”

Katie
had said the magic words to set Decker off. “I am not responsible for your stupidity! I’m serious Katie; I’m done with all of you crazy people. Get in your cars and leave. Now!”

Katie
flinched back. “But Decker, I just want these people to give you a chance, be nice to you.” She motioned to Tara, “that disrespectful brat has no idea what you’ve done for her. She had the chance to love you and she blew it. You come home with me and we can hang out, like the old times.”

Decker looked into her eyes.
“Things have changed. Pick up your mate and leave.” He turned his back on her and walked over to where Jake and Shana were staring with open mouths at Decker “Break it up. Take Shana and Tara in the house. If we have to come out again we’ll arrest someone.” He couldn’t stand being around Tara right now. Even being outside he could smell her unique peppermint scent surrounding him. It pissed him off even more that he could feel himself getting hard in his jeans.
Not now big boy.

Decker walked to Conner and helped him to get up.
“You alright? She caught you with the right hook, huh? I never should have taught her that move. Go home and take Ali over there with you, unless you want to press charges.”

“
Why did she hit me?” Conner looked stunned.

Decker shrugged.
“You must have been in her way. You never should have brought her here, someone could have gotten hurt.”

Conner yelled.
“I did get hurt! She said she wanted to see Shana. I forgot Tara was even here.”

“
Don’t forget again, please. Go home.” Decker started to walk to his car when he heard Conner yell.

“
I am second in this pack and you will not tell me what to do. Understand human.”

Jake,
Shana and Tara were watching from the window. Decker could feel their eyes on him. “I am an officer of the law and this pack, you will do as I say, or I will take you to the station to cool off in lockdown. Don’t mistake the face of a friend, with me doing my job.”

Now
Katie started to look worried. “Come on Conner, let’s go home and I’ll kiss all your boo boo’s.” She took his hand and led him to their car. The whole time Conner was staring Decker down. Katie called back to him. “Call me, Decker.”

“
Not anytime soon, Mrs. Matthews.” He whirled around and practically ran to his car. Katie was going to be pissed that he had dismissed her, and then he had called her by her married title. She had always been either Katie, Ward or sissy to him. Yep, things had changed.

Decker was having a sudden bout of anxiety.
Maybe he should have stayed in Petaluma where they had normal crimes like burglary, drug deals, and murders. No werewolves, pack politics or failing friendships.

Chapter 10

After his first complete shift as an American Canyon police officer he should have gone back to Katie’s house and picked up his clothes, to once again check into another hotel. He didn’t want to deal with her, or an angry Conner, so he took a cab to the nearest bar and drank away his worries. Funny enough, he saw Dante at the bar and they made short work of a bottle of tequila.

They both passed out at the bar.
The bar owner called them a cab that took them to a hotel down the street. Decker woke up with a raging headache and cotton mouth. He brought his head up and the pounding intensified. Where the hell was he? He slowly turned his head and saw a drooling Dante on the bed next to his. “Hey, wake up.”

Dante woke with a start but seemed clear headed when he sat up.
“Morning Decker, feeling better this morning?”

Decker winced.
“No, I’m hung over. Why do you look okay, you drank as much as me, if not more?”

Dante smiled.
“Shifter’s have a high metabolism; I burned off the alcohol while sleeping.” He looked over at the clock. “Shit, I was supposed to be at your Alpha’s house, to see the kids, but I overslept.” He leapt up and looked around to make sure he had everything. “See ya.”

Decker was irritated, and felt like crap, so he decided to stay in the hotel until checkout.
He didn’t have anywhere to be or anyone to see, so he slept on.

*****

Decker woke again when he felt a stabbing pain to his thigh. He was still hung over, which made his reflexes slower. He rolled off the bed and went into a crouch next to the bed and the wall. He was seeing things through blurry eyes. What he saw shocked him to his core. Why was the evil bitch from Alpha house standing in the doorway with a big bald mean lookin’ dude? “What do you want?”

She gave him a sadistic smile.
“You, as a diversion.”

His vision began to fade and his muscles became weak and floppy.
“You dumb bitch. What did you inject me with?” His words were starting to slur and he couldn’t focus.

Victoria
, Dante’s evil mother turned to leave. “Come along Vince, and bring the garbage,” pointing to Decker, “So we can take it out.”

The scary guy approached Decker and bent down to collect him.
Decker gave one last shot. He used all his strength to shoot to his feet, and brought his fist up to monster man’s face. It connected and he saw blood leak from the guy’s nose before Decker passed out cold.

Victoria
saw Vince walk out of the hotel room with blood on his face, and his nose was crooked. Tara’s fated mate was bleeding from a cut to his eyebrow, and had a black eye forming. “I told you not to injure him.”

“
He hit me, I had to defend myself. Where do you want me to take him?”

“
I don’t care. Just take care of it, stash him where no one will find him for a long time. You need to be at the meeting spot in one hour to collect the precious cargo. Allen wants them by tonight.” Victoria walked to her car and watched Vince toss Decker into the back of the van. Perfect, things were coming together, finally.

Dante rushed up the steps to Alpha house and knocked on the door.
Tara answered but she had clearly been weeping. “Is everything okay? The twins?”

Tara
opened the door wider. “Come in, the pups are fine.” She walked to the sitting room where Abby and Brady were awake in the basinet. She picked Brady up and went over to Dante, placing the wiggling baby in his arms. She stopped a few paces from him and inhaled. “Why do you have Decker’s scent on you?”

He looked sheepish.
“Uh, we went out drinking last night and got pretty drunk. I woke up in the hotel room and didn’t have time to shower. I’m sorry; I didn’t want to miss seeing them.” He shot an amazed look to his child.

“
Is he okay?” She felt like a fool asking the father of her pups how her mate and lover was doing.

Dante smiled.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t he be?”

Tara
looked away without answering. “Do you want to feed them again?”

His eyes perked up.
“I’ll always want to feed them. They’re amazing.”

There was a fierce knocking on the door and Dante looked to
Tara. “Are you going to answer that?”

“
No, Jake will be around. Let’s just enjoy our children.”

Jake
, looking furious swung open the door. He almost closed it when he saw Katie and Conner standing in the doorway. “What now?”

Katie
flew past him. “Is Decker here? He didn’t come back to our house last night. I talked to Paul who said he got off shift last night around seven.”

“
I keep telling her he was probably pissed and stayed away.” Conner walked into the house and closed the door.

“
Actually, Decker and I shared a hotel room last night because we drank a little too much. I left a little over and hour ago but he looked comfortable. He’s probably still there.” Dante watched everyone turn shocked eyes to him.

Katie
was the first to respond. “I don’t know what’s going on but I feel like something is wrong. What hotel was it? And who the hell are you?”

Dante’s expression was pinched.
“I’m the twin’s father. I’m sorry; I don’t remember the hotel name. It was right next to the bar off First Street.”

Katie
smiled. “I know the place, I’ll call.” She walked out of the room dialing furiously on her cell phone.

Dante looked over to
Tara. “Are you and Decker okay? He didn’t say anything last night, but he seemed sad. Do you want to talk about it?”

“
No, thanks. You should probably know that there was a break in a couple days ago. We think someone was trying to get to the twins, any idea who that might be?”

Dante’s eyes became wide with shock.
“I hope you’re not insinuating I would try and steal my own pups. Why would I do that? You’re letting me see them and I’m grateful considering what my pack has done to you.”

Tara
smiled. “I don’t think it was you, but maybe you heard something from Alpha Allen’s Pack. I know they don’t like me, and I’m okay with that, but I will not let my pups be raised by them.”

“
No worries Tara. You’ve found your mate and he is a great guy. Our pups will benefit from his love and protection.

Katie
ran back into the room. “They checked the room and it’s in disarray. I called Paul, something is wrong.”

Tara
looked boldly into Katie’s eyes. “Decker is upset and requested time to cool down. If he wanted to talk with any of us he’d call.”

Katie
’s happy reply, “Great idea, we’ll track him by his cell phone signal.” It was only then that she realized that Tara had dismissed her worry over Decker, her supposed mate.

Katie
whirled around and stalked to Tara who was holding Abby. Katie reached down and smiled at the baby while taking Abby from her mother and passing her into Dante’s arms. When Abby was snuggled into Dante’s arms, Katie went back to stand in front of Tara. Katie pulled her arm back and slapped Tara on the face.

“
You bitch! He has done everything for you, and still you treat him like he’s not good enough to worry over. ‘Don’t worry about Decker; he can take care of himself’. Well you stupid twit, if anything has happened to him, I will come back for you, and you will pay.”

Katie
turned her back to Tara and announced to the crowd. “Don’t worry everyone, I’ll take care of Decker,” she turned a pointed look to Tara, “like I always do. What are best friends for?”

Tara
placed a hand on her aching cheek and watched Katie answer her cell phone. “Why would he be way out there? Is he answering his phone or any of the alarms you’ve sent to him?” A pause, “I’m on my way. I’ll meet you there.”

Katie
disconnected the call and looked to her pack. “Paul went to the hotel room and found an uncapped needle on the ground, with an unknown shifters scent. He’s tracked his cell phone to the Napa hills. I’m going with them to find him. Anyone else coming?”

Jake
and Shana both grabbed keys and went to his truck. Conner called Quinn and asked her to pick Trevor up from school, as he and Katie went out to his car.

Tara
called. “Wait, I need to go. Can I come?”

Katie
held Tara’s gaze in a hard stare. “You don’t deserve him.”

Tara
had to admit, Decker was fabulous, and she didn’t deserve him right now. But things would change. “I know I don’t, but I’ll deserve him one day, starting today.”

Katie
looked to Dante. “Would you stay with the pups? She should be there when we find him.”

Dante looked lost.
“I…Uh…I don’t know what to do.”

Tara
smiled. “Feed them, burp them and change their diapers. I’ll call Quinn to come over and help after she picks Trevor up. Okay?”

She could see him pulling himself together.
“I’ll watch them. Take care of Decker. I’ll call you if I have questions.”

“
Thank you Dante, I owe you.” Tara leaned down and kissed her kid’s heads before running out the door.

*****

Decker was super pissed as he sat bound to a tree. He was in an old vineyard and still trying to fight off the effects of the drug he’d been given. He was weak, with blurry vision, and now he had the mother of all headaches. He could hear his cell phone ring but it was about ten feet away, and he couldn’t reach it. He hoped no one noticed he was missing; otherwise, they’d come for him and leave Abby and Brady without protection.

Decker heard several vehicles pull up.
Damn, it was everyone. He saw Shana and Jake hop out of one car while Paul came out of his cruiser yelling, “Stay back.” That’s when he saw Katie and Tara running to him, without care, as Conner followed yelling. “Come back here woman.”

Decker called out to
Paul, “It’s fine, just me, they took off. You need to get a unit out to Alpha house to protect the kids. I was just a diversion so that bitch Victoria could snatch the pups.” He saw Tara’s eyes widen and her steps falter.

Decker was sure that she’d begin to start yelling that he was at fault, yet again.
Why was her cheek red? He was stunned to see her approach him and run a hand over the bloody side of his face, lingering on his split lip.

“
I’m so sorry, for everything. She won’t get them. Dante will protect his pups with his life.” She leaned over him and began to untie him. “You smell like chemicals.”

“
I was drugged, on top of a hangover. It was a rough morning. Could you please call Dante and let him know of his mother’s plans. I want the twins safe.”

She finished untying him and pulled out her cell
phone to begin dialing frantically. Everyone had stayed in the background probably sensing the tension between him and his mate. Decker saw Katie being restrained by Conner so he motioned everyone to meet where they were. When Decker got close, the beast that Katie was, clawed her way free from Conner. Katie flew into Decker’s open arms.

“
Come on small fry, don’t cry.”

“
Oh God you never came home, and went missing, and I was so scared.” She pulled back and hit him in the chest “Don’t you ever do that again.”

There was a growl from behind him.
All eyes turned Tara’s way. “I think you should release my mate.”

Katie
’s eyebrows rose. “You gonna make me?”

“
Tara…” Decker started.

Tara
simply looked at him with determination. “Don’t!” Tara approached Decker who was still embracing Katie. Tara held Katie’s eyes as she got closer walking behind Decker. She stood on her toes and opened her mouth as wide as it would go and bit the juncture between Decker’s shoulder and neck, where she had originally marked him. Decker shivered involuntarily.

Katie
released him. “Eew, get a room.”

Now that
Tara had staked her claim, solving one problem, she had to work on the next. “Can we go rescue our pups now? Dante didn’t answer his phone.”

Oh shit.
Tara and Decker ran with their hands entwined to Katie and Conner’s car, and drove off. They could hear Paul’s lights and sirens behind the as they weaved through traffic.

*****

What the hell did he know about taking care of twins? Dante was excited that Tara trusted him enough to allow him to stay with them, but when Abby began to cry, he was lost. He walked around with her, tried to give her another bottle, burped her, changed her diaper, and yet she still screamed her pretty little head off.

Dante heard a knock at the door and assumed it was the
Quinn person Tara had called to help him with the pups. He was thanking his lucky stars until he opened the door and found…his mother? “What are you doing here? I thought they told you to never come back. I don’t want you to upset my kids pack mates. Please go back home mother.”