Desert Moon (The Wolves of Twin Moon Ranch Book 1) (15 page)

Her new home. Yes, she could get used to it here.

Ty snuggled close and whispered. “My love.”

She could get used to that, too.

Beyond the living room and kitchen there was more. Space enough for a couple of cubs, when the time came.

Three, at least.
It was Ty, speaking in her mind.

“Hey!” She rolled over, ready to chastise him. The man radiated satisfaction that only wavered when she winced, still sore from her wounds. “Can you hear everything I’m thinking?”

“Just some things.”

She thought it over. Three cubs?

If that’s okay with you
, he hastened to add.

She laughed. Maybe this alpha wasn’t such a tough guy, after all.

“So, what am I thinking now?” Lana lost herself in his eyes and imagined just where she’d like him to touch her next, and how. She wasn’t ready for sex, but the perfect cuddle, that would be just right.

His eyes went liquid with recognition as he rearranged her in the curve of his body, wrapping around her like armor. His lips massaged her right ear with light kisses.

“I didn’t say anything about kisses,” she said in a happy hum.

“Those are extra. You don’t like?” The moment Ty paused, she missed it. Desperately.

“I like, I like!” she said, spurring him back into action.

Slowly, gradually, she let herself relax and take it all in. Ty, strong yet tender. The house, cozy and serene. Beyond them lay the humming beauty of the desert and the endless Arizona sky. She felt her new life envelope her like a comforter, ushering in the warmth of sleep.

I like.

Ty must have agreed, because her back started to rumble from his deep inner purr.

Wolves don’t purr
, he murmured.

This one does
. She smiled, drifting happily to sleep.

EPILOGUE

One week later…

“There’s one more thing we have to do tonight,” Ty whispered, lowering his glistening body to hers. “Are you up for it?”

A drop of sweat fell to Lana’s chest and mingled with the scent of their lovemaking. She watched him rub it into her flesh with one delightfully coarse thumb, sending a shot of warmth to the embers still glowing inside. She was still coming down from her high, the mark on her neck tingling from his mating bite.

Her half-lidded eyes slid past his body, to the windows, up into the night-cloaked hills. She couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for leaving the paradise of bed until she realized what he meant. A serenade of the moon. Was she up for that?

“If we take it slow.” Funny how the man made her feel capable of anything. Loving. Living. Singing.

“As slow as you want,” he promised.

She snorted. “As slow as you went just now?”

His face clouded over. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

Her chuckle gave away the tease. “It was amazing.” She touched the matching bite mark she’d left on his neck. It was already healing, just like her own. After a week of waiting for exactly the right moment, they’d finally marked each other as mates for life. A faint scar would remain as symbol of their eternal link. Her hand slid to Ty’s chest and rested there, feeling his heart rate settle as his fingers wrapped around hers. Going for the blood bond while making love had produced a shattering climax for both of them.

“Amazing,” she breathed. The word fit most of the events of the past week. “You were amazing, too, when we had to deal with your father.”

The old man had boiled over with pure hate the first time she’d met him. Ty had gone into the council house alone the morning of his father’s return, but she had quickly followed him in. They’d promised each other to fight their battles together, after all.

Though the council house was dark and her eyes slow to adjust from the bright sunlight, there was no mistaking Ty’s look—a mixture of frustration and gratitude that sent two messages at the same time:
Jesus, I told you to stay outside
and
Thank God you’re here
.

She would have grinned if not for the three centuries of alpha sitting over there like Mount Vesuvius on a very ugly August day.

“You. Dixon,” Ty’s father snarled.

She pulled her chin up and stood stiff. “Lana.”

Old Tyrone’s eyes bored into her, and she dipped her eyes in the required sign of submission. It was his pack, after all. She’d give him that. That and nothing else, even if it killed her. But the words he uttered next surprised her.

“You look just like your mother.” His voice had a hint of surprise in it, maybe even wonder.

With the nose of my father.
That part, she decided to keep to herself.

She couldn’t help but lean away from his piercing stare and winced when the floorboard creaked underfoot, betraying her anxiety. The minute she glanced at Ty, though, she felt surer, stronger. Because his eyes held the truth. This wasn’t about the past. It was about the future. Their future together.

Ty stood down his father. “This is Lana. My mate.” He bit down on the final T like a dog on a juicy bone. “She stays.”

The old man didn’t answer. He just growled, setting off what seemed to be a telepathic duel in which their eyes did the swordplay, slashing and leaping and parrying in deadly thrusts.

“She’s the enemy!” The old man’s voice joined in the fight, shaking with anger.

“She’s mine!” Ty retorted, immovable as the hills.

As surprised as Lana was at Ty’s words, she was more surprised at her reaction. She liked his possessiveness—loved it, in fact. Because he was hers as much as she was his.

“Don’t make me do this, Dad,” Ty warned.

His father grunted so low that Lana’s knees shook. “Do what?”

Ty’s lips stayed still, but his eyes blazed with the answer.
Leave. Or fight you. Your choice.

She held her breath. Ty would do that for her? Leave the ranch? Deep down, she knew he could never start anywhere else. His world was this ranch. But he meant it. She could see it in his stony expression. God, what was she asking of her mate?

She half expected the earth to start shaking, given the sheer power swirling through the room. But it ended in a stalemate with Ty stomping out of the building, Lana firmly in tow.

“There’s no dealing with him when he’s like that,” Ty muttered.

She blew out a long breath, wondering if the old man was ever any other way. The man was a hazardous chemical, a boiling cauldron. Yet Ty had stood up to him.

“You’re the one who really stood up to him.” Ty said, pulling her attention back to the present. To bed, to the peace of the house, the peace of another night together.

She rubbed her cheek against Ty’s chest.
Heaven is here
, she decided.
Right here.

Ty’s deep voice went on, insistent. “No one’s ever stood up to him like you did.”

“It was you standing up to him,” Lana said, running her chin along the stubble of his jaw.

“It was both of us. And if it wasn’t for your idea about the land trade, who knows what he would have done.”

She allowed herself a small smile. Ty’s father had returned to find he’d missed three crises. The rogues were one. Lana, the forbidden Dixon was another. The third was the land dispute: turning a portion of Seymour Ranch over to the state as parkland was a sure recipe for trouble. Lana had mused over the problem for days. How to protect the pack from the outside world?

The answer came to her after Ty drove her to the proposed parkland at Spring Hollow one day, trying to gain a little distance from his father’s wrath. The man had been threatening Lana with everything from death to dismemberment and banishment, and the confrontations were getting so bitter, she feared how it would all end.

So she and Ty had taken a time out to visit that lovely piece of land, where a tiny stream watered a wooded grove. The minute they stepped out of the car, she felt the magic of the place. An oasis in the desert, with leafy shade, a babbling brook, and soft earth underfoot. No wonder the late Mrs. Seymour wanted to protect that land. Seduced by the melody of birdsong and rippling water, she and Ty made love under the cottonwoods.

“You don’t hear that much any more,” he commented as they lay clasped together afterwards.

“Hear what?”

“The spotted owl.” He signaled with his eyes the next time it cooed.

It took her twenty minutes to find the bird in the dappled shadows and half a day to realize the implications. A little research quickly paid off. The spotted owl was a threatened species.

“I got it!” Breathless with her discovery, she’d burst in on Ty, his father, and the pack elders in what seemed to be their tenth crisis meeting in three days.

The old alpha met her with his usual scowl. The one that hadn’t quite killed her—yet. “If you so much as—”

She cut him off, and even Ty’s jaw hung open at that. “I have your solution. Listen.”

The room went deathly quiet.

She dug in her heels. “The Seymour Ranch issue. I know what to do.”

An elder scoffed audibly, and even Ty gave her an incredulous look.

She spoke directly to him, telling herself it was only Ty she had to face, and not an entire troop of hostile shifters. “The owl, remember?”

Ty gave her a slow nod, his eyes warm with the memory.

“The Mexican spotted owl,” she explained for the benefit of the others, “is an endangered species. A protected species.”

Nothing but blank and angry faces. They just weren’t getting it. Lana all but stomped her foot in exasperation. “We can—I mean, Twin Moon Ranch can declare an adjoining section of its own property a preserve to protect the owls, doubling the size of the Seymour donation. Yes, I mean it,” she insisted to the dismissive faces. “But Twin Moon Ranch would retain the right to that land. That will do it!”

Ty seemed to be the only one who was taking her seriously. “Do what?”

“First of all, it demonstrates good will,” Lana said, ignoring the old alpha’s scowl. Like he’d ever appreciate the subtleties of land negotiations. “If we—
you
—declare the land a nature reserve and vow to keep it off-limits to the public, Seymour Ranch will be forced to do the same.”

There, she thought, watching realization dawn over her audience. She savored the moment for all of three seconds before steaming along while she still had momentum. “At the same time, Twin Moon could cede public right of way to that isolated patch of land you own over near Slide Rock State Park.”

The gathered men grew darker still. Convincing conservative old wolves to give away land? No easy task, but Lana knew exactly how to handle them. She’d been through the wringer with the elders in her home pack on more than one occasion.

She put her hands up before they could protest. “It’s a small parcel with no practical use to the ranch—but it’s got scenic value. That’s our ace. The public will still gain access to new land, and Mrs. Seymour’s wish to set aside Spring Hollow will be respected. Most importantly,” she gathered her nerves and looked old Tyrone right in the eye, “the pack will avoid unwanted visitors. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

She folded her arms and shut her mouth. There. Let them chew on that.

There was a collective scratching of heads, a few surprised stares, but no rebuttals, no complaints. Just a weighty silence that stretched on and on.

“And you think they’ll go for this?” one the elders ventured.

“I know they’ll go for this,” Lana said. “I can draw up a formal proposal and have it ready for the state authorities by tomorrow.”
Plus copies for Seymour Ranch and the usual environmental watchdogs
, she made a mental note to herself, already working out the details. She’d need the original deeds, and maps, and a thousand other things, but that part was all routine. “They’ll take the deal, believe me.”

Nobody seemed too inclined to believe her, but then again, no one was protesting her plan. Not even the mighty old alpha.

“How’d you figure this all out?” Ty had asked, once he’d found the hinge to his jaw.

“It’s what I did at home, silly. It’s my job.”

The elders frowned. Did she really dare speak to the upcoming alpha that way? But Ty just cracked into a grin that was all love layered with pride, and for the next minute, all Lana did was drink it in. Forget the elders, forget his father.

Mate. My mate
. She still couldn’t fathom her luck.

Ty’s father tilted his head as if seeing her in a new light. “That will do,” he grunted, dismissing her.

She managed a firm nod, then made for the door. She got as far as the second hitching post on the right before leaning into it, hard. Jesus. Had she really stood up to the old alpha?

Her pulse was still racing when the council house door opened and Cody came out. His eyes sparkled as he came up to her, like he’d just surfed down the biggest, baddest wave of his life.

“I’d kiss you if my brother wouldn’t skin me alive,” he said, coming right up to her. “Oh, what the heck,” he said, glancing left and right. Then he leaned in and gave her a peck on the cheek. “You did it!” He was like Huck Finn in a second skin, always excited to embark on a fabulous adventure that was sure to go wrong a hundred different times. She wondered if he’d ever grow up.

If only he was aware of the obstacles still ahead of them. Lana didn’t know what the hurdles would be, exactly, but they were out there. The only constant in the tumultuous world of a wolf pack was trouble. Sooner or later, it’d be back, for sure.

Ty came out then, and all her worries fled. With her mate, she could accomplish anything.
They
could accomplish anything.

The door slammed against the wall as Ty’s father stormed out of the council house like the back edge of a hurricane: all dark and mumbly, yet weary. He pulled up two steps away from Lana, and though he fixed her with those laser eyes—just like Ty’s, yet nothing at all like Ty’s—the hand he raised was pointing right. Lana followed it to another low-slung building with dusty panes of glass. “That one,” he barked. “That office. I want her where I can keep an eye on her,” he snapped, then stormed away.