Wolver's Reward (20 page)

"Kat?" He hadn't been, but he was now.

"Is that her name?"

"It's Katarina, but everyone calls her Kat
and I wouldn't call her tranquil exactly. The Alpha says our Kat
has claws."

"How so?" she asked and before River
understood what was happening, he was telling her about Kat and
Wolf's Head pack.

"She's a lucky woman, then, to be able to
show her feelings so freely," the Mate said when he'd told her more
than he intended. "I was an Alpha's daughter, raised to be an
Alpha's Mate. From the very beginning, I was trained to keep my
feelings under strict control. I know no other way, but it isn't
easy, you know, to never allow your true self to show."

The Mate patted his arm with her free hand
and laughed. It wasn't Reb's delighted giggle, but a more refined
chuckle of amusement. "But of course, you know how hard that can
be. You do it, too."

"No, ma'am, I don't. What you see is what you
get."

"And what is that exactly?" She laughed again
and patted his arm. "Forget I asked. No one can truly answer that
unless they've been put to the test. Let's start with something
simpler. Your name is...?" She drew the open phrase up into a
question. She wanted him to supply a last name. He didn't.

"Just River."

"Well, just River, what name do you use on
your driver's license then?"

"You've been talking to Reb." How else would
she know he even had a driver's license? "I used Goodman. It's my
Alpha's name, the one who took me in, the one who mated Kat. He
loaned it to me so I could get the license."

"Nonsense. An Alpha does not 'lend' his name
to anyone who needs a license. He must have thought a good deal of
you to give you his name." She pursed her lips and gave him a
so-there nod. "So tell me, River Goodman, if I were to write to
this Alpha Goodman, who lends his name to every Tom, Dick, and
Harry who needs one, and ask his opinion of your honor and loyalty
as a wolver and member of his pack, what would he say?"

"He'd say he had no complaints," River told
her. "I didn't try to lie, cheat, or steal from him or the pack. I
did my job."

The nod she gave him acknowledged his answer
with no indication of whether or not she believed him. She began to
walk again, this time heading for the edge of the field.

"Why did you come to my aid during the
troubles at the Chase?"

River forgot who he was talking to and
snorted a laugh. "Troubles? That was a helluva lot more than
troubles."

She raised her eyebrows at his rudeness, or
maybe it was his choice of words. Turned out it was both. "What
would you have me call it then? Without swearing, please."

"A disaster." Mindful of her correction, he
left out fucking. "You could have been killed."

"So? It was none of your affair. Why risk
your life for me or mine?"

"It wasn't for you or yours. Your daughter
stole my motorcycle. And my truck," he added to give more weight to
his story which was true up to a point. "I was angry and looking to
blow off steam."

"One does not blow off steam by tearing the
throat from another."

River shrugged, a gesture he knew would bug
the crap out of her. It worked.

"Do not shrug me off and do not lie to me."
It was said firmly, but there was something desperate about the
command and the lady issuing it. She tapped his chest with a long
and delicate finger. "You're not of my pack. I cannot feel what you
feel, but do not think I'm easily fooled. I have been a Mate for a
very long time, and I have learned to see beyond that which is
presented to me. Don't forget, I am an expert at pretense."

"I didn't lie," River told her and while he
tried to keep his voice cool and steady, a little of the burning
anger crept in.

"Yet, you didn't speak the truth." She
touched his arm, this time with a grip that emphasized her words.
"I am a Mate. I am a keeper of secrets and I have reason to ask for
yours. I need the truth, River. It's important to me, to my pack,
and to my mate." Her voice cracked on the last few words. The cool
and collected shell began to crumble and she closed her eyes. A
tear formed in the outer corner of one of them. The Mate released
him and bowed her head, shaking it slightly.

"My true self," she said as she wiped the
tear away. "You should feel privileged, River. Not many get to see
it." Her breath whistled through her lips as she sought to gain
control. "My demand was unfair. Forgive me." she whispered. "I have
no right to ask what you have no wish to tell."

No right? He was messing around with her
daughter, an Alpha's daughter no less. Her husband was sick, maybe
dying. She had people looking to her for comfort and assurance, but
no one to give it back. She had every right to question a lone
wolver who just happened to show up at what she might think was an
opportune time.

"I wasn't lying about Wolf's Head, but I was
born a rogue. Don't ask me how because I don't know. I never knew
my father and my mother never wanted me. That's why I don't have a
name. She was gone before I was old enough to ask her what it was.
I wasn't raised to be anything. I just grew. I was still a pup when
the band became a pack," River told her.

It wasn't a secret. It was what it was, and
talking about it wouldn't make it any different. In the past, he
only shared what he thought would help the others. They were young
enough to change. He wasn't.

"Don't be thinking that changed things or
me," he warned her. "It didn't. A rogue band became a rogue pack.
The only difference was having an Alpha to throw his weight around,
but that didn't make much difference to me either. My life was
shit, no matter who was in charge. I learned to survive. The things
that I remember, I wish I could forget. Except for the Mates." He
didn't ever want to forget them. "There were three, and not one of
them came because they wanted to."

It was River's turn to shake his head, but he
couldn't shake away the pain or the anger that came with the
memory. "I was just a pup, so I didn't understand what a Mate was,
and it wasn't like there was anyone to tell me. But I was old
enough to know some of what was going on. I heard their screams. I
heard them begging, and little as I was, I wanted to tell them to
stop. Stop crying. Don't make a sound. Don't show how much it
hurts. Don't give them what they want. It only makes it worse." He
should have told them. Maybe it would have helped. He'd never
know.

"There were other sounds, too. Ones I didn't
understand at first." He looked up at the Mate. "You know, the
Alpha's touch," he said, thinking that was an inoffensive way to
explain the sounds of the arousal that came when an Alpha wanted
sex with his Mate. It wasn't a secret at Wolf's Head, so he was
surprised to see her blush. He hurried on. "Only afterwards, they
always cried."

Fuck, but he hated to hear them cry. It
always sounded so hopeless and ashamed. It was worse than the
screaming and begging. After a while they wouldn't cry anymore, and
it felt like their silence was louder. It meant they'd given
up.

"Their lives were as shitty as mine,
shittier," he corrected, "because I could hide and they couldn't,
but no matter how bad it got, they always had a smile for me and
the other unclaimed pups. They were the only ones who ever touched
me and didn't hurt." River felt a hand against his cheek and
realized it was his own, following the path of those long ago
female fingers. He dropped his hand to his side and embarrassed,
closed his eyes and finished.

"And then I watched them die. One was killed,
but looking back, I think she arranged it that way. The other two
just faded away until there was nothing of them left. It was the
only escape they had."

She wanted the truth and so he gave it to
her. "I wasn't saving you. I was avenging them."

A Wolver shall not kill for murder or
revenge. It was the Law, and he'd broken it, and he didn't care.
His anger burned white hot while he waited in the silence for her
condemnation.

"Your Alpha's name suits you, River." Her
voice was quiet and gentle. "You should keep it. Let his name be
the reminder of who you are. You are a good man, a good wolver, and
I thank you on behalf of those Mates."

Where his had been rough and callused, the
Mate's hand at his cheek was soft and tender. Like theirs. He
pulled away and turned his head.

"That's bullshit." He felt her wince at the
word, but didn't care. That, too, was part of who he was.

"Then I have raised a liar as well as a
thief." She gave another of her low and throaty chuckles when his
head snapped over and down to stare at her. "Oh, yes. Becky was
distraught over her father's collapse. She thought her actions
caused it. They didn't, of course, but she can be stubborn and
refuse to hear reason. She burst into tears and sobbed out her
story. I do apologize for the baseball bat and rock. She wasn't
raised to be violent," she said as an aside.

"She's a wolver, isn't she?" Violence was
part of their nature. The Mate continued on her walk and he
followed, adding, "And the rock was self-defense. She didn't know
who I was."

"She knows now, or thinks she does. She says
you are a good man. You rescued her. You clothed her without regard
for your own comfort. You sheltered her. You even bought her a
loaded baked potato." This last was said with amusement.

Having circled the field, River expected her
to head back toward the motel, but the Mate wasn't finished. She
continued on to the other side of the field, picking a few of the
flowers as she went. She had a half dozen in her hand before she
spoke again. "You did all that yet you demanded nothing in return.
Why is that, River?"

He shrugged. His smile was much like Darla's,
wry and only turning up one side of his mouth. "All I wanted was my
truck, ma'am."

"Becky believes it's because you're an
honorable wolver," she said and went on before River could object.
"Our Becky is young and inexperienced, and I do not trust her
instincts."

That was what he got for being honest. The
Mate had lured him in with her refined and delicate ways. She'd led
him directly to the chopping block and had him kneeling in front of
it before he even knew it was there. River felt the metaphorical ax
rise above his head and waited for it to fall. It didn't.

"But I do trust Darla's instincts, and she
believes you're the man for the job."

What the fuck? "What job?"

The Mate took his arm again, bending it at
the elbow to suit her required position. The hand holding the
flowers covered the one encircling his forearm.

"Roland needs a Champion and I need someone I
can trust."

Chapter 15

River was feeling pretty good when he rounded
the corner of the motel.

The gig was a good one. All he had to do was
escort the Alpha home and keep him protected along the way. Using
the address he'd found in the van, River figured it to be about
five hundred miles. You didn't have to read well to tally numbers
in your head. The thousand dollars the Mate offered him would work
out to two dollars a mile and she was willing to pay for gas and
lodging, too. Not bad money for a couple of days on the road.

If it was up to him, he'd make the run in one
ten hour shot, maybe twelve if you counted on a couple of pit stops
and a lunch break. "Five hundred miles in a day won't be that
hard."

Margaret, as the Mate insisted he call her,
refused his suggestion out of hand.

"Six hours a day will be more than enough.
The pack isn't used to such long hours of travel and Roland will
need the extra time to rest and recuperate."

He didn't argue. For two days' work, it was
still good money considering most of it would be spent sitting on
his ass and the extra day, and night, he thought with a grin, came
with a bonus. He'd get more time to play boyfriend to Reb.

Anyway, the Mate was probably right. Two days
would not only give the Alpha time to heal, it would put them past
the third day of the full moon and past the immediate threat of a
Challenge should anyone get the bright idea to try it.

River wasn't really concerned with the
members of the Alpha's pack. He saw no one with any fighting
potential except Darla and, being female, she was out of the
running. For the most part, the others looked out of shape and
genuinely concerned for their Alpha's welfare. It was the new
members that bothered him and the Mate was bothered by them too,
though she voiced it in that funny way she had.

"I'm concerned about the fidelity of our
potential new members. I find their credibility to be somewhat in
doubt."

Yeah, He wasn't sure about the fidelity part,
but he knew what credibility was, and he was worried, too. Eighteen
members of Saint Dennis's pack were still unaccounted for and it
was those that worried him the most. They owed no loyalty to anyone
but themselves.

Saint Dennis sounded too good to be true
which meant he probably was, which meant the joining of packs was a
scam. If River was running the swindle, he'd make sure he brought
his most innocent looking partners with him. He couldn't remember
seeing the wolvers they'd lost, but he would bet they looked more
like Ben and the cousins than like Scar. They could call themselves
whatever they liked. They were still rogues and couldn't be trusted
no matter what their intentions were and it wasn't only the Alpha
who would need protection.

There would be other challenges as well. In
River's experience, rogues didn't challenge so much for position
within the hierarchy of the pack as they did for power. And they
wouldn't mind drawing blood or worse in the process. The rogue
world was based on survival of the fittest which Ryker always said
was a good thing.