This Weakness For You (Entangled Select Otherworld) (Taming the Pack) (21 page)

Jordan frowned but tried not to look worried. He was failing, but he put up a good effort. “Probably not the
best
thing for you to have said. Do you remember anything else you said?”

“I don’t know. I was talking about horror movie clichés, I think…about how they always cut the power and the phone lines and everything. I was nervous. I talk when I’m nervous. At least I didn’t mention how they always run out of ammunition in horror movies.”

Jordan dragged a hand down his face—probably to cover his expression of
how the hell could I be mated to someone who handed out detailed instructions to murderers on how to kill them?

She dropped onto the bed and then flopped on her back. “I’m like the worst alpha female in the history of alpha females.”

“Don’t say that,” he said.

“Why?” Hopefully he’d say something that would make her feel a lot better. He was reassuringly calm in emergencies. And he was never scared—anxious, but never scared—or at least she never saw it on his face.

“Because we should have Lycans arriving soon, and now you know how good our hearing is.”

She thought she heard Vanessa laughing somewhere in the house—somewhere far from Lucifer. Grabbing a nearby pillow, she pulled it over her face and screamed into it.

“Oh, also because it’s not true,” Jordan said.

Lifting up the pillow, she yelled, “Stop prompting him, Vanessa!” Then she glared at Jordan. “My brother is right—you are never having sex in this room.”

And then Jordan did look a little scared. “Aw, hell.”

…

His rifle was probably too big for her, but it was all he had.

Jordan grinned.

“Why are you smiling while holding a gun?”

“Nothing…just the big gun thing Vanessa said earlier.” He motioned for her to stand beside him. “Now, I don’t like standing out here in the open, even if you will be holding a gun, so we’re going to make this quick. I just need to know in an emergency you’re not”—wow, he caught himself just before saying “defenseless”—“without a weapon.”

He could hear Vanessa relaying what he was saying to Dane while they stood at a back window, watching. If they made fun of Christa in any way, there might be some throat-ripping.

He handed her the rifle and she took it without seeming overwhelmed by the weight. Of course, she had loaded it to go to the window, so she must have some familiarity with guns. The window thing had clearly spooked her, because the rifle had been beside the bed with the ammunition right beside it. So he really only had her word she’d loaded it correctly.

“Maybe I should have let you load it, but you saw how I did it, so next time.”

She nodded…almost too eagerly and cheerfully, and he narrowed his eyes. Why did he get the feeling he was about to get his ass handed to him?

“Let me show you how to hold the gun.”

“Oh, I think I got that part.” She yanked up the gun and shouldered it like an old pro.

His mouth dropped open, but he recovered, snapping it closed. “It’s not too heavy?”

“My arm strength isn’t an issue for me, but I’m out of the flare-up…hopefully. What am I supposed to be aiming at?” she asked.

“Uhh, that tree.” He pointed at a tree about forty feet away. She’d never hit it, but he didn’t want her aiming at anything any closer.

“Why not that tree back farther—with the mushrooms growing on it looking like a happy face? That seems like a better target.”

He looked where she was pointing the barrel. She had to be kidding. She’d picked a target based on mushroom growth—which did actually look like a happy face—but that was insane, and it was too far away.

“Christa, that’s gotta be two hundred meters away. I know you’re excited, but…”

He turned back to the house as Vanessa and Dane burst out laughing after Vanessa repeated the two hundred meters bit. They were nearly falling down they were laughing so hard.

“I think that’s a better target, Jordan,” Christa said, drawing his attention back. “Look, it has that happy face, and it’s a clear shot.”

“I’m not sure I could even make that shot accurately.”

“No?” she asked.

Well, he might be able to. But he didn’t want to discourage her right away. “Probably not accurately.” People defined the word “accurately” differently.

“Huh.” She took a deep breath as she lined things up in her scope. When she fired, she dropped back, absorbing the recoil like she’d been born with a gun in her hands. “Right between the eyes.” She dropped the rifle to her side—her hand went to her hip as she raised her eyebrows. “I can do one thousand meters with support and the right scope, but that’s not too bad for standing. I’m much better than Dane—which pisses him off.” She handed him the rifle. “My dad was a sniper. Vietnam. It’s why I work with veterans. It’s also why I’m a pacifist—I could kill with a gun in my hands, and I don’t need that on my conscience.” As she walked back toward the house, she called over her shoulder, “Hey, Jordan, thanks for letting me touch your big gun.”

Inside the house, Vanessa was holding her stomach and snorting out laughs unattractively, and Dane kept saying, “Oh, I can’t breathe…stop…stop…I can’t breathe,” while laughing.

He’d never been shown up like that—not in front of others. He was an Alpha, and he’d been shown up by his runt of a mate. He waited for his pride to kick in—for his honor to demand some sort of challenge. Instead, he was proud that eventually he’d be having offspring with that woman…and she could
definitely
defend herself.

The way her hips swayed, with her spine straight and her head held high. Short, sweet, cute—with all the attitude of an Alpha. She could shoot, and she threw punches and shoes. And she was his.

It surprised him just the same when he started laughing and called back, “Anytime, Christa, anytime.” In the distance, he heard cars pulling up. The pack had arrived.

Chapter Thirteen

Dinner was pancakes, since it seemed the easiest thing to make for the entire pack, and they ate in shifts so they weren’t all crammed in one room at once. He was relieved no one had opted to spend the weekend in their homes. His house was crowded, but less crowded than he’d expected—and it might really feel empty after being this full.

After the last of them finished eating, he said, “Glacier pack.”

The room went immediately still. His eyes had been on the kids playing video games in the large family room to the side, so he’d seen ten-year-old Kevin react at the same time as the adults. Their above-average hearing sometimes came early, and he glanced at Kevin’s parents and said, “Tim and Jenny, looks like you got a four-foot for patrol someday.”

They both glanced up, smiling. This was their second Lycan offspring, and they had a toddler who kept trying to get to Lucifer in the bedroom. One of the other teens present was human, and chances were that some of the younger group would be, too, so he didn’t congratulate them. That had created the rift between his siblings and him—the big celebration when he’d shifted.

“Okay, first of all, we’ll dispense with taking turns on speech in this house. This is my domain and I ask that you not show me that deference—I think it’ll impede our ability to work as a pack.

“Second, Ross has already been on my property. Apparently my mate scared him off with a rifle two nights back, not realizing it was Ross. So he knows the weaknesses of our position and the lay of the land. Keep all curtains closed unless you’re guarding the pack. I have surveillance cameras on the roof that I installed at the same time as the office’s, and I have James out there on the ground, too.” He’d never bothered turning on the cameras before, and he’d only installed them in case everything went to hell again—and now it had.

“Third, I have a single landline and most of you have probably noticed your cell phones don’t work. Ethan pointed out to me that you could all use webcams or call on your computers, and I’ve noticed every available plug in my library has a laptop cord running out of it. Don’t use the landline, as that will be how other packs will get in touch and those we send out will be getting hold of us.” At least it was no longer tapped. Ethan had taken care of that.

“Finally, lights are going out at eight p.m. for an early bedtime. Turning on a light will make you more visible from the outside. Until we know what we’re dealing with, we’re erring on the side of caution. With the sun down already, I suggest we turn off as many lights as we can. I designed my bathrooms to only have skylights and not outside windows, so that’s an option if you have to do something—but there are only five bathrooms and one of them is mine so no all-night parties in the bathrooms.

“I need Tim, Ethan, Jeff, Dane, Sue, Kennedy, Reilly, and Brock in the study to go over routes.” Christa moving in his periphery made him add, “And Christa, of course.” It was customary for the alpha female to be part of the decision-making process, and he needed to stop treating her like she wasn’t his equal, because apparently, she could shoot him if she got frustrated.

Christa grinned—it wasn’t a customary reaction to being asked into a meeting, but he liked it.

Christa was the last in the study, and she gestured at the door. “Should I close it?”

The Lycans present smiled at this, but Jordan shrugged. “Sure.” At least they wouldn’t be interrupted—even if every Lycan in the house could hear them if they wanted. He definitely needed to soundproof one of these rooms. He and Dane had cleared the large, flat desk and pulled it to the center of the room. Dane had propped a few clear rolls of plastic beside the large map Jordan had of the area.

The unrolled map took up the entire desk, and there were markers of all their property as well as other buildings in different colors.

“Okay. If we assume they have semitrucks outfitted for surgery as the previous poacher did, they’ll have used these access roads.” Jordan pointed at several roads large enough for semis to use.

Dane grabbed one of the rolls of clear plastic. “We should see how it compares to our modified routes.” He pulled a rubber band off and then pushed the plastic across to unroll it. “Vanessa said your maps are all the same, and I did this on the one at your work with Ethan’s help.” The clear plastic overlaid perfectly, and routes and notations matched to roads and locations below.

Jordan stood there blinking.

Dane had done this. Dane. He’d tried to kill this man. Twice.

“What’s the other roll?” Jordan asked, nodding at the second roll of plastic.

“That’s your old patrol routes—Ethan helped me with that, too. Vanessa said sometimes you guys patrol just to get the wolf out of your system, especially if it’s a full moon, but I still thought more efficient, tighter routes could do that and keep our pack safer, but I guess you all know the routes so well there wasn’t a written record—so Ethan had to map it out for me.”

“He did most of it,” Ethan said, not looking up.

“Do you want to see the comparison?” Dane asked, smiling.

Christa had been standing outside the group, seeming nervous, but she’d come closer when the plastic had been overlaid.

“I want to see,” Christa said, pressing up against Jordan’s side.

He inhaled, and her scent momentarily distracted him before he nodded at Dane. After the plastic unfurled, he was openly shaking his head. He’d organized their routes better than a five-star general.

“This was well done,” Jordan said, making eye contact with Dane. Saying more would have to wait until they had fewer listeners. Dane was starting to understand the shaky nature of remaining Alpha, but they owed this man their lives. A sudden thought occurred to him, and Jordan smiled. He was going to have to buy Dane a truck or something. Something that said
I’m glad I didn’t kill you
without actually saying it.

“The timing was ideal. I told Travis that their patterns made them predictable. Ross knew all our old routes, so he was expecting those, and I don’t think there’s a single route that matches the old one enough to predict it. And you consolidated it to manage it in a single night. Really well done.”

“It was brilliant,” Ethan said.

“After this is over, you should request a second vote of allegiance,” Jeff said, glancing up from the map. He’d been one to vote against Dane, so it was telling that he was asking for a second and unnecessary vote.

“I will,” Jordan said.

Dane was too busy studying the map to acknowledge their comments, and he pointed to a heavily forested area. “The routes will need to change farther into the spring. Ethan says this area has a lot of bears that enjoy challenging Lycans, and you can see I took this portion off the revised routes. Also, if we have a colder winter, I think the snowpack might take some areas off also. I did this on plastic so we could make changes, but these are the routes we did last night—we’d made some changes after the first night.” He pointed to a blue line drawn in marker. “Some of the land had changed from the map. Also”—he pointed to a route marked in purple—“this was originally two routes, but Jeff said it should be combined because the terrain was easy—especially compared to what he’d been doing. So we changed it to this, and it seemed to work well. You can see we went by several of those access roads.”

“I did this one,” Sue said, leaning forward and pointing. “At one a.m., no one had passed through there in a semi in at least several days. It’s too narrow and muddy for most of the lumber trucks to attempt during the rainy season.”

Jeff pointed to another road. “And this smaller one, Max had on his route, and he said he didn’t have to do much because they’d closed portions of it for avalanche control two weeks ago that they didn’t end up doing.”

Dane grinned. “Yeah, I think I was supposed to help with that, but Vanessa went into labor, and we had that storm that took down a few trees. It probably got put off, and it’s not used much, anyway.”

Jeff looked at Dane. “In fact, I was going to tell you today, Dane, that Max said he could take Jack’s route, too, if Jack needed a night off to help with the twins.” Jeff blinked and then turned to Jordan. “I mean…Jordan.”

Jordan shook his head. “Dane will need to get me up to speed on these routes, but it’ll have to wait, and while we don’t usually follow the hierarchy in the pack for rank—for the next few days, Dane is Beta.” He lifted his head and said a little louder, “Glacier pack, Dane is Beta until we’re out of this emergency, and Alpha if I’m out on four feet.” He nodded at Dane. “Grab those papers off the printers behind you—that’s the information that Ross emailed them on our pack. There’s a chance they didn’t catch us gathering our numbers back in, so we can send out a hunting party to some of their likely targets and swing by these roads on the way to check if semis have passed through.”

He leaned on the table and stared down at the map. “Now, who in the pack is up for a run?”

…

“Sit down,” Dane said.

She ignored him and continued pacing.

“Sit down,” he said again.

She ignored him again.

“Christa.”

She whirled and pointed a finger at him. “No, just shut up, shut up, shut up. I never had to wait for a boyfriend to come back from leading a war party after a serial killer, so I’m allowed to pace because if I’m not pacing, I’ll go crazy and start shouting like this.”

Dane cleared his throat. “Maybe you should keep pacing.”

She nodded and took a deep breath. “I think I should.” She went back to pacing. Then she stopped. And sat down on the couch in front of the fire. “I mean, Jordan is huge, right? If anyone is going to get their throat ripped out, it’ll be whoever messes with him, right? I mean, he’s ripped people’s throats out before, right? Not that normally that’s a good thing, but, you know, sometimes it is. And he
is
huge. Just huge.”

She looked over to see Dane, beside the desk, staring at her. His mouth was puckered in a frown. “I think you should go back to pacing.”

“Okay, after you agree with me that he’s huge.”

Dane raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, I’m not going to actually say that out loud—just in case it can be misconstrued.”

Vanessa rushed into the room, carrying a fussy Nathanial. “Christa, he won’t stop grumbling, and you’re the only one he seems to stop for.”

“I didn’t hear him before,” Christa said as Nathanial was plopped down on her lap.

Nathanial stopped immediately and started staring at her face.

“He’s going to give me a complex,” Christa said. “He just stares at my face like I’m an alien race and if he takes his eyes off me, I’ll mutate and suck out his eyeballs.”

“I’m sure that’s exactly what he’s thinking,” Dane said wryly.

Vanessa sighed and then left—without Nathanial.

“She just left him here.” Christa gestured at the doorway to the study.

“She does that.”

“What about your maternal instincts?” Christa called after her.

“Self-preservation is stronger,” Vanessa called back.

The phone rang, the sound echoing in the quiet house.

Nathanial’s lower lip quivered.

“No, no, no, you’re fine,” she said, bouncing him.

Dane’s hand paused over the phone for a moment before he picked it up. “Hey, Travis.” He listened.

A moment later, Vanessa came back and walked right by her child to stare intently at the phone. She was followed by Ethan, and one by one, other pack members wandered in.

“What’s going on?” she asked Ethan’s wife.

“Travis’s computer hacker friend used Ross’s computer to track down the poachers.” His wife was dressed neatly with all the elegance and grace of Audrey Hepburn. She leaned down and patted Christa’s shoulder without making eye contact—though she was looking at the baby. “Honey, he’s going to be fine. Jordan is the largest, strongest Lycan I’ve ever seen. He’ll rip their throats out first.”

Heat flushed her face. She really needed to remember not to talk…at all. In this full house, someone would always be awake; someone would always be listening.

The printer started tossing out papers quickly, and Ethan grabbed them and spread them on the desk on top of the map Dane had been staring down since the hunting pack left.

“Yeah,” Dane said, nodding in agreement with Travis, even though he was on the phone. “No, still just the one, though seven of the pack are out checking the roads and trying to catch them moving to the next target.”

Christa swallowed hard. Hopefully the next target wasn’t one of the seven people out there.

“I wish I could have gone,” Ethan grumbled.

His wife moved to stand beside him and patted him on the back. “The doctor says your knee needs a few more weeks.” She sighed. “I wish you’d let me go.”

A few other Lycans nodded. The group present in the study had grown. Apparently all the adults in the house had been drawn to this room.

Another woman, a few years older than Christa, sat down next to her. “I remember when Max went after his first bear—I sat down in the den the whole time. It’s not weak to be concerned. It’s only weak if you let it overrule the rest of your emotions.” She was looking at the baby, too. It made what was probably deference seem less obvious. “You could always wait down in the den instead of up here—though the others when they shift back won’t be wearing clothes, and I know that bothers the humans among us more than Lycans.”