Nature of the Pack Read online

  “Good luck,” Rue whispered.

  After one final glance back at Rue, Kelsey marched out the door.

  * * *

  Lingering in the doorway of his room, Kelsey’s parents didn’t seem like predatory wolves to Danny. More like scared rabbits staring at a snake. But their intrusion into his territory still made the tiny hairs on the back of Danny’s neck bristle. I don’t care what they want as long as they stay the hell away from me.

  Out of the corner of his eye, pretending to ignore them, he watched them come closer and stop in front of the bed where he was lying.

  Tala and Zoe kept an eye on them from their place in the hallway.

  “Hello,” the woman said. Then her husband nudged her, and she repeated her greeting in sign language. “This is pretty strange, isn’t it? Meeting your grandparents for the first time at the age of fourteen.”

  Her nearly fluid signing surprised him, but he hid it behind a sneer. “Strange? No. Strange is finding out you’re a shape-shifter.” He returned his gaze to his PSP, letting them know that the conversation was over.

  But Kelsey’s parents didn’t go away. The woman stepped forward so he could see her hands while she signed. Something about her scent was familiar, but he couldn’t place it. Was it just that she smelled similar to Kelsey, or could part of him remember her scent?

  “I know this is hard,” she signed. “If you have any questions, we’ll be there for you.”

  Danny sat up. “Oh, yeah? Like you’ve been there when they put me into one shitty foster home after another?”

  Tears glistened in the woman’s eyes. “We didn’t know. We thought you were dead.”

  “Yeah, then you can just go back to thinking that. I don’t need you.” Danny folded his arms and looked away.

  The woman sank onto her knees in front of the bed. She laid one hand on his arm and used the other to sign. “We’re your grandparents. We can’t just give you up.”

  Danny wrenched his arm away. “You had no problem giving me up fourteen years ago. You never even searched for me.” He pushed up from the bed and nearly ran over the woman as he stormed toward the door.

  A hand grabbed his arm from behind and pulled him back.

  When he whirled around, he looked into orange-brown eyes that were just like Kelsey’s.

  Tala moved into the room and shouted something, her lips moving quickly, but Kelsey’s father ignored her. “Don’t go,” he signed. “Please let us explain, Franklin.”

  A wave of heat shot up Danny’s body. The itching along his arms made him even angrier. He shoved against the man’s chest. “I’m not Franklin. I’m Danny!” With another shove, he pushed past Kelsey’s father. Pain flared through his joints as he fled to the door.

  He collided with someone. For a moment, he thought he was under attack. He bared his teeth in a snarl. Searing pain shot through his groaning bones.

  Then gentle arms pulled him close and a familiar clover-and-honeysuckle scent wove around him. Kelsey slid soothing fingers through his hair, as Rue had done when he’d been a little boy.

  Danny exhaled as the fire flaring along his skin receded.

  Then Rue joined them. Her powerful ocean-and-pines scent mingled with Kelsey’s and with his own, chasing away the itching of his skin.

  “You okay?” Rue signed.

  Danny nodded. He shook himself and breathed deeply. Damn. I thought I had better control by now.

  Her face a mask of anger, Rue pushed past them and headed toward Kelsey’s parents, who had finally left Danny’s room.

  Kelsey caught her arm and pulled her back. “Let me deal with them. Please.”

  Rue stared into her eyes for a moment before she exhaled and nodded. “All right. Come on, Danny. Let’s go to the woodshop.” One arm around Danny’s shoulders, she led him to the large shed behind the house with Zoe hot on their heels.

  * * *

  “It breaks my heart,” Kelsey’s mother said between sobs. She sank onto the couch. “He doesn’t want anything to do with us. This is like losing Garrick and his family all over again.”

  Kelsey’s resolve weakened. The scent of her mother’s pain sent tears to her own eyes. She walked over and rubbed her mother’s shoulder. “Mom...”

  “He seems to like Kelsey, though,” Franklin said. He sat on the edge of the couch, wrapped his arms around Della, and pulled her against him. With her in his arms, he turned toward Kelsey. “You need to get Franklin to come with us.”

  “He goes by Danny now,” Kelsey said, her voice soft.

  “All right, then we need to get Danny out of here. Living with a human is against his nature.”

  Kelsey drew in a lungful of air. Her muscles felt like steel cables about to snap. “Rue isn’t just any human, Dad. She’s Danny’s mother, and she’s my—”

  “Sabrina was his mother.” Franklin’s brows slammed down into a disapproving frown. “You’re dishonoring her memory by talking like this, daughter.”

  “That’s not what I’m doing.” Kelsey kept her tone gentle even though she wanted to shout at her father. “I know Sabrina is Danny’s mother. She gave birth to him, but Rue raised—”

  “Because we didn’t know he was alive. But now we do. He’s a Wrasa. He needs to live with a pack. With us.” Before Kelsey could say anything else, he wiped away her protests with a sweep of his hand. “We’ll distract the human, and you go and take him out of here.”

  Old instincts urged Kelsey to nod and do whatever her father wanted. Now was not the time to give in to habits, though, but to stand up for what she believed in. “I’m sorry, Dad. I can’t do that.”

  “Of course you can.” Franklin gave her an encouraging nod. “Have some faith in yourself.”

  “That’s not what I meant.” Kelsey swallowed and forced herself to look into her father’s eyes. “I’ll do whatever is best for Danny.”

  “Good,” Franklin said. “Then let’s—”

  “No, Dad. You still don’t understand. Kidnapping Danny is not what’s best for him. Three months ago, I thought it was. But now I know better. If you take the time to get to know Danny and his life, you’ll realize it too. If you kidnap him, you’ll take him away from the only home and the only natak he has ever known.”

  Franklin frowned. “What natak?”

  “Rue,” Kelsey said.

  “The human?” The corners of Franklin’s mouth twitched, and Kelsey wasn’t sure if he was about to laugh or shout. “Kelsey, get real. A human can’t be an alpha. Franklin...Danny is a Syak. Our blood flows in his veins. He’s pack. He should be with us. Can’t you feel it?”

  “Of course I do.” Part of her had sensed it from the first time she had met Danny. He smelled like pack. “But he’s also Rue’s son. We can’t just take him from her and force him to live with strangers.”

  “Strangers?” her mother whispered. “We’re his family.”

  “But he doesn’t know you.”

  “How will he ever get to know us if he doesn’t come live with us?” Della asked.

  Kelsey had no good answer for that question. Maybe there was no perfect solution. “You could visit him and—”

  “Visit?” Franklin snarled. “Pack members don’t visit.” He pronounced the word as if it were a curse. “They live together. Just like you should.”

  Not that old argument again. Kelsey sighed and rubbed the spot above her right eyebrow. “Dad—”

  “We just want you safe and happy,” Della said. “When that human called us and said you were in danger, we were scared to death. We thought she had hurt you.”

  “Rue would never to that. She—”

  “She’s to blame for you outing us to the humans on national TV,” her mother said. “Great Hunter, Kelsey, I almost passed out when I saw that. I was so afraid the council would sentence you to death. I couldn’t stand to lose you too.”

  Guilt squeezed Kelsey’s insides, nearly making her give in, but she knew she had to free herself of these decade-old emotions. “I’m
sorry you were worried, but as you can see I’m perfectly fine.”

  “Fine? Fine?” Franklin jumped up from the couch. “Your face is burned into the memory of every human who owns a TV. If they get scared or angry, they’ll take it out on you. Or any Wrasa who hates how his life changed since we came out could hunt you down. You call that fine?”

  “It’s not so—”

  “And instead of coming home or accepting the new position Jeff Madsen offered you, you prefer to stay with a human. A human!” Franklin put a hand to Kelsey’s shoulder and shook her lightly. “What in the Great Hunter’s name is going on with you? You have clearly lived without pack bonds for too long. You’re living in such close quarters with this human that you even smell like her!” He lifted his upper lip in a snarl of disgust.

  Kelsey shook off his grip. She squared her shoulders and scratched the itchy skin in the bend of her elbow. “What if Rue is more to me than just some human?”

  Della paled. “So what Jeff Madsen implied is really true? You and this…this woman…?”

  “Her name is Rue, Mom.” Kelsey forced herself to look into her mother’s eyes. “Yes, it’s true. She’s my mate and my alpha. I’m going to share my life with her and raise Danny together.”

  Her father’s face took on the color of an overcooked lobster. “Over my dead body! No daughter of mine will—”

  Approaching steps interrupted him.

  Mrs. Mangiardi walked over from the kitchen. “Is everything all right, dear?” The housekeeper looked from Kelsey to her parents.

  Kelsey forced a smile. “Everything’s fine.”

  “Will your parents stay for supper?”

  “No, they—”

  “We would be delighted,” her mother said before Kelsey could finish her sentence.

  Franklin added a grin that looked more like a determined snarl.

  They won’t leave before they get what they want—Danny and me back in Oregon and Rue all alone.

  “Wonderful. A real family reunion.” Mrs. Mangiardi bustled back to the kitchen.

  “Oh, we’ll have a family reunion,” Franklin said, his jaw set. “Back home, in Oregon.”

  “Maybe one day, we will. But we have to give Danny more time.” When both her parents opened their mouths to respond, Kelsey held up her hands. “Please. Let’s talk about this again when we all had some time to calm down. Talk to Danny. Watch him with Rue. Forget that she’s human for a moment and just watch.”

  Her father let out a long growl. “Oh, don’t worry. I’m not taking my eyes off that human.”

  * * *

  Rue eyed the unfinished dresser in the middle of the woodshop. During her search for Danny, she had left it behind, and with everything that had been going on, she hadn’t found the time to work on it since they had returned from New York.

  “Come on,” she signed to Danny. “Let’s finish this, or Mrs. Mangiardi won’t have her dresser in time for her birthday.”

  Danny trudged over to the workbench.

  Rue took the measurement tape and marked the middle of the drawer front. She searched for the correct drill bit and inserted it into the cordless drill. “Want to do it?”

  Danny nodded but made no move to take the drill. He shuffled his feet and peeked up at Rue. “They...my...my grandparents...they want me to come live with them.”

  A ball of tension formed in Rue’s stomach. “I know.” She put down the drill and looked across the workbench at Danny, struggling to keep her expression neutral. As scared as she was to lose Danny, she wanted him to make his own choices. “What do you think about that?”

  Danny shrugged.

  Sweat dampened Rue’s palms, and she pressed them against her thighs. “I know this is very upsetting for you. You barely got used to the fact that you’re a shape-shifter and—”

  “I’m fine,” Danny signed.

  Rue arched one eyebrow.

  Danny’s hands snapped through the air, and when Rue frowned, he repeated the signs more slowly. “I’ll be fine as soon as they’re gone.”

  “Don’t send them away in anger,” Rue signed, even though a big part of her wanted to help him kick out Kelsey’s parents.

  “Why not?”

  “Do you know what I would give if I could have one more conversation with my parents?” Even after twenty-five years, thinking about them still hurt, as if someone was prodding a barely healed wound.

  “That’s different.”

  Rue leaned across the workbench. “I know it is. But your biological parents died in an accident just like mine, and if they could have, your grandparents would have raised you, just like my grandfather raised me.”

  Danny’s eyes darkened to a murky brown. “Do you want me to go with them?”

  The question pierced Rue’s heart. She squeezed her eyes shut. To hell with being neutral. “No,” she signed and opened her eyes. “I want you to stay with me. But it’s not about what I want or about what Kelsey’s parents want. It’s your decision.”

  When Rue paused, their gazes met.

  She swallowed and forced herself to continue. “Once you’ve had time to deal with your anger and hurt, I bet you’ll be curious about your family and about what it means to live in a real pack. If you want to go live with your grandparents for a few weeks, maybe spend summer break with them, I would understand.”

  Danny lowered his gaze and slid his finger over the drawer on the workbench.

  A knock on the door made Rue look up. “Yes?”

  Mrs. Mangiardi stepped past Zoe and into the woodshop.

  Hastily, Rue threw an old sheet over the dresser to hide it.

  “Dinner is ready,” Mrs. Mangiardi said. “I asked Kelsey’s parents to stay. I hope that was all right.”

  Oh, great. Dinner with the whole clan. I think I lost my appetite. Rue sighed. Then she forced a smile and nodded. “That’s fine. We’ll be right there.”

  * * *

  “Get your nose out of my pots and make yourself useful.” Mrs. Mangiardi handed a bowl of noodles to the stunned Tala. “Put that on the table.”

  Tala stood, bowl in hand, and stared at her. Her chest vibrated, indicating to Danny that the highest-ranking Saru in the house was growling.

  But instead of backing away, Mrs. Mangiardi stood her ground, a wooden cooking spoon raised as if about to give an unruly girl a slap on the wrist.

  Danny’s eyes widened. Oh, shit.

  Mrs. Mangiardi still didn’t get pack structure. She didn’t seem to understand that ordering around a higher-ranking Wrasa, especially a Saru soldier, was a dangerous pastime.

  He hurried over and stepped between them, ready to defend a member of his pack. The now familiar itching raced over his skin, and he thought he could feel his teeth lengthen.

  Tala narrowed her eyes.

  The force of her gaze made Danny quiver, but he didn’t look away.

  Someone stepped between them.

  Danny looked up and into Della Yates’s calm face.

  “Please do what Mrs. Mangiardi says, Tala,” Della said. “The kitchen is her territory after all.”

  After glowering for a few more moments, Tala trotted off with the bowl.

  Danny grinned triumphantly. When he realized Della was watching him, smiling back, he pressed his lips together and scowled at her.

  “Come on,” Della signed. “Let’s go eat.”

  The table in the living room normally seated six. With Kelsey’s parents, Tala, and Zoe, it was a tight fit. Danny squeezed in between Rue and Kelsey.

  Della put a bowl on the table and touched Kelsey’s shoulder. “You mind if I sit here?”

  Frowning, Danny watched as Kelsey moved to Rue’s other side and freed the place next to him for Della. As soon as everyone was sitting, he heaped food onto his plate.

  “Not so fast, young man.” Mrs. Mangiardi waved her index finger at him. “We’re saying grace first, you know that.”

  Kelsey’s father looked startled but grudgingly relinquished his hand t
o Mrs. Mangiardi.

  From Danny’s left, Rue took his hand into a strong grip and squeezed it.

  He squeezed back and hesitantly laid his right hand in Della’s.

  Calluses rasped across his palm. Danny instantly relaxed at the familiar feeling. For a moment, the touches to both of his hands seemed identical, but then he realized that Della’s calluses were in all the wrong places—not on her palms, as Rue’s were, but mainly on her fingertips.

  She’s a guitar player, not a carpenter.

  As soon as Della let go of his hand, Danny started shoveling down his food. He kept his gaze on his plate to block out the conversation.

  But movement caught his attention.

  When he peered up, he realized Kelsey and her parents were signing to each other, using sign language as a secret code that Tala and Zoe didn’t understand.

  For once, Danny could follow the conversation around the dinner table without missing out on half the information. How would his life have been if he had grown up in a household in which everyone signed fluently—in a family in which everyone shared the same blood and the same language?

  “How are things at home…I mean…in Oregon, now that humans know we shape-shifters exist?” Kelsey signed.

  Franklin’s jaw muscles bunched. “Your aunt Regina was fired from her job when her employer found out she’s one of us. And Benny was kicked off his school’s track team.”

  “What?” Kelsey put her fork down. “They can’t do that. It’s against the law.”

  “The law doesn’t protect us Wrasa. And even if it did, they don’t admit that they’re kicking Benny and Regina out because they’re shape-shifters. They found some halfway believable-sounding reasons, but I’m not stupid. Humans are trying to control us and put us down whenever they can.” Franklin’s hands nearly swept his water glass off the table.

  Danny forgot his food for a moment. Was that really true? And if it were, would something like that happen to him too? So far, he hadn’t told his friends that he was a shape-shifter. Somehow, it had never seemed to be the right moment.