Snow Wolf: Wolves of Willow Bend (Book 9) (3 page)

Ranae blinked. “I’m sorry?”

Smart enough to note his phrasing, green enough to call him on it. “It’s a mistake to believe the Enforcers are ever only doing one thing or on a mission for one reason. Only a fool would expect less from their Chief Enforcer.” The most senior of their kind and far too old for these kind of games.

Her lips compressed into a thin line. “You should let him in.”

“No.” He dismissed the suggestion. “Tell me what else Mason sent you here to say.”

“I told you, I’m here to bring you up to date on the attacks, to verify that the Yukon is secure, and to make you aware of the potential threats. I have reports on the number of wolves killed and descriptions of those identified as liaisons with the Russian packs…”

When she would have reached for her bag, Diesel shook his head. “I don’t care about those details.” Surprise flickered in her gaze. “What did he tell you to say to me? Specifically.”

“About you or to you?” An element of challenge roiled in those syllables. His cheek muscle ached, and it took him a moment to realize he’d smiled.

“Both.” Though he wanted the latter. Why had Mason sent this wolf with her alluring scent? The longer he stood there, the more certain he grew. He’d scented her in Willow Bend. The draw of it pulled at him, demanded he close the deal, but he needed to be sure. Alphas did not like to have their wolves stolen, but if Diesel had his way—Ranae Buckley would not be leaving the Yukon again.

“He said you were old and set in your ways. That I should be patient with you and to obey the restrictions about waiting to contact you.”

Old.

Set in his ways.

For a split-second, amusement flared in her eyes. “He also said I only had to wait two weeks.”

“For what?”

“To deliver the message and verify that you still ruled the Yukon.”

“If you couldn’t in two weeks?”

“Then I was to return to the airstrip in Prudhoe Bay, make my way to Seattle, and from there go back to Willow Bend.” The corner of her mouth turned down, and her knuckles went white.

There it is…
Uncertainty. “How are you supposed to verify I’m still ruling the Yukon?”

“You’re alive aren’t you?” Irritation won the battle with uncertainty. “I think we should invite Julian in, complete this briefing, and then we’ll be on our way.”

Yes. He was very much alive. “Julian can wait.” Diesel circled the sofa and stalked toward her. “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?”

Three strides brought him right in front of her, and only the slap of her hand against his bare chest halted him. “I came to deliver a
message
—verbal—that’s it.”

Sweet contact of her flesh on his sent a shudder through his wolf, confirming what his nose already detected. “I heard your message…but you’re mine.”

A flush turned her skin pink and her pupils dilated. “The hell I am.”

Riding the high of her nearness, Diesel leaned into the force of her hand on his chest. “I know my mate’s scent. I searched for you all over Willow Bend. Why else would Mason send you?” The moment the words left his lips, he reconsidered the phrasing. Her eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared.

“I’m a Hunter of Willow Bend. I am here to deliver a message from
my
Alpha—and I don’t care what century you were born in old man, but we don’t arrange matings. You don’t just get to walk in here, thump your chest and say
mine
.” The ferocious light in her eyes sent a quiet thrill through his bloodstream. His wolf roused to the hunt, every color and nuance sharpening under their study.

“No?” He didn’t want to miss a moment of her reaction. Her dilated pupils constricted even as her mouth tightened. Anger soured her scent and her nails bit into his muscle as he pressed into the contact. Despite a faint tremble, she didn’t shift her grip or attack him. Would she? If he provoked her enough? The idea intrigued the hell out of him. No Alpha wanted a weak mate.

“No.” She withdrew the contact then retreated one step. Crowding closer, he refused to let her abandon him. “Dude…get a grip. I came here to do a job.” A muscle in her jaw twitched. “Or maybe you are trying to prove you don’t hold the Yukon?”

Challenge wound through every syllable. Canting his head to the side, he raised one eyebrow and waited.

“What? Playing crazy, eccentric keeps the other packs at bay and allows you to dictate the terms of your interactions. You don’t want to talk; you walk away or slam a door. You want to shut me down; you declare I’m yours.” Folding her arms, Ranae raised her chin and, although the gold circle on around her gray-green irises faded, it didn’t diminish completely. “It won’t work and I’m really not interested in the games. We have serious issues to discuss with you, Alpha. You can get on board or be left behind to cope on your own should the Russian packs turn their gaze on your territory and your pack.”

Amusement curved through him. Passionate determination etched into her expression. “Our pack will be fine.”

“
My
pack will be, absolutely. Your pack is debatable.” The aggravation in her scent muted beneath the sting of frustration. “Now you’re baiting me.” Sidestepping him, she tried to put some distance between them. He allowed her three steps before intercepting her again. He wanted her gaze on him, nowhere else. “Seriously, you have a problem.”

“No, I have a mate, but continue telling me why our pack is in danger.”

Pausing, her lips tightened and her eyes narrowed. The curl of her fingers into a fist telegraphed her next move. Would she do it? He pressed into her space, and she rewarded his effort with fresh contact in the form of a blow. It caught him square above his heart, and the second with her elbow connected with his jaw. He accepted both blows, but refused to retreat.

“Your training is incomplete.” Whatever response she’d been expecting, his comment surprised her. “Otherwise you’d understand that two hits will not take down an enraged male, if you want to escape you have to incapacitate or kill.”

“I don’t want to fight you.”

“Wonderful. I have no desire to fight you, but if you need to beat on me to make yourself feel better, go right ahead. I’m very sturdy.”

The corner of her mouth kicked into an involuntary smile, and his breath lodged in his throat, the single glimpse of sweetness a better reward than he could have imagined. “Are you insane?”

“Depends on your definition of sanity.” The tangle of her hair contrasted with the wool of her pullover. How soft would the strands be? When she failed to respond, he reached out to test his theory. She slapped his hand away, and the sting intrigued him.

“Stop.” Command reverberated through the single syllable. “I came here as a messenger, nothing else. Keep your teeth and your hands to yourself. Am I clear?”

In all things, an Alpha could command. He could take a life. He could grant it. Wolves who pledged to an Alpha could be sent into the heart of danger and forfeit all that they owned. The heart, however, could not be commanded nor could he take what she would not willingly give.

His wolf bucked at the rejection, but Diesel withdrew three steps to give her space. Clasping his hands behind his back, he studied the beautiful Hunter before him. She would not tumble easily, nor would she accept his direct pledge. Very well, if he had to learn to court, then he would find what enticed her. “Dress,” he ordered. “Several layers. We will be leaving the guest quarters.”

Expecting obedience, he turned to the entrance and pressed the code to allow Julian entry.

“Are you staying with her or leaving?” Her presence was non-negotiable.

“Since you asked so nicely…” The Chief Enforcer’s expression barely shifted, yet a smirk echoed beneath his words. “I’d be happy to stay.”

Uninterested in the old wolf’s games, Diesel spared his mate another studying look. Ranae gaped at him, and she hadn’t moved a muscle.

“Trust me when I say it will be more comfortable if you get dressed, but if you insist on testing my patience, I’ll happily take care of stripping you first then dressing you.”

The taunt did what the order would not. She moved.

His wolf rose, stretching and raking his claws. Yes, they had the scent of this hunt.

D
iesel is an asshole
. The thought played on repeat in her brain as she tugged on the layers he’d ordered. After the trip out from Prudhoe Bay, she had no desire to venture into the cold without her thermals and heavy jacket. Wolf or not, she couldn’t handle the frigid conditions.
The next time I see A.J., I’m gonna punch him.

After dragging on her coat, she stuffed her other clothes into the duffel before scouring the room for any other items she might have misplaced. The last thing she expected on her trip was to clash with the Yukon Alpha. Pausing with her hand on a bottle of lotion, she glanced at the closed doorway. Even with a door between them, the crisp scent of snow on fur seemed a permanent addition to her nostrils. Her palm stung from where she struck him and her elbow ached. She’d attacked the Alpha of the Yukon pack. The weight of her actions didn’t descend until she stowed the last of her things.

Her job was to deliver a message, and she’d failed the first part by letting him control the narrative. Mason had wanted him alerted to the potential danger, not assaulted. Diesel didn’t seem remotely put off by her response, if anything…
He seemed amused.

The order to pack her things so he could transfer her residence caught her off guard. Was he really crazy? Distant? Or was it more of an act? She and Julian arrived forty-eight hours prior. The Chief Enforcer went looking after he tired of waiting, a fact she’d been grateful for. Julian might be able to stuff all of his dominance down below the surface, but she’d spent two days cooped up with him. The moment he’d left, she’d been able to breathe. The only concession she’d made to the rules of her stay was to keep the leather cuff on she’d been given when she arrived at the base camp.

Tikaani was much farther inland, and the conditions beyond their guest residence left her blood chilly. Hell, she didn’t want to strip down to bare skin in the antechamber in order to shift. Diesel’s thin clothing and bare feet hadn’t been lost on her.

Sucking in a deep breath, she zipped the duffel closed and snagged her heavy coat before stomping toward the door.
No.
Halting, she closed her eyes and breathed through the aggravation. His bold claims to the side, it didn’t matter if he was batcrap crazy and declared her his mate. She didn’t have to accept. No one could force a mating. If he were like most overbearing and dominant males, he could have said what he did just to shut her up.

Dylan told her stories of wolves who took calls while in his presence. Diesel left them and didn’t return for days at a time, leaving them dangling. Even her waiting two days only to have Julian fetch him said he didn’t really care about what she wanted or needed. Checking her phone, she made sure she had enough of a charge and then she set an alarm to go off in thirty minutes. The alarm would sound like a ring. If phone calls deterred him—perhaps it would buy her some time.

Grounding her temper, she considered his actions. Every single one seemed geared to bait her and elicit a response. She’d failed, epically, by striking him. What she needed was to apply rational thought and logic to the problem, not her dominance.
I’ll never really win against an Alpha anyway.

Honestly, she didn’t need to win. She only needed to do her job. Stiffening her spine, she resumed her pace for the front room sans stomping and anger. Diesel and Julian waited for her. The Chief Enforcer remained as inscrutable as ever, but the Yukon Alpha actually smiled at her appearance. The smile warmed his chilly eyes and softened the hard line of his jaw. The simple curve of his lips transformed him from impenetrable to almost approachable—not that she wanted to approach him. Standing near shoulder to shoulder, the men also bore more than a passing resemblance to each other.

“Do you have everything?” His question distracted her from the comparison. A good idea, she didn’t need to make mental notes about either of them. The sooner she was done with them, the better. How did the other wolves stand to be so near them? Mason was at least approachable—even when he was pissed off at her.

Adjusting her duffle over her shoulder, she worked to get her mind back on task. “I packed light.” She’d also stuffed a knit cap over her head, and she had a hood she could pull up. The neoprene mask offered her more than warmth, so she pulled it on. Diesel’s brows climbed at her action, yet the firm line of his mouth remained curved. He extended his hand as though planning to take her bag, but she tightened her grip and glared at him.

Maybe she couldn’t hold his gaze, but she wasn’t some helpless ninny. His smile deepened for a second, and a ripple passed through her abdomen. He really was quite handsome. Didn’t matter. According to their mates, all of her brothers were drop dead gorgeous, too. Every single one of them were a pain in the ass, no matter how much she loved them. A pretty face didn’t interest her.

“Shall we?” she asked when the silence between them stretched. A moment of humor appeared in Julian’s normally expressionless face. Great, now even the Enforcer laughed at her.

“Of course.” The low gravel hum of Diesel’s voice rasped against her senses. Despite the harshness of it, the sensation wasn’t unpleasant. Ignoring the ridiculous response, she fought her hesitation to approach the door. Both Julian and Diesel stood between her and the destination. No matter her dominance, she didn’t dare cross them, and she’d already made the misstep of challenging the Alpha.

Months spent stifling her reckless impulses should have made her choice easier. Instead, she relished the anticipation bubbling in her gut. How far could she push them? When neither man moved, she sighed. Another minute passed and she studied the pair of them from beneath lowered lashes. Nearly equal in height, both men sported that nearly platinum shade of blond hair. Their eyes were similar, but where Diesel’s burned with some kind of cold fire, Julian’s were glacially opaque. They seemed almost equal in their dominance, and though both were considerably older than her, they seemed like contemporaries.

They were also staring at each other. Measuring? Weighing? Considering the best way to take the other out? None of those were ideal in the current situation. Curling her toes inside her boots, the one motion she could make without alerting either of them to her unease, contained the need to tap her foot.

Either these two were about to lash out in some kind of dominance challenge or they communicated on a level she didn’t understand. Annoyed by either possibility, she cleared her throat. “Is there a secret password or handshake? Or are we waiting for someone to beam us up?” Once upon a time, her mother accused her of possessing an abrasive personality. Ranae had scoffed. Had her mother never seen how she dealt with Ranae’s brothers? A.J., Tyler, and Linc were triplets—

powerful wolves, each and every one, headstrong, stubborn, and each possessing the trait labeled Alpha potential.

If Ranae was abrasive, it was because she’d learned how to manage stubborn, hard asses from her mother at an early age.

The tension in the room seemed to pop, the relief flooding her limbs a visceral reminder of the tangential danger of her position. Diesel chuckled. The harsh sound almost grating and yet liberating in the same breath. She had to bite the inside of her lip to keep from joining him.

“From the mouths of pups,” Julian spoke first.

Diesel’s amusement evaporated. “Have a care with your tone.”

As though undeterred by the warning, the Chief Enforcer wore a bland smile. “It isn’t my tone you take issue with.” The men locked gazes and the temperature in the room plummeted even as the tension rose.

Ranae could leave it alone, or she could do her job. After peeling away the neoprene, she slid two fingers to her lips and let loose with a shrill whistle. Both men jerked, and the weight of their attention slapped against her. “Pissing contests later. I didn’t put on all these layers to sit here and watch you two butt heads. We have a job to do, and I shouldn’t need to remind
either
of you.”

The lines around Diesel’s eyes tightened, and his gaze went almost incandescent. “You are correct, Sweet. We should relocate this discussion.” With only a glance at the Chief Enforcer, he added, “You are only invited so long as you remember your place.”

“I have no place in your pack.” Julian’s even tones carried not even an ounce of rancor.

Diesel raised his hand. “That’s all you have to say. You have no place.”

For the first time since she met the Enforcer, Ranae glimpsed a ripple of shock disturb his unreadable composure, and she had to bite back a laugh. Some sound must have escaped, however, because Diesel canted his head toward her and a smile flirted with the corners of his mouth.

“Ranae Buckley.” He enunciated every syllable of her name like a caress. “Welcome to the Yukon Pack. Please accept that you are under my protection. If you will join me, I will take you to where my pack is wintering.”

Affixing her neoprene mask again, she nodded. The formal declaration deserved a response. “Thank you—Alpha. Forgive me, I don’t know your full name.”

“Diesel is fine.” His muscles flexed as he released the door to the antechamber. He stepped into the room first, then held the door for her. She had to brush past him to step inside. She tightened her grip on her duffle, but he didn’t insult her by trying to take it. No sooner had she entered than Diesel released the door. Julian barely caught it before it slammed him in the face.

Thankful for the mask hiding her smile, she angled her gaze at the floor. One of the worst things she could do to a dominant male included laughing at their posturing. When two were involved, it was better to keep herself out of the line of fire.

“I’m touched by your hospitality.” The dry note in Julian’s tone echoed a hint of humor.

“Don’t get comfortable.” Diesel advised him, but his attention remained riveted on her. “The temperature outside is too fierce for anything but our wolf coats or heavier gear.” He stretched past her to tug down one of the parkas, then held it up for her to slide her arms into. It was an offer. Not an order.

Interesting
. Maybe old dogs learned new tricks faster than young ones. Keeping that thought to herself, she set her duffle down before letting him help her into the parka. He tugged the hood up, then zipped the jacket closed.

“Stay close to me. The darkness can play tricks on the mind.” Retrieving her duffle from the floor, he held it out to her. “There are ropes between the other dwellings, but we don’t attach the guest quarters.”

Nodding once, she murmured, “I understand.”

“Are you familiar with snowshoes?”

“Yes.” She had to bite off attaching the word sir to it then scowled at her kneejerk response. “Yes, sir. Thank you.” Having given the inch already, she didn’t complain as he set up the shoes for her to snap her feet into place. They were damn awkward, but she hadn’t lied. She could ski, snowshoe, and snowboard for that matter. Willow Bend might not be the Yukon, but a little snow and ice wouldn’t deter her.

He nodded, then glanced at Julian. The Enforcer slid on his own parka, but didn’t bother to zip it. Once he had his snowshoes on, Diesel hit the pressure button to help drop the temperature in the room. A hiss of air indicated the machinery had gone to work. Diesel’s eyes tightened. The technology they used to insulate their dwellings impressed her. From all accounts, the Yukon wolves were a throwback to an entirely different century.

The temperature readout on the thermostat on the wall began to drop steadily.

“Remember, Sweet, stay close to me. Don’t let me out of your sight.” With those words, Diesel shifted. The speed of his transformation left her momentarily breathless. She’d never seen anyone change with such absolute smoothness. Even the crunch of his bones crackled like ice chipping rather than shattering. The wolf standing before her stood nearly as high as her breastbone. He was huge and perfectly snow white. Unlike the wolves she’d known, his eyes were as blue as his human form.

Or were his human eyes wolf?

She was still turning the question over in her mind when the outer door hatch released. Julian pushed it open, and Diesel caught her gaze, holding it. Command reflected in the depths of his eyes.

“I said I would follow you.” Assurance wasn’t in her nature, but to be fair, they were infringing on his territory. The wolf nodded, then plunged out into the darkness and the snow. Trepidation tangled with curiosity in her gut, and left her insides knotted as she followed him into the unknown.

P
adding only
a step ahead of her, Diesel tested the air with his nose even as he listened for any hint of danger on the wind. No matter the admonishment he’d given Ranae, he didn’t range far from the Willow Bend Hunter. Julian could take care of himself, a fact he’d already proven by slipping by the Sentries and hunting Diesel down on the tundra. A low growl carried on the breeze and Diesel silenced Grinder with a look. Fluff stalked behind the other Sentry, her gray coat shimmering with ice crystals.

A glower lit her gold eyes and she looked past him to the two wolves trailing in his wake. Adjusting his position, he blocked his Sentries and issued a low sub-vocal growl to warn them off. Both dropped their gazes obediently, then ranged out to the sides. One thing he’d never worried about with his wolves was obedience. They were all loyal, steadfast and one hundred percent his. Even when he didn’t take the time they deserved.

The bump of Ranae’s leg into his side sent a frisson of awareness skittering over his nerves. Warm honey tickled his nose against the frost and snow. The overlay stimulated him, and he wanted to snap at anyone too close. The unmistakable draw of mate beckoned to his wolf. A sudden gust of wind and Ranae stumbled. Julian caught her arm, balancing her. Lips peeling back from his teeth, Diesel snarled, but Ranae jerked her arm from the Enforcer.

Her growl pleased him. Leaning into the gust, she plowed forward and Diesel cut between her and Julian. Grinder and Fluff wouldn’t offer a threat to his mate. The male ranged closer, offering guidance toward the central building. All the cabins looked alike to outsiders, a deliberate choice on their part. Outsiders would never see more than the ramshackle and rustic cabins in the middle of nowhere. It protected his pack, left others with the impression he lived in another time, another century…and it was an impression he encouraged.