Wolver's Reward (3 page)

Twenty minutes, one split lip, one torn ear,
and one blackened eye later, River's anger was spent. Two of his
opponents were down for the count, one was on his knees puking up a
bellyful of burgers and beer, and the other four were exhausted and
nursing more cuts and bruises than they'd probably seen in years.
By the way one of them was holding his wrist to his chest, River
thought the guy might have broken it when River spun away from the
punch and he'd hit the edge of the bar instead. Too bad, so
sad.

The young wolver finished off the last of the
beer from the only glass left upright and unbroken on the bar. He
placed a few bills on the counter, enough to cover the breakage,
and handed the baseball bat back to the bartender.

"Sorry I had to take it away," he said, "But
you need to be careful with that thing. You could kill somebody if
you're not careful."

"Who the hell are you?" the bartender
asked.

River shrugged. "A Yamaha lover."

The scent of six more bikers struck him as he
exited the bar. They dropped the stands on their bikes, all Harleys
he noted, and six pairs of eyes moved to him in wary recognition.
The leader nodded, wolver to wolver.

He wasn't much older than River. Tall and
lean, blond hair swept back from a clean shaven face, the wolver
was a blue eyed Adonis who looked more college boy than biker. His
boots looked new and his leather jacket looked too stiff. The men
flanking him looked more like the real thing; older, scuffed, and
scarred. Behind them was another blond, this one built like the
proverbial brick shithouse, big, muscle-bound, and square. His face
was too pretty for his build and when River looked him over, he
flexed his shoulders as if he had something to prove.

Next to muscle man were two cubs, older than
Dakota and Ranger, but not by much. Any bar but this one would have
turned them away at the door. They were both working hard not to
smile.

"How's the beer?" Adonis asked and enough
power rippled off him to prove he was an Alpha.

River lowered his head enough to show respect
for the Alpha's position, but not a half inch more.

"It's beer. Burgers are good, though don't
bother asking for rare."

"You got a reason for being here?" the Alpha
asked, like he was looking for a particular answer.

"Nope, just stopped in to blow off a little
steam." Whatever their game was, River wanted no part of it. "And
now I'm headed out."

"We're headed to a Chase," one of the cubs
blurted. He bounced with excitement. "Alpha's got himself a
Mate."

River offered a congratulatory nod. "Good
luck." Finding a Mate was a big deal for an Alpha. It solidified
the pack and enabled pairs to breed.

"Yeah, thanks," The Alpha accepted with a nod
of his own. "We were supposed to meet someone here. One of our
own," he added. "Is he in there?"

"Nope, just some busted up bikers. Hope you
find him, though." River started to move away when the Alpha called
him back.

"You're welcome to come with us."

River kept moving. "Sorry, but I've got
someplace else to be. Enjoy the party."

Parties after a mating chase could last for
days with plenty of food and music. Outside packs might be invited
and under the full moon, unmated females would be hot and looking
for company. What the hell, he had nothing better to do, but by the
time he changed his mind, the wolvers had already entered the bar
and he didn't want to look like he was begging.

He pulled out the ramp and rolled the bike
back on the truck as soon as he got back to the motel. Deciding it
probably wasn't a good idea to spend the night so close to the bar
in case some pissed off biker came looking for him, River stayed
only long enough to shower and shave. His cuts and bruises were
already healing, one of the advantages of being born wolver.

He found the nearest Wal-Mart and parked
between two monster RVs that were also parked for the night, he
pushed the seat back to its limits. Laying his head back on the
rest, River slept until the rising sun shining through the
windshield awakened him.

Chapter 2

"It's making that sound again," Celia said
from her seat in the back of the van. She readjusted the pillow
beneath her, groaning a little to make everyone aware of how
uncomfortable she was on the floor.

"Told you we should have stopped at that gas
station a ways back," Darla told the driver. She too, was on the
floor because there were no seats in the back. The van was meant
for cargo, not wolvers.

"We didn't need gas," Arnold, the driver,
reasoned.

"Yeah, but it wouldn't have hurt to put some
oil in. The light's on again."

"The light wasn't on when we passed the
station," Arnold argued.

"It looks like we have two of them on now."
Lawrence rose up on his knees to look over Arnold's shoulder. "What
does it say?"

"Check engine."

"Yeah, like any of you would know how."

"If you wanted a mechanic, Darla, you should
have gone with Jude. Engines are his domain, not mine."

"Margaret says I stay with Reb."

"Rebecca," Lawrence corrected.

"Becky," Rosemary quietly corrected from her
seat by the back door. "I think I feel sick," she added.

She'd been thinking she felt sick for three
hundred miles, but no one paid much attention. Anything new or out
of the ordinary made the timid wolver feel sick.

The knocking of the engine continued.

Reb/Rebecca/Becky sat quietly in the
passenger seat, head bowed, fingers playing with a loose thread at
the hem of her shirt. She ignored the constant corrections, as she
always did, since her voice held no sway in the matter.

It had always been this way. The pack
functioned as a whole under her parent's guidance, but divided
along lines of sex when it came to her name. She thought of them as
Team Alpha and Team Mate with the males siding with her father who
called her Rebecca and the females choosing her mother's Becky.
Only Darla used the name she preferred, Reb for Rebel, a name she'd
chosen for herself when she was ten and had done her best to live
up to ever since.

Reb wasn't feeling too rebellious now. What
had seemed like a great idea months ago when this whole
misadventure began, now felt like a sentence of life imprisonment
where only death-do-you-part opened the cell door.

She was on her way to be mated to an Alpha
she'd only met once, one of three Alphas, actually, all of whom
she'd only met once. She was rooting for Dennis to win this race
for her hand, but only because he was young, and hot, and shared
her father's dream of living a true wolver's life surrounded by
nature. Her parents and their pack would never make it on their
own, though that was another opinion no one cared to hear.

"You mustn't worry, Becky," her mother
assured her. "The magic of the Alpha's touch will make the mating
rituals quite pleasant."

Though she'd rather not think of 'mating
rituals' when it came to her parents, if you had to be locked up in
a mating of convenience, hot sex with the hot Alpha Dennis as a
cellmate would at least make it bearable. And having her birth pack
around her would help.

Once over the shock of losing their homes to
a shopping mall and eminent domain, the pack had embraced their
Alpha's dream of purchasing land in the north woods and living out
their lives in noble contemplation of the beauty and abundance of
nature. The money received from the government as payment for their
land was used to purchase more land where their dreams could be
fulfilled. They talked about the 'adventure' constantly. They read
piles of books on wilderness survival, sustainable living, and of
course, the healthful benefits of getting back to nature, but Reb
was pretty sure not one of them knew which end of the hammer drove
the nail or how to take down a buck without getting skewered.

Dennis would provide that knowledge. If they
ever got to the wildlife preserve they'd agreed upon to hold the
Chase. If Dennis won the Chase. If one of the others didn't beat
him to it.

Jeremy would be her second choice if she
actually had one, which at this point, she didn't. He was young
too, and not half bad looking, but he was a city wolver who wore
suits and ties, and frankly, wasn't all that sexually appealing. He
was too sleek and his hands were too soft, and he just didn't come
close to the wolver of her dreams. Jeremy would take her away to
live in the city, but he'd promised to make a huge investment in
her father's back-to-nature experiment.

And that's what all this was about. Money.
Though no one would put it in such crass terms, Reb was selling
herself to the highest bidders. And the highest bidder of all was
the oldest of her three suitors. The Alpha Donavan was not her
favorite, though she couldn't put her finger on why. He was strong,
he was handsome, and just a little rough cut, which should have
made him appealing, except he was at least as old as her mother.
Her father thought Donavan would be a stabilizing influence for his
high strung daughter. Her mother advised that age had its
advantages and since her father was over twenty years her mother's
senior, she knew whereof she spoke.

There was just something about Donavan that
made Reb leery, but not leery enough to protest, and she could have
protested. Her parents had given her the right of approval and
she'd rejected three others outright. Donavan was old, but he was
also wealthy enough to do her pack the most good, so he remained in
the running. Reb just had to keep her fingers crossed that age had
slowed him down.

So she'd made her bed, so to speak, and now
she had to lie in it. Each of these Alphas was paying fifty
thousand dollars for the chance to lie in it with her. Selling
herself? She supposed she was, but if, as an Alpha's daughter, she
had to marry an Alpha and become a pack's Mate, her birth pack may
as well benefit, too. It wasn't much, considering their numbers,
but every penny would help as they embarked on their adventure and
money was something her father rarely thought of until it was too
late.

The knock, knock, knock of the engine
suddenly became a loud bang and the van rolled to a stop.

"Fudge," Reb muttered.

"Providence," Darla muttered behind her.
Darla wasn't happy about this Chase or an arranged mating of any
kind for Reb, but she hadn't voiced her opinion to anyone but Reb
and she'd done it repeatedly.

"You meet the right wolver. You and your wolf
fall in love. Then and only then do you mate. That's the way it
works and that's the way it supposed to work. Look at me. I'm
holding out for the right wolver and when he comes along, I'll know
it. In the meantime, I'm having some fun. You should be having fun,
too."

Darla was forty-five and still waiting, but
Reb had to admit, the female knew how to have fun, even if she had
to find a human male to have it. Everything Reb knew about sex
she'd learned from her best friend and unofficial nursemaid.

Reb would never say it, but Darla and the
other pack females were another reason for this Chase to succeed.
It was part of the bargain her father had made with each of the
Alphas. Her mating came with the promise of more males for the
Sweet Valley pack where females outnumbered them two to one.

"What are we going to do?" Celia asked.
"We're in the middle of nowhere."

"I knew we should have stayed on the
highway," Lawrence complained. "Where will we find help on a road
like this?"

"Then why didn't you say so before we got
off," Arnold answered back. "You always know things after they
happen."

"Why bother? You never listen to a word I
say."

The two bickered like a long mated couple
which, Reb thought, they were.

"Here's what I think..." Celia began.

The debate about what they should do
continued for twenty minutes, and adjourned for five while they
exited the van which was becoming stuffy with all the hot air. It
started again and went on for another fifteen until Reb raised her
hands in the air and yelled, "Stop!"

Unused to a voice raised in anger, everyone
stopped and stared.

"We've already lost enough time travelling so
slowly on these back roads. I have to get there. That isn't up for
debate," Reb said before Darla could start one. "The Alpha and Mate
are probably already worried about what's become of us. I say we
commandeer the first vehicle that stops and is large enough to hold
us and our things."

"Commandeer? You mean steal?" Arnold sounded
close to excited about this idea, and 'close to' was about as
excited as Arnold ever got.

"No, not steal exactly. More like borrow.
We'll return it after we get to the park."

Darla ran her nail down her cheek while her
tongue pushed out the cheek on the other side, a sure sign she was
going to say something snide. "So, let me get this straight. You're
going to wait until some kind soul stops to help and then you're
going to say something like 'We're commandeering your car, but
don't worry, we'll bring it back' and they're going to say, 'Sure,
why not? Here's the keys'." She leaned against the back of the van,
arms folded, and ankles crossed. She looked around the circle of
wolvers. "Yeah. Right."

"So what's your suggestion? And don't say we
stay here and forget about the Chase. I can't do that, Darla. You
know I can't. Even if I wanted to, which I don't," she lied, "too
much is depending on it, on me."

"You're a wolver, not a sacrificial lamb." It
was something Darla repeated often.

"Darla," Reb warned.

"Fine. We jump 'em and take the vehicle. No
questions asked. No answers needed."

"You mean...?" Rosemary's hands started to
flutter. She grasped two fingers of her right with her entire left
and held them against her stomach. "Oh dear, I don't think we can
do that." She looked right and left, searching the faces to find
some support. When she didn't get it, she pressed her hands more
deeply into her stomach. "I think I feel sick."