Dancer's Heart (6 page)

“I was trying to make gravy. It’s hard as
heck,” she said. “You must be Dani. I’m Brynn, Acksel’s mate.”

“Thanks for inviting us to dinner,” Dani
said, shaking Brynn’s hand and discreetly brushing flour from her
own hand. “Can I help? My mom makes really good gravy.”

“Oh, wow, that would be great!” Brynn grabbed
Dani’s hand and said, “Make yourself comfortable, Adam; we’ll be a
few minutes.”

Dani smiled at Adam, and he winked at her.
She was gently tugged into a large kitchen filled with the scent of
roasted meat and vegetables. Her stomach rumbled and Brynn said,
“I’m glad you’re hungry. I eat like six times a day because of the
baby, and he likes red meat.”

“Congratulations on the baby. When are you
due?” Dani asked as she stepped in front of a saucepan bubbling
with gravy, which was an unpleasant dark brown color.

“June seventeenth.”

“Are you sure you’re having a boy?” Letting a
drop of gravy fall on her finger, she tasted it and found it to be
extremely bland.

“I want it to be a surprise, so we’re not
going to find out until he’s born, but I’m pretty sure it will be a
boy. Motherly instinct I suppose.”

Adding seasonings and milk until the gravy
looked and tasted great, Dani turned to Brynn with a spoonful.
Brynn took the spoon and popped the end into her mouth. Her eyes
widened. “Oh, yum! How did you do that?”

“I had a good teacher.”

“Tell me about your bear family,” Brynn said
as she lifted the lid from a slow cooker on the counter and spooned
carrots and potatoes onto a platter.

“My parents were killed by a pack of natural
coyotes when I was three. I’d been left with my aunt while the herd
went foraging. Everything was fine, and then the coyotes found
them. They don’t normally hunt in packs unless it’s a big group of
prey, but it was my herd’s bad luck to be near the coyotes’
territory. My aunt shoved me up into a tree and tried to shift to
protect herself, but she was killed.”

Dani blinked at the sting of tears. She had
been thinking a lot about her people since she’d met Adam. She
wished she had more memories of her family. She had vague, fuzzy
recollections of what they looked like: her mom was blonde and her
dad had dark hair. She remembered her mother loved to make handheld
apple pies over the fire.

Brynn put her hand gently on Dani’s shoulder.
“I’m so sorry, hon. What happened?”

“I hid in the tree. The coyotes knew I was
there, but they ignored me. I was terrified. I clung to that tree,
all night, crying. I climbed down later that morning. The coyotes
had caused a lot of destruction, but one of the tents survived. I
stayed there for a few days, hoping someone from the herd would
come back, and when they didn’t I started walking. I don’t know how
long I walked, maybe a day or two, before I ended up in Oakville.
Fayar, the king bear, found me, and his mate Gloria took me in
while they tried to figure out where I came from. Then Row’s mom
Alice adopted me. She loved me from the start, and so did Row.”

“You were so young. It’s a miracle you didn’t
die from the elements or get caught by another predator. I’m
surprised you don’t hate
all
predators.”

Her brows rose. “I know they were natural
coyotes running on instinct. I don’t look at shifters as being same
as their natural counterparts. Shifters have a consciousness, a
humanity that allows them to make choices. Natural animals don’t
have that.”

“Did you ever find any evidence of your
people or other herds?”

She shook her head. “Not of my herd. Just
recently, though, we’ve learned that reindeer like to stay off the
radar. Mom hired a private investigator to look for them, and it’s
taken years to find a herd. Row was on his way with me to meet them
when we got sidetracked here.”

“Fate is a funny thing, isn’t it?” Brynn
asked. “You were on your way to one destiny and found a different
path.”

“I’m glad we stopped.”

“Me too. It’s nice to see Adam happy. He
deserves it.”

Brynn and Dani carried the food to the
kitchen table and filled glasses with iced tea. “Adam said you
weren’t going to go meet that herd. Aren’t you curious about your
people?”

Dani shrugged. “A little. Reindeer are
nomadic, so the herds don’t stay in one place for long. If I’d
found a herd when I was younger, I might have been more willing to
go and meet them, but Mom and Row are my family, and now so is
Adam.”

Brynn smiled and sniffled, coming around the
table to hug Dani. “I’m sorry your family is gone.”

Dani smiled. “It’s really okay. I know that
my parents would have wanted me to be safe and loved, and I was. I
think family doesn’t have to be about what you shift into, but who
you love.”

Adam and Acksel came into the kitchen, both
looking concerned. Brynn turned from Dani into Acksel’s arms and
said, “Her story is sad but has a happy ending. You know happy
endings always make me cry.”

Acksel chuckled and hugged her. “I know,
baby,” he murmured.

Dani held out her hands to Adam and he linked
their fingers. “It
is
a happy ending,” she said.

Adam smiled.

Brynn’s stomach growled loudly, and everyone
laughed. “The boss has spoken,” Brynn said, patting her stomach.
“Let’s eat.”

Adam pulled out Dani’s chair and pushed it in
as she sat, joining her in the next chair. Acksel leaned over and
kissed Brynn’s cheek. “Everything looks great.”

“You can thank Dani for saving the
gravy.”

“It was my pleasure.”

As the meal progressed, they talked about the
differences between the pack and the sleuth, and how strange fate
was that both Dani and her brother had found their truemates after
stopping for gas.

Adam cleared his throat. “I’d like to talk to
you about me and Dani becoming stewards,” he said, looking at
Acksel.

“Oh?” Acksel leaned back in his chair and put
his arm around Brynn.

Adam nodded. “It makes sense. Dani can work
with Honey on the household things for the retirees, and I can work
with Jeremiah on the outside things. Right now Dade is assigning a
lot of young teens, but there’s a lot of work to be done, and since
they’re still in school, it’s eating into their productivity. We’ll
be coming into spring soon, and that means gardening and lawn care,
which are a lot of work.”

“I can’t make Dani a full pack member because
it’s against our laws, but I can make her an honorary steward. It’s
no problem to assign you as a steward if that’s what you’d like.
You’ll need to talk to my dad because he’s in charge of them, and
of course make sure that Jeremiah and Honey want the extra help,
but I’m sure they will.”

“I think you need to change that law,
Acksel,” Brynn said as she ladled gravy onto her third helping of
pot roast. “Why can’t the mates of pack members be pack
members?”

“Pack membership is for wolves only,” he
said.

“I
know
, but why does it have to be
that way? What’s the point of being alpha if you can’t change the
laws?”

“I’ve changed a lot of laws since you came
around.”

“Yeah, but this one is starting to become an
issue. Your mate, Malachi’s mate, and Eveny’s mate are humans.
We’re ‘honorary’ members, but not full members. And Dani’s an
actual shifter, so it would make even more sense for her to be a
full member. Plus, Kammie’s mate is a bear. He would make a great
protector.”

Acksel exhaled with an exasperated rumble.
“Every time someone gets mated in the pack we have this
discussion.”

“Because you can’t get it through your thick
head that I want you to change this law.”

“My head’s thick because I have to keep
banging it against the wall,” he said, his lip curling up into a
smile.

Brynn stabbed the air with her fork. “Watch
it.”

Adam cleared his throat and said, “Making
Dani an honorary member is fine, as long as she can work with me.
We both want to stay in Wilde Creek, and we’d like to work
together.”

“That’s so romantic,” Brynn said with a
sigh.

Acksel rolled his eyes. “You can tell my dad
that I said its okay with me for you two to become stewards. I
understand about wanting your mate by your side. We’re working on
getting the work of the omegas divvied up more fairly, but having
you two as permanent stewards is a good idea.”

Acksel and Adam cleared the dishes while
Brynn and Dani talked about the full moon celebrations. As they
were getting ready to leave, Adam said, “I’d like to mate with Dani
officially during the March full moon.”

“Of course,” Acksel said.

“I need help to keep her safe.”

Brynn’s brows rose. “Won’t she stay with the
mates in our house during the hunt?” It was tradition that the
mates who were unable to shift stayed in the alphas’ home while the
pack hunted.

“I like to shift, too. Adam’s worried that
someone is going to mistake me for a real reindeer,” Dani said.
Adam helped her on with her coat and then tugged his on.

“What were you thinking about?” Acksel
asked.

“A privacy fence. Something tall, maybe eight
feet, and reinforced so it couldn’t be knocked down easily. My
property is an acre, and I can stay with her on the full moon and
shift in the yard with her. It’s not quite the same as hunting with
the pack, but then again I don’t really do that now.”

“How will you hunt if you’re just in your
yard?” Brynn asked.

“I don’t need to hunt to be happy, I just
need to be with Dani,” Adam said.

Dani couldn’t help her broad smile.

“I’ll have Jerry Ferrity contact you in the
next few days about putting up a privacy fence for you.”

“Thanks, Acksel,” Adam said.

“You’re welcome.”

Brynn and Dani hugged again, and then they
said goodbye. As Adam helped her into the truck, she said, “That
went really well.”

“I think so, too. You’re surprised?” he asked
as he got behind the wheel.

“Not really. I wasn’t sure what to expect,
but they’re very down-to-earth and sweet.”

“We’re lucky to have them as alphas.”

She figured she was the luckiest reindeer
around, not just because she’d found her truemate, but because
she’d found a place to call home, somewhere she belonged. She
hadn’t ever really felt like she fit in with the bears, but Adam’s
easy acceptance of her allowed everything else to fall into
place.

“I’m going to make you so happy when we get
home,” she said, leaning against his shoulder.

“It would be pretty hard to top how happy I
am right now.”

“Challenge accepted.”

Chapter 5

The following morning, Adam took Dani to meet
Dade. Dade was not only the head of the stewards; he was also
Acksel’s dad.

“Is Dade mated?” Dani asked as they pulled to
a stop in front of Dade’s house.

“He was. His mate died when Acksel and Eveny
were younger. He never re-mated.”

“Is it always that way for mated pairs?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, if one dies, does the other one
never mate with anyone else? My mom said that when her mate
Nathaniel died she never wanted to mate someone else. I always
wondered if she just hadn’t found the right person or if she felt
like she’d be betraying her mate’s memory to mate again.”

“I’m not sure if there’s anything that’s
normal when it comes to loss. Some shifters may feel like they only
have one mate and won’t look for another. Others might eventually
open their hearts. I guess it depends on their situation.”

“Was Dade the alpha before Acksel?”

“No. The alpha position in Wilde Creek is
determined by a fight. If a wolf wants to try to take over the
pack, they have to defeat the current alpha and make him stand down
from his position.”

“What happens if the challenger doesn’t beat
the alpha?”

“Pack law says that the alpha can either kill
him or just banish him. It works the other way as well. When Acksel
challenged the former alpha, he let him leave town. In our pack’s
history, there have been new alphas who haven’t been so kind.”

She shivered. “Pack life is harsh
sometimes.”

He nodded. “Like anything in life, you have
to take the good with the bad.”

They got out of the truck, and as they were
walking up the sidewalk, the door swung open and Dade smiled and
waved. “Come on in.”

Adam shut the door after he and Dani entered.
“Dade Moore, this is my mate, Dani Grayson.”

Dade extended his hand. “It’s nice to meet
you, Dani. Come on in, I just brewed some coffee.”

After fixing their coffees, Adam and Dani
settled on a couch and Dade sat in a comfortable recliner. “The
scuttlebutt in town is that you’re a reindeer shifter, Dani.”

She smiled. “It’s true. My adopted brother,
Row, is mated to Kammie.”

“You and your brother both found your mates
here at the same time? That’s pretty neat.” He took a sip of coffee
and said, “I have a feeling that you’re here on business. So what
can I do for you both?”

Adam cleared his throat. “Dani and I spoke to
Acksel last night. Even though Dani will only be an honorary pack
member, Acksel said that she and I could both become stewards, and
that we should speak to you about it.”

“Hey, that’s great! Jeremiah and Honey could
use the help. The young people are fine, but they require a
lot
of supervision. Last weekend I sent a small group out
with a four-wheeler towing a cart to pick up firewood, and I found
them several hours later with the four-wheeler upside down in a
ditch because they were goofing around.”

Adam chuckled. “I’m sure they had a good time
while they were doing it.”

“I’m very sure of that, too,” Dade said,
smiling. “Anyway, yes, we’d love to have you on the steward team.
On the March full moon, when you two are officially mated, we’ll
have Acksel make you both stewards so it will all be official with
the pack.”