Nature of the Pack Read online

  “If you need some legal help, I know a good lawyer,” Rue signed.

  Franklin wrinkled his nose. “No, thanks. This is pack business. We don’t need your help.”

  Asshole. Why did Kelsey’s parents dislike Rue so much? Did they hate all humans—including him? After a moment, Danny remembered. I’m not human.

  “All right. Suit yourself. But the offer is out there.” Rue shook her head and went back to eating. A pea escaped her plate and rolled across the table.

  Kelsey grabbed it before it could drop to the floor and put it into her mouth.

  “Kelsey Yates!” Franklin finger-spelled the name with abrupt movements. “What are you doing, eating food from her plate?”

  Beneath her father’s glare, Kelsey flushed and ducked her head.

  Della stared as if eating peas were a disgusting habit.

  What the fuck? It was just a stupid pea. Then Danny remembered the documentary he had watched a while ago. Eating food from someone else’s plate is like an engagement.

  Rue held her head up high and glared at Kelsey’s parents. “Kelsey can eat food from my plate whenever she wants,” she signed. “It’s her choice, not yours.”

  “Something wrong with the food?” Mrs. Mangiardi asked, accompanying her words with a few signs.

  “No. Everything’s wonderful,” Kelsey said but avoided looking in her father’s direction.

  Was Franklin angry with her? Disappointed? Worried? Danny couldn’t tell. Shape-shifter emotions smelled different from those of humans. But still, their scents seemed familiar, as if he had known them well in another lifetime.

  A note of freedom and wildness drifted around Franklin and Della, and it evoked images of running through the forest at dawn and then curling up in a safe den and going to sleep among pack mates. Kelsey smelled the same.

  Do I smell like that too? Probably.

  Their shared scent created a bond. Even though he wanted to hate them, he felt a strong pull toward them. They were still strangers, but they were like him. He fluctuated between curiosity and anger. Part of him was furious that they had left him behind without conducting a more intensive search.

  But if they had, he wouldn’t have Rue, and even though he had sometimes cursed her and wanted to hate her too, she was his mother, and he couldn’t imagine his life without her.

  With a broad grin, he stole a mushroom from Rue’s plate and, making sure Franklin was watching him, chewed it happily.

  * * *

  “Will you fly back tonight, or do you want me to book you a hotel room?” Tala, the senior Saru stationed at the house, asked when they were finally alone in the living room.

  Della tilted her head and observed Tala. She couldn’t quite figure her out. Tala smelled of fox musk, but her body language was that of a dominant wolf.

  “Neither,” Franklin said. “We’re staying here.”

  Tala frowned. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, sir.”

  “I don’t care what you think. Jeff Madsen gave us permission to stay.”

  Della pulled the confirmation Madsen had e-mailed them out of her purse, but Tala didn’t even look at it.

  “Well,” Tala said, her voice gentle yet firm at the same time, “strictly speaking, since a human holds the deed to the house, the council doesn’t have the authority to allow you to stay.”

  What is she doing? Della narrowed her eyes. She’s acting like a wolf defending her den. What is it about this human that inspires such loyalty?

  A deep growl rose from Franklin’s chest. “Whose side are you on, pup?”

  “I’m not on any side, sir. It’s just that the house isn’t that large, and it’s already cramped with Zoe and me sleeping in the guest room.”

  Which meant Kelsey shared the human’s bed in the master bedroom. Della hadn’t wanted to trust her nose or Jeff Madsen when he had told them of his suspicion, but now it seemed he’d been right. She bit her lip.

  “Danny still loses control easily if he feels crowded,” Tala said.

  Franklin straightened to his full six-foot height. “We’re not crowding him. We’re just trying to talk to him and introduce him to what it means to be part of the pack and the Wrasa culture—something the Wrasa in this house obviously failed to do.” He fixed her with an accusing stare.

  The scent of pines swept into the room as the human climbed down the stairs. “Kelsey does an excellent job as Danny’s teacher—and as mine. So since she taught me how important hospitality is to the Wrasa, I’m letting you stay the night.” She paused and looked from Franklin to Della with her glacier-blue eyes. “But only if you promise to leave Danny alone and won’t try to talk to him again today. He’s already overwhelmed enough.”

  Franklin glared down at her. “How dare you tell us what to—”

  Della stopped him with a soft touch to his arm. “She’s right. At least about this one thing. You smelled Little Franklin’s confusion, his anger and grief… It’s too much for the poor boy. We should wait until tomorrow to talk to him again.”

  After a few seconds, Franklin lowered his gaze and nodded. “All right,” he said to the human. “But don’t think we’re giving up. Little Franklin belongs to us.”

  The human shook her head. “Listen to yourself. You talk about him like he’s a prized possession.”

  Della hated to admit it, but the human was right again. She flared her nostrils and took in the human’s scent. Fear and desperation clung to her—fear of losing Little Franklin and Kelsey. Della knew how it felt to lose a child. Am I now doing it to someone else? She shoved the thought away. The human might think of herself as Little Franklin’s mother, but she wasn’t. Still, maybe appealing to the human’s motherly feelings might help. “You have to understand. Little Franklin is our only grandchild. We were there when he was born, when his parents found out he’s deaf, and when he sat up on his own for the first time. We had already picked out his first pair of shoes, the school he would go to, and the clearing where we wanted to teach him how to shift. And then, that terrible night…” Della shuddered and trailed off.

  “I’m sorry,” the human said.

  To her surprise, Della found that the human’s compassion was real. Her nose would have told her if it were fake.

  “I know you loved Danny…still love him, but you can’t undo what happened. Danny’s my son. You can visit him whenever you want, but I’m not giving him up.” The human looked her in the eye with the confidence of an alpha.

  “Now who sounds like she’s talking about a prized possession?” Franklin said.

  The human sighed. “No use arguing with someone who’s more bull-headed than my grandfather,” she murmured. “You can sleep on the couch. But by tomorrow morning, I want you out of here.” She turned on her heel and went back upstairs.

  Franklin’s howl of anger followed her. He started pacing. His agitated movements caused a framed photograph to tumble from the mantle.

  Della caught it before it could shatter. About to place the photo back on the mantle, she paused.

  The picture showed Kelsey and Little Franklin sprawled under an oak, the human and the remnants of a picnic between them. Both were leaning toward the human, their shoulders touching hers, and all three sported broad grins.

  Della traced Kelsey’s smile with a fingertip. “She looks happy, and so does Little Franklin.”

  “What?” Franklin stopped his pacing to peer over her shoulder. “What are you talking about?”

  “Kelsey. She looks happier than I’ve ever seen her since the day…” Della lowered her voice. “The day Garrick and Sabrina died.”

  Franklin stared at the photo for a few moments. Then he wrenched it out of her hands and placed it back on the mantle. “Nonsense. How could a human make her happy? You just wait until she meets the right Syak, then she’ll be happy.”

  Della nodded but couldn’t help glancing back at the photo of her smiling daughter.

  * * *

  Kelsey waited until Rue’s deep breathin
g indicated that she was finally asleep before she slid out from beneath the covers and tiptoed out of the bedroom and down the hallway.

  It was two a.m., so the house lay in silence. Only Zoe’s soft snoring from the guestroom drifted over to Kelsey.

  Good. Kelsey didn’t want their Saru guards around when she talked to her parents. She stalked down the hallway toward the stairs.

  “Sneaking out of the human’s bed for a middle-of-the-night snack?” a quiet voice came from behind her.

  Clutching her chest, Kelsey whirled around.

  A pair of glowing fox eyes stared at her from the darkness.

  “Great Hunter, Tala! You scared me half to death.” Once again, Kelsey realized how good Tala was at her job—and how dangerous she could be. She hadn’t even heard or smelled Tala’s approach.

  Tala grinned. “Naw. Wolves don’t scare easily, not even submissive ones like you.”

  Kelsey studied Tala’s delicate, foxlike features in the darkness. They didn’t seem to fit Tala’s proud, confident demeanor. “You grew up in a wolf pack, didn’t you?”

  “Just like you did,” Tala said, as if a fox-shifter growing up among wolves were nothing out of the ordinary. “Actually, your father reminds me a bit of mine. A mighty loud bark, but a heart as soft as a pup’s fur.”

  Kelsey had to smile and relaxed a little. “Did everyone in your pack just accept you, differences and all?”

  For a moment, Tala looked as if she would refuse to answer, but then she shook her head. “No, I had to kill the alpha and cripple his second-in-command first.”

  Kelsey stared at her. “But t-that… You can’t just…”

  Tala laughed. “Loosen up. I’m just joking.” Her grin faded away. “Some of the pack members acted as if my parents had adopted a poisonous scorpion, not a tiny fox-shifter baby. It took me years until they finally accepted me as part of the pack.”

  “How did you do that?” Maybe she and Rue could do the same to gain her parents’ respect.

  “Only one way to earn a wolf’s respect—by standing up to him.”

  Kelsey sighed. “Where does that leave me? I’m a nederi. Standing up to someone is not my forte.” Her parents hadn’t even listened when she had wanted to talk to them about her relationship.

  “You went behind the council’s back, broke the First Law on national TV, tricked a bunch of Saru—including me—and talked Jeff Madsen into letting you stay in North Carolina. I’d say you’re pretty good at standing up to people.”

  Kelsey blinked. But…but that was different, wasn’t it?

  Tala grinned and walked toward the guest room.

  Kelsey stared at her retreating back until the door closed behind Tala, and then she tiptoed downstairs to the living room, where Mrs. Mangiardi had pulled out the couch for Kelsey’s parents.

  Her eyes effortlessly pierced the darkness, and she made out her parents’ forms snuggled together under the blankets. Her father’s feet stuck out from under the covers and twitched as if he was dreaming about hunting down prey in the forest—or maybe he was hunting down humans.

  Her mother’s nose quivered. Before Kelsey could step closer, she found herself staring into Della’s glowing eyes.

  Franklin shot up next to Della.

  “Kelsey! Everything okay?” Her mother reached for the light switch. “What are you doing up?”

  Kelsey perched on the coffee table and looked down at her parents. “I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I would come talk to you.”

  “What’s there to talk about?” Franklin mumbled. “Tomorrow, we’ll take you and Little Franklin home with us. End of story.”

  Kelsey took a steadying breath. She put her hands on her knees and leaned forward to be at eye level with her father. “No, Dad, you can’t. You’ll never be able to take Franklin home with you.”

  “What are you saying? Of course we—”

  “No.” Even though it was against pack rules, Kelsey interrupted her father midsentence. “For all intents and purposes, Franklin died that night at the river.”

  Della pulled the covers up around her shoulders as if thinking about that night made her shiver.

  “If you ever want to have any kind of relationship with your grandson, you’ll have to accept that he’s Daniel Harding, not Franklin Yates II—and that means accepting Rue’s place in his life. She’s his mother and—”

  “What kind of mother can she be to him?” With jerky movements, Franklin hurled the covers aside and jumped to his feet. Now he towered over Kelsey, who was still sitting on the coffee table. “I did some research on Ms. Harding. She’s the CEO of a large company, and she works insane hours, including a two-week business trip to Germany last year. She left Franklin...Danny with her housekeeper!” His gaze seared into Kelsey.

  She returned her father’s gaze with equal intensity. “Mrs. Mangiardi is much more than just a housekeeper. She’s part of the pack. Besides…when Garrick and I were growing up, Mom wasn’t always there either.” The pain in her mother’s eyes and her scent made Kelsey hesitate, but then she forged on. “You spent endless hours in the recording studio, on concert tours, and at band practices.”

  Franklin growled and put one hand on his wife’s shoulder. “We never left you with a housekeeper. I was always there when your mother was on tour.”

  “Oh, yeah, you were there—at least physically.” The bitterness in her voice surprised even Kelsey. She had thought she was just bringing up her own childhood to prevent her parents from judging Rue, but now it was as if she had scratched at a scab and discovered a festering wound beneath. “But you spent most of your time taking care of pack business and making sure Garrick didn’t feel left out because he couldn’t listen to Mom’s music.” The long afternoons curled up in the recliner in her father’s office, waiting for his attention, came back to her.

  Silence spread between them.

  “You felt neglected?” Her father sounded as if someone had hit him in the gut.

  The pain in her father’s voice was like a bucket of water on the flames of her anger. She took a calming breath and almost swallowed down the truth trembling on her lips. But old emotions had ruled her life for too long already, and if she wasn’t completely honest now, she would never again bring it up. “Sometimes,” she whispered. “I knew you loved me too. It’s just that dealing with two careers, two kids, and a large pack...it’s a lot, and sometimes I felt as if everything else took priority over me.”

  “Kelsey...” Her mother reached out but stopped before she touched her, as if she was afraid she had lost that privilege.

  Kelsey grasped her mother’s hand and reached for her father’s with the other. “I’m not saying this to make you feel bad. I just want you to stop judging Rue. She’s not perfect. But at least she’s ready to change.” She looked from her father to her mother and back. “Are you?”

  When her parents remained silent, Kelsey dropped their hands. “Rue will need some help to be a good mother and natak to Danny, but despite everything that went wrong between them, they still have a deep bond—and so do Rue and I. What more could you ask for in a parent for Danny and a partner for me?”

  “Being a Syak,” Franklin grumbled.

  Kelsey clutched her head. No matter what she said, her father always came back to that old argument. She couldn’t stand it any longer. She pushed up from the coffee table, right into her father’s personal space. “If you keep spouting these same old rules and prejudices, you’ll lose Danny. You’ll drive him away just like you did with me.”

  Her father blanched. “Kelsey, we always did what we thought was best for you.”

  “Yeah. What you thought was best for me—not what I wanted for myself.” Now that she had started, the words began to pour out. She had held them back for too long. “After Garrick died, you wanted me to act like a future natak. But being dominant is not in my nature. I’m not Garrick.”

  “I know that,” her father said. “We never wanted you to be Garrick. We love you just t
he way you are, but we need an heir and our pack needs a leader.”

  Kelsey swallowed down the bitter taste in her mouth. “Unconditional love doesn’t include any ‘buts,’ Dad.” She sighed and decided to stop this line of arguing. This wasn’t about her. “Maybe Danny will lead our pack one day, but if you keep ignoring who he really is and what he wants, he won’t want to have anything to do with the pack. If you disrespect his mother and try to take him away from her, he’ll never trust you.”

  “You really want us to leave Danny behind a second time?” Della asked, tears in her eyes. “To leave him here, growing up with a human?”

  “With Rue and with me. Rue and I will do this together.”

  Her father snarled at her. “Oh, no, you won’t!”

  I can do this. Instead of ducking, Kelsey faced her father with her head held up high. “Yes, Dad, I will. You always wanted me to be more assertive and stand my ground like a true alpha. Well, I’m still not a natak, but I’m standing my ground on this. Nothing you say can make me change my mind.” She stared into her father’s eyes. For the first time in her life, it wasn’t hard to do. “I love Rue. I won’t leave her, no matter what. She’s the alpha I chose for myself.”

  Della reached for her hand. Her fingers were trembling. “You’re just confused after everything you’ve been through. No Syak has ever been attracted to a human.”

  “You also said that no Syak has ever suffered from claustrophobia—but I do.” Kelsey took a deep breath to calm herself. “Or rather I did. With Rue by my side, I climbed into a subway tunnel to save Danny. Since I met Rue, I did things that I never thought possible. She encourages me, she completes me, and she lets me be myself.” She let her gaze drill into her mother’s and then her father’s. “If you can’t accept Rue’s place in my life, I’ll never speak to you again. You’ll lose both of us, Danny and me.”

  Before either of her parents could answer, she strode past them toward the sliding doors leading to the deck. She needed some fresh air.