Mr. Red Riding Hoode

Chapter Six

“I’m Pack? For real?” Shit. That was a lot easier than he’d thought it would be. “No ceremony or anything?”

Ben nodded and passed the peanuts to his lover, Dave. “Yup. I thought Graciela explained all this? Rick accepted you even before she marked you. It’s a done deal, bro.”

He reached up and ran his fingers over the bite Graciela had left on his skin. Marked. He was marked. Who knew his life would be changed so dramatically simply because he decided to help out a friend?

Dave held up his glass in a toast. “Congratulations.” His expression turned evil. “As the Beta I get to boss you around now.” His evil laugh would have done Dr. Horrible proud.

They were sitting in the near-empty bar of the Red Wolf Lodge at about three o’clock in the morning, way past the time the bar usually closed. They’d snuck in here after the lodge settled down for the night, eager for some alone time.

It was three weeks till Christmas, and Steve had every intention of spending them here with his buddy and his partner.

Oh, and his newly discovered mate.

Mate. He chuckled into his tequila. He had a mate. A cute one, with the sweetest smile and the most iron will he’d ever met. She’d given him his space when he needed it, jollied him out of his fear and let him make the ultimate decision on whether or not to accept her bite.

Where the hell had she been all his life? Shit. He should have come to the lodge sooner.

He resisted the urge to reach up and feel the mark again. Just the soft brush of his fingers was enough to send heat straight to his cock. When Graciela touched it…

When his little Wolf touched him there, it was magic. He grinned, sipping the very smooth Patrón he’d stolen from behind the bar. Damn, they stocked the good shit.

He ached to go back to his—no, their cabin, slip between the sheets and cuddle her close, to hell with tequila and male bonding.

“Would we do that?”

He’d missed something in the conversation, but he wasn’t sure what. However, he did know that Dave couldn’t look innocent if you stuck a halo over his head and declared him the offspring of Archangel Michael, and that’s exactly what he was trying to do. Steve shook his head sadly. “Yes, you would.”

Dave pouted. “Dude. That hurts. Deep down, where it counts.”

Ben rolled his eyes at his goofy lover. “Look, I wouldn’t be telling you this at all if it weren’t for Chela.”

“Graciela?” Steve sat up straighter. If this involved Graciela, then he wanted to know everything they had to tell him. He had to pay attention and stop mooning over…well, Graciela. “What about her?”

The two men exchanged glances Steven couldn’t read, which shocked him. He was an expert at reading the expressions of others, of using them to gauge how far and hard he should push in a deal.

Ben and Dave exchanged a quick glance, and then Dave nodded. “Chela hasn’t had the best of times until recently.”

Ben nodded. “Yeah. She was abused by our previous alpha female, Gina.”

Something inside Steve growled, startling him. It wasn’t enough to throw him off what Ben had said, though. “What do you mean, abused?”

Dave ran his fingers through his hair, messing up the golden brown strands. “My sister was alpha female before Belle got here.”

“And she thought, since Belle was a Puma, she would remain alpha female despite the fact that Rick had declared Belle his Luna, his co-ruler, if you will.”

“Which meant Gina was out of a job, unless Belle proved to be too weak to rule a pack of Wolves.” Dave grimaced. “But Belle is friends with the Alpha, Curana, Beta and Beta female of the Halle Puma Pride, so she knew she’d have to come in and be the Luna in every sense of the word.”

“Which she did, in almost every way, except Gina found a way around it. Or so she thought.”

Steve held up his hand. “This is all very nice, but what does that have to do with Graciela being abused?”

“Gina thought Graciela was weak. Because of that, she…” Dave sighed. “She was alpha female. There wasn’t anything we could do to stop her.”

Ben leaned forward, cradling his drink between his hands. “Alpha females rule all the females unless an acknowledged Luna is present. That means what Gina said went, period. Unless it was proved she was being excessively abusive to the women under her command, Rick’s hands were tied.”

“So it was okay to be a little abusive? Is that what you’re telling me?” Oh, Steve did not like where this was going.

“As alpha female she was the one responsible for rewarding, and punishing, the females. So yes, in a way, it was considered okay. It was one of the reasons Rick wanted to bring Belle here. We needed a Luna, a female strong enough to stand up to Gina and force her to back down, to obey protocol, not just the letter of the law.”

“You’re losing the puny human, guys.”

“Gina beat the living hell out of Chela on a regular basis, okay?” Dave grunted when Ben elbowed him in the side. “What?”

“I thought Rick said Omegas were protected members of the Pack?” Steve was horrified. Who would beat up someone as sweet as Graciela?

And why would the strong woman he’d met, who’d forced him to face his fears with unwavering joy, allow it? Graciela was far from weak. She’d proven that more than once.

“She wasn’t Omega at the time.” Ben frowned. “Or rather, she was, but she hadn’t come into her power yet. It took the Luna to bring it out in her, and now—”

“Chela worships the ground Belle walks on.”

“Thank fuck you got Belle’s approval, Steve, or your ass would bounce as she tossed you down the mountain.”

“I’m not very bouncy, guys.”

They both looked at him with dead-serious expressions. “No, dude. That’s how hard Belle would have thrown you.”

Ben tried to fake-cough into his fist, but Steve heard the puny human loud and clear.

“So Graciela was abused and Belle saved her.” He still wasn’t sure what they were getting at, but he understood he had to take care with Graciela.

They exchanged another look. “Graciela would do anything for Belle.”

“Like roll-around-in-chocolate-pudding-naked anything?”

Ben blinked. “Um…”

Steve hid his grin. “Naked olive-oil wrestling?”

“Dude.” Dave gagged.

“How about—”

“NO!”

Both men shouted so loud his ears rang.

“Gah. Stop trying to gross out the gay men, would ya?” Dave shuddered and finished his cola. Ben had given Dave the stink-eye when the man went to grab a beer, and Dave had backed down without a sound. The vicious migraines he’d been experiencing for years were aggravated by alcohol, so Ben’s reaction made perfect sense to Steve.

Steve was having tequila shots. Hell, he wasn’t fucking Ben. He could drink whatever he wanted. And after the recent furry revelations, he’d needed a little alcoholic haze over everything.

Especially the snarly voice in his head that told him to hunt down this Gina person and rip her goddamn throat out.

With his teeth.

He took another swig of tequila, hoping to drown the voice out. Unfortunately the alcohol wasn’t having the effect he’d hoped it would.

“Steve?”

“Hmm?”

“You might want to lay off the booze, man.”

He eyed Dave blearily. Damn, that was some fine tequila. “Why’s that?”

“You’re growling.”

He picked up his glass, surprised when it was empty. See? This was why he didn’t drink. His glass always wound up empty. “Oh.” He laughed, afraid it sounded more like a giggle than anything. “Cool.”

The two men exchanged a look. “You’re happy that you’re growling?” Ben sounded surprised. “It means you’re turning.”

“Your fangs are showing too.” Dave was grinning as he put his arm on the back of Ben’s chair.

He poured another shot into his glass and raised it. “The better to protect you with, my dear.”

Chela was on cloud nine. She had her mate, she had her home, she was Omega of her Pack, and her life was damn near perfect. She was disgustingly cheery this morning, a fact Belle had pointed out with that vapid smile that had more than one grown man running from the room in total, abject fear.

But not Chela. Not today. No, today she was going to stay disgustingly cheerful no matter how much her Luna snarled. She’d been living with her mate for over a week, and things were blissfully happy between them. They talked, they laughed, and she’d even caught signs that his Wolf was beginning to emerge. Not much was going to get her down today.

Besides, Belle was happy for her. She could feel it, like bubbles in champagne. She’d have to check with Ben, see if Belle’s bad hip was bothering her again today.

Belle was the one who’d talked Rick into installing a heated pool and spa somewhere in the lodge. The exercises the Luna did eased her pain greatly, but even so, Ben had told her that Belle was always in some pain, that it never ended. Unfortunately, the doctor she’d been seeing, Jamie Howard, had lost his mate to a rogue shifter, nearly dying himself. Only the intervention of one of the local Bears had saved him, and rumor had it that the good doctor hadn’t thanked him for it.

Chela couldn’t imagine losing Steve, and she’d only known him for two weeks. The thought of losing him and surviving? She shuddered. It would be like trying to survive without your soul. She prayed that something happened before Dr. Howard lost himself to his emotional pain, or not even Rick would be able to stop him.

Steve was somewhere in the lodge, his scent faint but present. She grinned, hoping she’d be able to meet him for lunch. She had plans for Christmas for both of them, plans she wanted to hint around. She was hoping he liked what she had come up with, or she’d have to figure out how to live in New York.

No respectable Wolf wanted to live in New York. It was run by Coyotes.

Chela shuddered.

She scrunched up her nose at the thought of the New York Coyote Alpha and his relationship with Rick. The two had become friends, even going so far as to grant each other unlimited access to each other’s territory, but still.

Coyotes.

She followed the faint scent of her mate, the tantalizing odor becoming stronger and stronger as she approached Lowell’s restaurant. Damn it. He must be eating already. She peeked inside, hoping to join him.

Her heart skipped a beat. Her mate was there, all right.

And he wasn’t alone.

The blonde with him was curvy, with bright blue eyes and a smile that would send strong men to their knees. She was laughing at something Steve had said, her head back, the throaty sound causing more than one male gaze to flitter her way. For a split second, Chela imagined taking that wealth of blonde hair and holding on to it while she cut her damn head off and played soccer with it.

Then she did the smart thing and opened her senses, using her Omega power to see how her mate felt about the blonde.

Affection was the first emotion to assault her, and she nearly cried out in pain until she realized that the affection was similar to what he felt around Ben and, to a lesser extent, Dave. This woman was close to him, yes, but not a lover. The woman’s emotions filled her as well, the closeness a friendly one rather than romantic. This woman was no rival.

Chela could breathe again.

She sauntered toward the table, determined to be introduced to the young woman having lunch with her mate.

A whiff of something strange, something shifter, caught her attention. It wasn’t long before she realized it came from the laughing blonde. What was that? She hadn’t scented it before, but they’d been really isolated before Rick came. Dave had even taken online college courses rather than attended college the way he’d hoped to.

There was something vaguely feline about that scent. Cheetah, maybe? It wasn’t Puma, the only really feline scent she was familiar with, but it had the same warm undertones that the Luna scent did.

“Graciela.” She stopped trying to figure out what the scent was, only to find she’d reached her mate’s table. He was smiling up at her with warmth she hadn’t dared hope to see before the mating instincts kicked in. He stood, offering her a short, sweet kiss and taking hold of her hand. “How has your day been?”

She smiled. “Pretty good. Better, now that I found you.”

His answering smile was almost as happy as she was certain hers was. Her cheeks felt hot, but inside she was dancing with glee. “You want to join us? We haven’t ordered yet. Charlie just arrived.”

The blonde wiggled her fingers hello. “Charlene Lowe, but everyone calls me Charlie.”

Chela stilled. Lowe? Smelling like a feline? Oh, shit. She wondered if Rick was aware a feline Lowe was in his restaurant. “Um. Hi.”

Charlie rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Please don’t do that. It’s why I told Dave not to tell anyone who I was until I after got here.”

Steve looked back and forth between them, the bubbly happiness he’d felt the moment he spotted her disappearing. “What’s going on?”

Chela took a seat with a sigh. “Lowe is the family name of the…” She glanced around the restaurant at the humans eating their meals. “The CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Foundation.”

The shifter Senate ran a legal corporation headed by the Leo, the ruler of the American shifters. It was a charitable organization that was mostly concerned with the conservation of endangered species. They only accepted donations from shifters, so they didn’t fall under public scrutiny. The Wildlife Conservation Foundation did a lot of good, helping to repopulate the wolves in Yellowstone National Park and giving the big cats born in the United States a safe environment to live in. She’d heard that there were more tigers living in the United States than any other place in the world, and the WCF helped to take care of them.

Wariness spiked through Charlie, but her gaze was remarkably bland. “He’s my brother.”

“Oh.” Chela felt faint. She was sitting at the table with the sister of the Leo himself. She’d pictured playing soccer with the woman’s severed head.

She was so dead it wasn’t even funny.

“He’s a pain in my ass.”

Steve chuckled. He had no idea who he was sitting across from, but Chela would make sure he found out as soon as it was safe to do so. “Do tell.”

“He thinks that because he runs a huge corporation he gets to tell me what to do.” Charlie sniffed disdainfully. “As if.”

Chela tried to relax, but the fact that the Leo could show up looking for his errant sister had her shaking in her shoes. “Why are you here?”

Charlie actually sagged in her seat. “I’m here to visit Dave, get a job—”

Oh shit.

“—and be just a normal, everyday girl, preferably in that order.”

That was good, because Chela didn’t think she could treat the fucking sister of the fucking Leo like an ordinary girl.

Charlie eyed her. “Relax, little puppy. I don’t bite.” She winked. “Much.”

“Graciela? What’s wrong?”

Steve’s concern was ratcheting up by the minute, as well as a low, simmering protectiveness that soothed her, let her feel safe. She leaned toward her mate and whispered in his ear, softer than she would have if he had still been fully human. “Her brother is the Leo, the ruler of all the shifters.”

He sat back and blinked blandly at Charlie. “Oh. That must suck monkey balls.”

Charlie nearly spewed out the sip of water she’d just taken. “Oh, I like you.”

“Not too much,” Chela muttered. Sister of the Leo or not, she’d still rip her head off if Charlie made a move toward Chela’s mate.

Charlie’s brows rose. “He’s a bow-wow? I didn’t smell anything.” She stared at Steve for a moment, her gaze turning sly. “Oh. You’re so new you still squeak.” She grinned at Chela. “Mates?”

Chela nodded.

“Congratulations.”

Steve’s brows were practically in his hairline. “Bow-wow?”

Charlie made a sound remarkably like Blue from Blue’s Clues, and both Steve and Chela laughed.

“What job are you here for?” Chela was feeling more and more comfortable around the Lion, even more so when she felt the good humor in the feline.

“I heard Dave and someone named Belle need a second-in-command to help with the event planning.” She flipped her blonde hair behind her shoulder. “Partying is my thing.”

Chela bit her lip. “You haven’t met Belle yet, have you?”

The spike of unease told her the Lion wasn’t nearly as calm about all this as she appeared. She genuinely wanted to be here, wanted the assistant’s position. Odd, when among their kind she was considered almost royalty. “Not yet.” She dropped the party-girl persona. “Any advice?”

“Be yourself. Belle will see through bullshit faster than Superman through a brick wall. Trust me. Belle doesn’t mind someone who likes to play, but when she’s talking business you’d better be on the ball.” Belle ran a tight ship in the restaurant, and its reputation had grown as a result.

“That’s what Dave said when I told him I wanted to apply.” Charlie grinned. “We’ve been friends for years.”

“You think it’s a good idea to work with friends?” Steve’s tone wasn’t judgmental, merely curious.

Charlie tilted her head, a slight frown on her forehead. Chela could sense her confusion. Lions might not live in Packs, but they did live in Prides, and the dynamics were similar. Charlie would have an even easier time fitting in than Steve would. “You don’t?”

“Packs are family, Steve.” Chela kept her voice low. No one but Pack should hear what she was saying now. Most shifters did their best to speak about the shifter world in business terms, something the humans around them wouldn’t think twice about. But Steve was still so new he might not understand unless it was stated bluntly. “We’re friends, brothers, sisters, annoying older cousins who steal your dresses and stretch out the ass so you can’t wear it anymore, then ask for it as a cheap gift.”

Steve patted her hand. “That makes things much clearer. Thanks.”

She smiled and kissed his cheek. “You’re welcome, dear.”