Authors: Lorie O'Clare
happened. “Dimitri has Maura?” he asked, even though he knew the answer. His packmates didn’t like it when he responded to their thoughts. It was better to ask questions and wait to let them voice the answers. Although sometimes he’d get more accomplished if he could simply act on what he heard in their minds.
“Apparently she left your den and was walking down the road. Dimitri isn’t sure yet how the pack will react to another
lunewulf
bitch among us.”
“Thank you, Maria. I feel better already.” Josie stood in spite of Maria’s efforts to keep him in the chair longer. Reaching for his shirt, he then grabbed the back of the chair. “The least I can do is help get your den back in order before you have more than a houseful.”
“Leave him be, Mom.” Rosa moved and put her hands on her mother’s shoulders.
“He thinks he can keep his brand-new mate from inspecting him from head to toe if he tries to outrun her.”
“You can’t outrun a
lunewulf
bitch.” Heidi laughed, but then cocked her head at Josie. “Are you okay?”
“He’s hurt pretty bad and seems to think all that muscle will keep anyone from noticing.” Maria stuck her chin out stubbornly. She planned on sticking to that story, and would more than likely advertise the news the second she had a chance to howl about it.
“I promise I’ll live to fight another challenge.” He winked at the old bitch, which didn’t faze her a bit.
“Trust me. I’ve seen him take on a hell of a lot more than three males before and win,” Nicolo offered.
“But never when he promised not to use the gift to fight.” Rosa looked directly at him, her scent turning defiant.
“That’s right.” Nicolo looked at him as if he’d just figured something out—and he had. “Those males did demand the gift not be used. You usually send males flying when you fight.”
Josie didn’t want this conversation. The last thing he needed was all of them seeing how weak he was without the gift.
“I have no problem honoring a request during a challenge.” He turned toward the door when the sound of tires crunching over snow grabbed all of their attention.
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Rosa moved around them, her thoughts turning toward Dimitri. She combed her
thick black hair with her fingers as she hurried to the door. For the life of him, Josie couldn’t figure out what the bitch saw in Dimitri. He was cranky and always smelled of a foul temper. For some reason she saw that as a challenge, and even more surprisingly, found him good-looking. Just more proof that bitches were damn hard to figure out.
At the moment though, Josie was thankful for the distraction of their arrival. It got the conversation off the challenge and why he’d fought so poorly.
“Josie.” Maura burst into the den smelling better than anything he’d inhaled so far today. Her blue eyes lit up like sapphires when she saw him and instantly she was in his arms. “Why did you leave me?” she asked quietly.
“The last thing I’ll have is her roaming the pack,” Dimitri barked, pointing a finger at Maura’s back and glaring at him.
“Thanks for bringing her to me.” Josie ignored Dimitri’s foul mood. He also ignored the irritating ointment clinging to his flesh. “Are we going to sand the roads before it starts snowing?”
“I already put a few calls in.” Dimitri studied Josie’s face, then glanced at the rest of him.
He had questions about last night—questions Josie didn’t want to answer in front of everyone. When Rosa looked from Dimitri to him, her frown didn’t sit well. Maura looked at him too while her fingers gently probed his chest.
“Do you have to work today?” Maura asked him, keeping her back to the rest of his pack and looking up at him questioningly. “I smell the medicine on you. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine.” They would not start in on a conversation about the challenge last night.
“Heidi and Rosa will hang with you. We’ll be back later.”
Maura’s expression faded, her face going blank while her mind suddenly rushed faster than a mountain creek.
He took off without waking me this morning and now he
’
s
closing himself off to me
.
But why
?
Ignoring Rosa’s frown over Maura’s thoughts, Josie brought Maura’s hands to his mouth, inhaling her sweet scent deep into his lungs and then tasting her. While he ran along the mountain today, at least he would have her buried in his senses. Although it wasn’t like she wasn’t branded into his mind already.
Josie put Maura at arm’s length and kept his expression calm when he met Rosa’s attentive look.
Share any of the random thoughts you are pulling from my brain with Maura
and I
’
ll make sure Dimitri finds you a mate who will make you miserable for life
, he told Rosa with this mind. Her eyes got wide before she tossed her long hair over her shoulder and turned away from him, focusing on Dimitri.
Go to hell
,
wolf man
.
Her response didn’t reassure him that she would refrain from sharing her opinion as to why Josie seemed so closemouthed all of a sudden.
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“Bring your kill by later and I’ll serve it up hot for you,” Rosa whispered to Dimitri and ran her finger down his arm.
Nicolo didn’t hide his grin and Dimitri scowled further, deciding not to respond, more than likely because the bitch rendered him speechless.
“I’ll come get you later.” Josie reached for Maura’s jaw, holding it firmly in his hand and then planting a warm kiss on her soft lips. Hopefully that would calm her frazzled thoughts and keep her from pondering out loud too much in front of the other bitches.
He followed Dimitri and Nicolo into Valle, the three of them deciding hot coffee and catching up on today’s pack news from the surrounding territories would be the best way to get the day started. No more than five minutes after they were inside Bernie’s Den, the questions started.
“Hear you tore into some
lunewulfs
last night?” Bernie was an oversized American werewolf with arms the size of small tree trunks. He wiped down the counter in front of Josie and the others and grinned, showing off a few black holes where teeth used to be.
“I can imagine how everyone is howling about it,” Josie said lightly, more than aware of the other werewolves leaning in to catch what they could and confirm or deny the rumors that were likely flying around like bats in a cave.
“It was all I heard late into the night last night.” Bernie turned from them, grabbing damp glasses from a drying rack and heading over to the tap. “When the pack settled in here after their run, it was all they talked about. Something about you killing a
lunewulf
and his den challenging you to draw first blood.”
“Sounds like you Americans have a pretty good grapevine running through your pack.” Nicolo got comfortable on the barstool next to Josie but then declined the free beer offered. “Coffee, black if you don’t mind. Just got out of the den and need to wake up first.”
“So there really was a challenge to draw first blood?” Bernie’s excitement almost drowned out the smell of stale beer that lingered everywhere in the place. “How many of them did you kill?”
Ollie Grayson, the American pack leader, and Larry Shank, another American who was about as thick and large as Ollie, sauntered into Bernie’s. Both of them picked up the pace the moment they saw Josie, Dimitri and Nicolo.
Josie turned when Dimitri sniffed the overwhelming excitement and adrenaline that hung heavy around all of them. The two pack leaders nodded, acknowledging each other. But Ollie wanted the same news his bartender did and quickly turned his attention to Josie.
“I haven’t seen a challenge to draw first blood in many years,” he said quietly, quickly surveying Josie’s physical appearance. His thoughts were louder than the other American werewolf, a sign of powerful confidence. It was clear from Ollie’s thoughts that he viewed the visible healing wounds as signs that Josie killed at least a few werewolves last night.
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Josie turned and grabbed his coffee, downing half the cup in spite of the bitter taste and how it burned his esophagus. Ollie’s phone made a chirping sound, lighting up and vibrating all at the same time. The overall ruckus grabbed more than the pack leader’s attention as several turned and stared at the thing that practically danced across the thick waistline of the werewolf before he pulled it free. Ollie ignored everyone as he answered, and his relaxed disposition hardened quickly.
Dimitri stared at Josie, and they all smelled spicy anger flowing off the American pack leader as he hissed into his cell phone.
“On my way.” Ollie snapped his phone shut and looked at Larry. “That was Gus Johnson. He’s got some
lunewulf
males in his restaurant who seems to be talking a bit of trash.” Ollie raised an eyebrow at Josie, and half of his forehead wrinkled. “You might want to come along. Seems they are gloating over a rather nice victory over the Malta werewolves.”
“I knew this would fucking happen.” Dimitri kicked at the snow as he walked in between Nicolo and Josie. The American werewolves hurried out ahead of them, out of hearing distance. Dimitri glared at Josie. “Why the hell didn’t you fight last night?”
Josie knew Dimitri’s wrath would hit sooner or later. Privately he gave thanks the three of them were alone when it did.
“I gave my word not to use the gift.”
“You let two of them live.”
Josie stopped, sucking in cold air that damn near strangled his lungs before choosing his words carefully. At the moment though, pissing Dimitri off further didn’t matter much to him. “You try to kill three werewolves without fighting back when they attack,” he hissed.
“You’re a fucking ass,” Nicolo snarled, voicing Josie’s thoughts as he growled at his littermate and then left him standing there, heading across the parking lot.
Snow started falling around them in lazy circular patterns. Josie ignored it and picked up the pace, following Nicolo. Dimitri was on his heels, his heavy breathing filling the cold air with the smell of fish, which didn’t mix well with his anger.
“They get one blow, then you tear them apart. I didn’t know I had to fucking spell it out for you in the snow.”
“Nope. But it sounds like I need to spell it out for you.” Josie turned, staring Dimitri in the face. Pack leader or not, he had too much fucking hostility in him to go help the Americans with the
lunewulfs
. Especially when he didn’t understand what really happened. “I can’t fucking fight without using the gift. Imagine being told you could fight, but you couldn’t use your claws or your teeth. Think for one damned minute. The gift you curse to hell and back for being the root of all your problems would have saved me from humiliation last night. I consented to their request in order to show that Malta werewolves have honor.”
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Nicolo turned around, marching right back up to them and then stuffing his finger in Dimitri’s face. “You better tell him right now that he fought pretty damned well under such a severe handicap.”
Dimitri looked at Nicolo for a long moment, his thoughts spinning around in his head so fast that Josie backed out of his mind so he wouldn’t get dizzy. Finally he looked down, appearing suddenly to be overly interested in all of their boots. “I agreed to help the American pack leader with some
lunewulfs
in his territory. If you two want to fight, save it for when we’re in our own territory. Now are both of you going to walk by my side and help out here or do I go by myself?”
In a warped, very fucked-up way, Dimitri did his best to tell both of them he wanted them by his side. Josie pitied the bastard. So much hatred and anger swelled inside the werewolf that it served as a cushion for all other emotions. Be it good or bad, it prevented him from getting soft, even for one moment. He would never howl Josie’s praises, not now or ever.
Josie turned away from the two littermates. “I’ll meet you both over there.”
Heading for his car, it crossed his mind to just leave them to their task and head out into the mountains to get away from everyone’s thoughts. Unfortunately, at the moment he wasn’t sure he wanted to be alone with the misery swimming around in his own mind.
Might be better to just go kick some ass.
Josie slid into his car, wrapping his fingers around the icy cold steering wheel and firing the engine to life.
“I remember when I first decided Renee would be my mate.” The old male sitting in the passenger seat didn’t have a smell to him.
“Bruno.” Josie stared in disbelief at his pack leader from Malta. “How in the hell did you figure out how to return from the dead?”
The old male’s face wrinkled around his eyes and mouth when he grinned. It
wasn’t something he remembered Bruno doing very often.
“Pretty good trick, huh?” Bruno’s smile faded. “Probably wouldn’t help me out much in a challenge though. You’ve truly mastered the gift when you can use it even after you’re not supposed to.”
“Are you saying I should have dishonored myself and my pack last night?” Josie shook his head slowly and then stared at his knuckles, noticing how pale they were from gripping the steering wheel.
“There’s no lack of honor in accepting your feelings. And even less disgrace once you learn to show them.”
Josie stared at the old male and started wondering if they were talking about the challenge or something else. Bruno sat next to him, filling the passenger seat with his large frame. His dark skin looked weathered, but not pale. If anything he glowed, as if life was very good to him. Odd that he couldn’t hear any thoughts. Josie swore he sat alone in his car, hearing nothing but his own mind. Yet the werewolf next to him looked very much alive.
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For Life
“When I decided I wanted Renee, I knew it was time to become pack leader. A bitch as beautiful and perfect as my mate couldn’t be seen with just any rogue werewolf.”
Bruno looked at him, his dark eyes like glassy marbles, not revealing a damned thing.
Bruno looked ahead of them and pointed as Nicolo and Dimitri left the parking lot.