Wolver's Reward (25 page)

He knew this because Forest was an Alpha's
daughter too, and the older she got, the more her feelings were
broadcast to the females of her pack. When Forest got upset, every
female within two hundred yards became upset right along with her,
until Kat intervened. Mrs. Martin, the old housekeeper, said Forest
would learn to control it as she matured.

River felt a stirring of pride for the
strength and control Reb, who wasn't much older than Forest,
showed. His Babe-in-the-woods wasn't a girl like Forest, though she
wasn't quite as strong as her mother, either.

As they'd stood in the narrow space beside
the bed and listened to her father's explanation of what happened
to his leg, her hands began to shake. She'd shoved them behind her
to hide her weakness and River, who was standing at her back,
clasped the grasping fingers in his own.

"I've got you," he whispered and she
immediately calmed. All Reb needed was something to hang onto to
restore her cool.

The Mate took it like a champ. She didn't bat
an eye. "I think it's a reasonable diagnosis, Roland. It's logical,
don't you think? Your body has been strong enough to confine the
poison, but not strong enough to defeat it. Drain the poison, clear
out the damaged tissue, and give your body the chance to do the
rest. It makes perfect sense and should be done immediately."

"I heartily concur, my dear."

River heartily concurred, too, mostly because
he didn't think the Alpha had much time left. When he told the old
wolver about cutting out the poisoned flesh, River never thought
about who would be doing the cutting.

"What do you need?" Roland asked.

He never thought the Mate would agree to it,
either.

"Yes, River. You must tell us what needs to
be done."

That was easy enough. "You need to find
someone you can trust with a knife," he told her, hoping she'd get
the hint.

The Mate smiled at him. "That would be you,
dear."

"Are you nuts?" he blurted, completely
forgetting who he was talking to. "You don't even know me. You've
already been scammed once. Didn't you learn anything at all? I
could be lying. I could be planning to kill you and take over the
pack."

He felt the anger rising and if it hadn't
been for Reb clutching his fingers in what was now a death grip, he
would have walked out. He would have hopped on his bike, left his
truck and his belongings behind, and taken off into the night. When
he ran out of gas, he would have shifted and run as a wolf until
the dying moon brought him home.

"I've got you," Reb whispered and something
in the way she said it restored his calm. The anger was still
there, but it was under control.

"Why would you tell us this if that was your
plan?" the Mate asked.

Because that was the best way to run a con.
You exposed all the flaws and possibilities to the mark, so they
would come to the same conclusion as the Mate.

"I wouldn't," he admitted because they
wouldn't understand, it would take too long for him to explain, and
there were questions he didn't want asked about how he knew these
things.

"I told you," Margaret said to her mate.

They were holding hands, too, and Roland
returned her reassuring squeeze. "I accede to your wisdom, my
dear."

River kept Reb's hand in his while the plans
were made. He didn't let go even after the Alpha dismissed them,
and the Mate stayed behind to help him dress for the short walk
across the lot.

Roland insisted his pack see him on his feet
and walking tall. With that leg, River thought it was a wonder the
man could walk at all and his reluctant admiration grew.

"They're crazy. You know that, don't you?" he
asked as together they watched the Alpha speak to his pack.

"I know," Reb said with a hint of a smile.
"But it's in a good way and it works for them." She squeezed his
hand. "So far, it's worked for the pack, too. They've been lucky
that way."

"What happens when their luck runs out?"

Reb shrugged. "Then they find someone like
you to bring it back again."

"Babe, I'm the most unlucky wolver
alive."

"Maybe." Reb shrugged again. "Or maybe your
luck is changing, too."

Cha
pter
19

"You think you're locking this up tight,
don't you? Big hero, save the Alpha, win the daughter..."

"I don't think there's much winning to do.
He's already got the daughter."

"Shut up, Toby." Ben gave the cub a shove.
"Don't you have something you should be doing, someplace you're
supposed to be?"

"Uh, it's the full moon, so ye-ah, we should
be running, but no one else around here is, and where are we
supposed to go?"

"There's fifteen fucking miles of cornfields
around here. Pick one."

"But there's only two of us. That's no
fun."

The bickering continued. River did his best
to shut it out. He needed quiet. He needed time to think, but there
was nowhere to go to do it. Everywhere he went, wolvers
followed.

"How long will it take?"

"How long to heal?"

"Will he be able to walk?"

There weren't that many wolvers in the Sweet
Valley pack, but to River it seemed like there were hundreds. They
came to him in rotating groups of twos and threes and fours, and
all asking the same questions, over and over and over, as if he
knew the answers. They were starting to repeat themselves.

He took note of their body shapes which would
translate into the bodies of their wolves. He memorized their faces
and matched them with their scents. It was a waste of time and he
knew it. He wouldn't be around long enough to see them go over the
moon. The Alpha, through his Second, had decreed that no one was to
run this month. He wanted them to stay close.

If River had the power, he'd send them all
over the moon. They were driving him crazy.

The wolvers who surrounded him asked their
repeated questions out of fear. The Alpha and Mate had shut
themselves off from the pack. The feelings they had for what was
about to happen were too personal to be shared. For the next few
hours, the pack would be without the connection they normally
shared.

These wolvers had never been without it
before. For them, it was like cutting off an arm or a leg; painful
and frightening. So they were looking for comfort and reassurance,
and they were looking to River.

Questions, questions, questions. But no one
asked the one that lay behind all the others.

"Is the Alpha going to die?"

His answer for that would be the same as it
was for all the others, an answer he never spoke, but thought
repeatedly.

"How the hell do I know?"

This wasn't his business. It wasn't his
fight, but once again he'd opened his fucking mouth and swallowed
his tail, and now he was in the middle of it.

Ben and the cubs were still arguing and the
constant hum of their voices sent River over the edge.

"Would you guys shut the fuck up?" He waited
a beat to give Ben a chance to say "Make me", and was disappointed
when he didn't. "The Alpha said no running. That's it. The end. And
don't," he warned, "Give me any crap about whether or not he's your
Alpha. You're either in or you're out. If you're out, leave
now."

Ben hit him with something better than "Make
me". "We'll make that decision tomorrow when the rest of the pack
shows up."

River snapped his eyes to Scar. "You said you
were going to meet up with them on the road."

Scar sucked in his cheeks and shrugged. "It
wasn't my idea. Dennis made the plans."

"And Dennis isn't here." Ben did his thing
with his chest and let a little of his power leak out. "So I
changed them. They'll be here tomorrow afternoon."

River took several slow and deep breaths,
first because he needed to absorb the impact, and second, because
he needed to counteract Ben's plan. The bastard grinned at him and
it wasn't pleasant. He knew his plans blew a hole in River's.

River grinned back and released a little of
his own pent up energy. "Then you'd better call them back, because
we won't be here tomorrow afternoon. We'll be moving out early in
the morning. Why don't you two make yourselves useful and spread
the word."

Quentin and Toby were off like a shot.

"You can't do that," Ben argued. He poked his
chin at the wolvers milling around. "It's already late. They'll be
exhausted."

They would and hopefully, the new ones would
be too. Exhausted wolvers were less likely to cause trouble. That
thought gave River another idea.

"They'll be exhausted the next day, too, and
the day after that. When we're not on the road, they're training.
Their new home is nothing like their old one. They need to get in
shape."

"Ours are already in shape."

"Then they need to learn to work together as
a pack. No ours, no theirs, just pack. The Alpha can hold the
ceremony on the next full moon, but fancy words and a big hurrah
doesn't make a pack. I said it and I meant it, Ben, and that goes
for all of them. As soon as we hit the road, they're pack or they
get out."

"You talk about pack, but you're not..."

"That's right, Big Ben, I'm fucking neutral,
and that means I don't give a shit about either side. It also means
I don't have a problem kicking the shit out of anyone who gives me
trouble."

"You do have a way with words, River." The
Mate stood behind him. "Crude, but effectively to the point. The
Alpha is ready for you now."

River wondered how much she'd heard and then
decided it didn't matter. She'd hired him to do a job and if she
didn't like the way he did it, that was too damn bad. He made
another decision as well.

"I need you two and the one Toby called
Chubs," he snapped his fingers searching for a name. "Arnold,
that's it, and his partner, Larry."

"Lawrence," the Mate corrected. "He hates
being called Larry. May I ask why you need them?"

"I'm not going to do this alone. I want Darla
in there, too. Lawrence can guard the door. Celia can stand with
him. There might be a little noise." Screaming, actually, but the
Mate would figure that out soon enough. "I need her to run
interference if anyone from the office comes out."

"If you gentlemen will be so kind as to fetch
Arnold and Lawrence, I'll see to the others." Margaret nodded and
walked away.

"What are we there for?" Scar asked.

"To hold him down," River sounded more
confident than he felt. "I don't want the Alpha jerking around once
I start to cut."

"Are you saying you trust us?" Ben asked it
as if River would be a fool if he did.

"Hell no, I don't trust you, but I'll be the
only one holding a knife, and it won't bother me to use it." He
turned his attention to Scar. "And I want witnesses if it
slips."

~*~

When River stepped from the motel room, Reb's
first thought was that her father was dead. The look on River's
face told her so. Dark though the night was, her wolver eyes saw
him clearly. His jaw was clenched and his mouth was set in an angry
looking frown, but it was the set of his shoulders and the way he
bowed his head that worried her the most. He looked like a man
defeated and in pain, and angry that he was both.

Lawrence and Celia were sitting side by side,
backs against the wall, retaining their positions, though their
guard duty had been unnecessary. No one had tried to enter and her
father had made no sound loud enough to attract the attention of
the motel owners. They looked up expectantly, but River ignored
their presence.

Warmth and peace washed through Reb's mind,
followed by a sense of relief and happiness. The Mate's connection
with the pack was open again and her mother's message was clear.
Her father was alive and all was well.

Except all wasn't well. River wasn't
well.

He stripped off his blood spattered shirt and
threw it aside. His head went back as if he might howl. He started
across the narrow lot toward the RV where she'd been sitting on the
steps waiting and worrying about what was happening in Unit 5. Reb
stood to go to him, but he wasn't coming to her.

His feet moved from a purposeful walk, to a
jog, to a full out run. He sped past the RV, across the neatly
mowed lawn at the front of the property, through the flock of
plastic flamingos, to the ring of white rock that surrounded the
decorative fishpond. He leapt, and Reb half expected him to flash
to wolf, the leap was so graceful. He sailed over the pond and the
sign positioned at its center, and kept running.

His form was man, but his movement was wolf
and there were only three reasons a wolf would run like that; to
hunt, to play, or to escape. River was running in fear, but from
what was he trying to escape?

Reb wanted to follow, but Darla was trotting
toward her, grinning with the successful outcome of the makeshift
surgery.

"That was the nastiest piece of work I've
ever seen," she said when she was close enough to be heard without
raising her voice. "I couldn't have done it, but that man of yours
could. He took one deep breath, turned cold as ice, and got to
work. He only stopped once and that was when the Alpha passed out.
He didn't even look up when poor Arnold took off to lose his
supper."

Reb was listening, but only half heard after
the first few sentences. Her mind kept straying toward the
direction River had run.

"Tension release," Darla was saying.

"Excuse me?"

"River running," Darla said with a nod toward
the road. "All that tension. He's running it off. Don't worry,
he'll be back."

Under cover of darkness, they moved her
father back to the RV and Reb helped her mother settle him into the
bed. He groaned with the pain, but never woke up. That worried Reb,
but her mother reassured her, pointing to the white haired man in
the bed.