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Chapter Eighteen
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FEMALE APHA'S STOLEN BIRTHRIGHT Chapter Nineteen
THERE was actually a town. Not much of a town, but it had a gas station, a hotel, and a two-story brick-and-stone building with a sign in front that proclaimed it the Aspen Creek School. Beyond the school, tucked back in thetrees and barely visible from anywhere but the parking lot, was an old stone church. If not for Toby’s directions, she might have missed it. Lauren eased his big green truck through the church parking lot into a spot designed for a much smaller rig. It was the only place left. She hadn’t seen any houses, but there were a lot of trucks and other fourwheel-drive vehicles in the lot.Toby’s truck was older than she was, but looked as if it were brand-new. It had been driven less than fifty thousand miles, if she wanted to believe the odometer about two thousand miles a year. Toby had told her he didn’t like driving.She turned off the engine and watched anxiously as Toby opened his door and slid to the ground. The drop didn’t seem to bother him. The stain on his pink
FEMALE APHA'S STOLEN BIRTHRIGHT Chapter Twenty
O grave, where is thy victory?’ ”He paused, letting his eyes trail over the room, much as Toby had, then said simply, “Shortly after we moved back here, Carter Wallace came to my house at two in the morning to hold my wife’s hand when our retriever had her first litter of puppies. He wouldn’t charge me because he said if he charged for cuddlingpretty women, he’d be a gigolo and not a vet.”He stepped away from the pulpit and sat on the thronelike wooden chair on the right-hand side. There was the sound of shuffling and the creaking of wood, then an old woman stood up. A man with bright chestnut hair escorted her down the aisle, a hand under her elbow. As they walked by her pew, Lauren could smell thewolf in him.It took the old woman a few minutes to make it all the way to the top of the stairs to the pulpit. She was so small that she had to stand on a footstool, the werewolf behind her with his hands on her waist to steady her.“Carter came to our store when he was eight years old
FEMALE APHA'S STOLEN BIRTHRIGHT Chapter Twenty One
He took a deep breath and looked at Carter’s granddaughter. “He almost killed your mother, Shawna. I took care of her afterward, and I’l attest that it was luck, not any impulse on Carter’s part, that spared her life you can ask her yourself.How would a man whose life had always been devoted to the service of others have borne it if he had killed his own daughter? She asked the Marrok, in my hearing, if he would take care of the duty that her brother would not.By that time, the wolf in Carter was far enough gone he couldn’t ask for it. So no, my dad did not try to persuade Carter to Change he was just the one who stepped up to the plate to handle the resultant mess.”When Samuel finished speaking, he let his eyes drift slowly over the room as heads bowed in submission. He nodded once, then took his seat next to Toby again.The next few people kept their eyes off the Marrok and his sons, but Lauren thought it was embarrassment rather than the sullen anger that had been so prominent a
FEMALE APHA'S STOLEN BIRTHRIGHT Chapter Twenty Two
the scent of wildness, of sickness, faded. Hestared at her, the whites of his eyes showing brightly while his irises narrowed to small bands around his black pupil.“Omega,” he whispered, his breath coming harshly. Behind her, Toby stepped closer, but he didn’t touch her as the cool flesh under her fingertips warmed. They all stood frozen in place. Lauren knew that all she had to do to end this was to remove her hand, but she was strangely reluctantb to do so.The shock on Asil’s face faded, and skin around his eyes and mouth softened into sorrow that grew and deepened before tucking itself away, where all private thoughts hid from too-keen observers. He reached out and touched her face lightly, ignoring Toby’s warning growl.“More gifts here than I’d believed.” He smiled tightly at Lauren, eyes and mouth in concert. “It’s too late for me, mì querida. You waste your gifts on my old self.But for the respite, I thank you.” He looked at Brian. “Today and tomorrow, and maybe the next da
FEMALE APHA'S STOLEN BIRTHRIGHT Chapter Twenty Three
Northwestern Montana,Cabinet WildernessDennis didn’t know why he’d survived the beast’s attack, any more than he understood how he’d survived three tours of ’Nam when so many of his friends, his comrades, had not. Maybe his survival both times was just luck or maybe fate had other things in store for him. Like another thirty years wandering alonein the woods.If his survival after the beast’s attack had been unlikely, the rest of it was just plain weird. The first thing he’d noticed was that the aching arthritis that hadbhaunted his shoulders and knees, the throb of an old wound in his hip, had all disappeared. The cold no longer bothered him. It took him a lot longer to realize that his hair and beard had regained the color of his youth he didn’t carry around a mirror. That’s when he began paying attention to the oddities.He was faster and stronger than he’d ever been. The only wounds that hadn’t healed with the same remarkable speed as his belly were the ones on his battered sou
FEMALE APHA'S STOLEN BIRTHRIGHT Chapter Twenty Four
His father’s touch, his voice, and something more helped him gather his thoughts. He was out of control. He closed his eyes and drew on his father’s touch to soothe the beast until he could think more clearly.“I did it again, didn’t I?” he asked, though he didn’t really need Brian’s affirmative. He took a deep breath and nodded. “Sage would be good.”He didn’t like anyone in his house: his father and brother, yes, but other people only as necessary. Still, he didn’t want Lauren alone, either. Sage would do.She wouldn’t hurt his Lauren and could protect her until he was there. Keep the males away. Something restless inside settled down a little more firmly. But he watched as his father cal ed Sage on his cell and listened to him ask her to go meet Lauren. Then allowed himself to be towed off to the clinic in Samuel’s car.His father followed in his Humvee.“Dad told me you had to kill Gerry,” he told his brother. Gerry had been Doc Wallace’s son, responsible for hurting any number of
FEMALE APHA'S STOLEN BIRTHRIGHT Chapter Twenty Five
That and a little reluctance to bare his wounds. He didn’t like other people knowing his weaknesses, even his brother and father. He reluctantly skimmed his slacks down. Samuel was frowning even before he’d gotten the bright green wrap cut off. Once he did, he put his nose against it and jerked back. “Who cleaned this out?”“The Chicago pack has a doctor.” There weren’t very many doctors who were werewolves. No one but Samuel as far as he’d known: the Chicago pack’s doctor was one of the new ones Leo had been hiding from the Marrok. Being around all that blood and flesh made it pretty difficult for a werewolf to keep his mind onhealing though he’d never noticed it bothering Samuel.“He was a quack,” growled his brother. “I can smellthe silver from six inches out.”“Poorly schooled in being a wolf,” corrected Toby. “None of Leo’s new wolves know what to do with their noses including Lauren. I doubt he thought to sniff for silver.”“And I am under the impression that he was pretty frig
FEMALE APHA'S STOLEN BIRTHRIGHT Chapter Twenty Six
“Who is he dreaming of?” Samuel asked.“His dead mate,” Brian said. “She was tortured to death. He won’t speak of it, though I know he feels guilty because he’d been traveling when it happened.He told me he’d quit dreaming of it when he joined our pack but it started again last month. He wakes up disoriented and…sometimes not where he went to sleep.”Dangerous, thought Toby, to have a wolf of the Moor’s powers out and about under its own direction.“You think his death can wait?” asked Samuel.Brian smiled, a real smile. “I think it can wait. We have an Omega to help him.”His father looked at Toby, and the smile broadened to a grin. “She’s not going to leave you for him, Toby, no matter what Asil says to tweak your tail.”Toby’s living room, though expensively decorated, was stil warm and homey, Lauren decided. It just wasn’t her home. She wandered restlessly through the rooms before she finally settled in the bedroom, sitting in a corner on the floor with her legs pulled up, huggin
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