Pack Challenge

Chapter Five

TOC

“I don’t know, you guys.” Miki poured cream in her coffee and stared at her two friends.

Sara sipped her hot chocolate and stared back. She’d already seen Miki’s early morning reading material. A book on the world of motorcycle clubs was lying on the counter.

Miki’s second job was in a local bookstore slash Internet cafe. This meant she had constant access to just enough information to make her dangerous.

“I don’t think we should hit that party tonight.”

“What?” Angelina snapped, coming out of her coffee-induced haze. When Angelina drank her coffee, she had the ability to completely tune everyone out. Especially Miki.

“We don’t know these people, Angie. And I think there’s something weird about them.”

“You think there’s something weird about everyone.”

“Yes. And there always is.”

Miki sat down on a stool by the register, her eyes focusing on Sara. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know. I don’t feel overly concerned.”

Miki shook her head. “It’s bugging me.”

Sara didn’t have time for this. When Miki had one of her “moments,” she could analyze something until you begged her to stop. Begged. “Look, Miki, you can come or you can stay home tonight. Your call. But I’m going.”

Miki’s eyes shifted to Angelina, causing the girl to raise one delicate eyebrow, “Like you even have to ask.”

Miki chuckled, “Fine. I’m going then. I can’t let you two out on your own. But no drinking, Sara. I need you to be rational.”

“Good luck with that.” The mug of hot chocolate was half-way to Sara’s lips when his lightly sarcastic voice stopped her. “The rational part that is.”

Sara looked up and there he was. Leaning against the door jam, quietly watching her. The morning sun was at his broad back, lightening his dark brown hair, and setting off his hazel eyes. He was once again in jeans and a black T-shirt emblazoned with a logo for a band she’d never heard of. His big arms were crossed in front of his even bigger chest and when he smiled at her he showed gleaming white teeth.

The man simply looked gorgeous without even trying. She hated him.

“What are you doing here?” Sara bit out before she could stop herself.

“That’s not very friendly. I thought Texans were friendly.”

“Texans are. But I’m not.”

Angelina quickly cut in, “So that party tonight, lots of people going to be there?”

Sara stared straight at Zach. He wouldn’t turn away, so she didn’t either. That went on for about a minute until his large blond friend, who was bringing up the rear, slammed into the back of Zach. “Where’s the coffee? I’m dyin’.”

There was no way those two huge specimens were getting through the door at the same time, so the blond simply forced his way past Zach into the shop, making a direct line for Miki at the counter.

It was Sara’s turn to smile as Zach was forced to move out of his friend’s way. But when his eyes once again focused on hers, Sara’s breath caught in her throat and she felt her clit start to throb, again, and her nipples became rock hard. Sara turned away before he could see how much he was getting to her and took a sip of her now tepid chocolate. She couldn’t even taste it.

The big blond bear stood at the counter staring at Miki.

Miki stared back at him. But she looked like a skittish colt that might bolt at any moment. “Do you actually want something?” She asked carefully.

“What?”

Miki looked at her friend, “Okay, Sara?” Sara heard the desperation in her voice. Poor thing, Sara sighed to herself. She just didn’t know how to handle someone that actually liked her.

Of course, Miki would probably say the same about her.

“Want something? Oh, yeah.” He cleared his throat, “Two large coffees to go. Please.”

Miki turned away so fast to fill his order she banged into the counter. Sara could see Angelina’s body shaking from her silent laughter, while Sara dug her fingernails into the palm of her hand to keep from embarrassing poor Miki any more than she had embarrassed herself.

“So you guys coming tonight?” The blond stalker asked Miki’s back as Zach slowly closed the space between him and Sara. Her back was still to him, but she felt him. Felt him getting closer to her. Felt her body respond. She was terrified he’d touch her. And terrified he wouldn’t. And all that “terror” was making her unbelievably wet.

“Wouldn’t miss it.” Angelina answered, probably because she knew Miki wouldn’t. But typical Angelina, she didn’t even notice the two gorgeous men right in front of her. She was, instead, flipping through one of those fashion magazines that Sara found blindingly boring. Some people called Angelina cold. Sara just called her finicky. Funny thing was, that for the first time Sara could remember, neither of these men seemed to notice Angelina. “Thor” couldn’t stop staring at Miki. And Zach, for some bizarre reason, wouldn’t stop staring at her. Even though her back was too him, she felt his eyes on her. Traveling down her body, her chest, her arms, her legs. But she kept asking herself why? What could he possibly see in her? It was making her crazy and distrustful, which thankfully was helping her control her desire to take his cock in her mouth.

What is wrong with you?

Angelina tossed the magazine aside and stood up, “I’ve got to get to work.” She grabbed her bag and headed toward the door.

“Wait! Don’t leave me!” Sara barked loudly before she had a chance to stop herself. They all turned to stare at her. She cleared her throat. “I’m going to be late for work. So I better leave with you.”

Angelina looked startled, “Since when do you care about being on time… ow!” Sara had grabbed Angelina’s arm and forced her out of the store.

“You’re both leaving?!” Miki barked after them, but Sara kept going. She’d have to apologize to Miki later.

Once Sara dragged her friend to the corner, Angelina snatched her arm away, “What is it with you?!” She demanded as she rubbed the now red spot that Sara had caused while desperately clutching her friend.

“Nothing,” she snapped back.

Angelina’s face broke into a dazzling smile, “He’s getting to you.”

“Who?”

Her friend nodded back to the bookstore, “You know, Mr. Not Nice.”

Sara growled in annoyance and turned to make her way up to Marrec’s shop.

“Don’t worry!” Angelina yelled after her, “I won’t tell!”

Sara, without turning around, raised her middle finger high into the air and she did her best to ignore the laughter that followed.

“She makes great coffee, huh?” Conall asked as he slowly sipped the French-roasted brew.

“Yeah. She sure does.” Zach took another sip, “But she’s still Satan.”

Conall smiled, “Then I guess I’ll just have to burn.”

Zach shook his head. His friend sure did have it bad for a woman who went screaming beyond the realm of blunt. Well, whatever floats your boat, he thought to himself.

Like Sara. Sara floated his boat. She was such a ripe piece of ass. Well, she was more than that, and hearing her and her friends talk about him last night like a side of beef wasn’t helping. Because Angelina was right. He wasn’t nice. In bed or out. And he had the feeling Sara could handle that. Would be in to that. Would be in to him. So that he could be inside of her.

But he wasn’t about to get caught in that trap. End up like Yates, with some petty, power-hungry bitch as his mate. Why? So he could breed? The Pack hadn’t been the same since she came along. Not that Zach was considered the fun one of the Pack, but he enjoyed that everyone else was having fun. Now, no one really laughed anymore. Or just enjoyed themselves, as wolves often like to do. The situation even forced his sister to move to their European operations just to get away from what she called “that fun funeral feeling” that the den now had. Casey brought a pall over the Magnus Pack that he would never really be able to forgive the woman for.

He just didn’t get it. They were all human enough to just fuck and go. He never understood why Yates hadn’t. As much as some of them wanted to believe it, they weren’t full wolves. They were human too. They had the power of choice. He decided he wanted to be Alpha male. He decided he was going to buy this T-shirt. And he didn’t go around attacking every bitch in heat. In fact, he went out of his way to stay away from them. He didn’t want kids. He’d be more than happy to let the other Pack mates breed and then raise their little whelps to take over when he was too old or tired to hold the leash. But every wolf female he’d met wanted to breed their mate’s kid. So, he’d decided, any mate he chose would be fixed.

But really, in the end, what exactly was the purpose of marking someone as your mate forever? At least full humans had divorce.

Although, he never admit it, he’d never thought about mates or mating as much since he came to this fucking little town in the middle of nowhere. All because of her. And it really didn’t help that she wanted him. Boy, did she want him. He could practically hear her clit twitching from where he stood. But what pissed him off was that his dick kept getting hard every time he saw her. Every time he thought about her. What the hell was that anyway? Even just thinking about seeing her this morning, before he even stepped in to the bookstore, his dick was rock solid. That was just unacceptable. He didn’t want any woman to have that much control over him. Especially her.

She wasn’t anything like Zach expected. In fact, she wasn’t like anyone he’d ever met before. She was insane. Her and her friends. They were loud, rowdy, rude, and dangerously unstable. But they weren’t a bunch of sorority chicks either. They were smart. Genuinely smart. But they also cursed like sailors and laughed hysterically over the stupidest shit. He knew he couldn’t get attached to her. He wouldn’t. He just needed to turn her and go. He had plans to make and a Pack to protect. No time to get involved with some nutty girl whose grandmother had probably damaged her more than the Pride that had scarred her face and body.

The problem was it sometimes took years to turn someone. To get them to face their true selves. Years before they felt that surge of power, years before they could shift at will and hunt with the Pack. But, of course, that’s what Casey wanted. For him to be distracted by a girl that wouldn’t be comfortable with who she was for quite awhile. Twenty-eight years was a long time to be completely oblivious to who and what you really are.

Zach’s cell phone went off. He looked at the caller ID and sighed. Casey.

“Yeah?”

“Hey, Zach. It’s Casey.” Dumb bitch. She knew they all had caller ID.

“Yeah?”

“I need you to pick up Julie’s bike from the shop today.”

Yeah, of course she did. “Okay.”

“Great!” She hung up.

Zach shut his phone off. “Gotta pick up Julie’s bike. Wanna come?”

Before Conall could answer his cell phone went off. Conall looked at the caller ID, smiled, and answered. “This is Conall. Yeah. Okay.” He hung up. “Can’t.”

“That was Casey, wasn’t it?”

Conall shrugged. “Sorry, Zach. She wants me to help out at the site. For tonight.”

Zach sighed again, “Sure she does.”

Great. Now he had to go deal with Sara and that old wolf Marrec. Well, maybe Sara was on her own.

Alone with Sara. Yup. His dick just went hard again. He would have to do something about that. It was really starting to piss him off.

Sara took her and Marrec’s empty lunch containers and tossed them in the dumpster next to the shop.

“Is that you, Sara?” She heard Jake, from Jake’s Auto, yell over the 6 foot wall separating Marrec’s shop from his.

“Yup.”

“Randy’s coming over.”

“Randy. Randy. Randy.” She chanted in a high-pitched voice as a 100-pound red-nosed pit bull came around the corner. His leash and pinch collar were still attached, although Sara never had to use them. His tongue hanging out, he trotted over to her and waited for his daily hello.

As much as it hurt, Sara crouched low beside him, “Is this my Randy? Is this my good boy?” She rubbed her hands along his flank. He growled low and lay down on the concrete on his side. She continued to rub his thigh and back. “Who’s my pretty boy? Who’s my special guy?” Randy, as always, rolled over onto his back and Sara rubbed his belly, continuing to ignore the growing pain in her leg. She couldn’t disappoint Randy. “Who’s my good boy?”

“So, can I be next?” Sara gasped in surprise at Zach’s voice. But she needed to get that under control. She hated the show of weakness.

“Um…” Was all that came out before sweet, lovable Randy was up and charging straight at Zach, his teeth bared. Sara caught the leash and yanked Randy back. His jaws snapping shut just inches from Zach’s face. But Zach didn’t move. He didn’t even flinch. In fact, he stared at Randy as if unimpressed with the sight of the 100-pound dog trying to turn him into a midday meal.

Sara, still keeping a strong grip on the leash, turned her head to yell over the wall “Jake. I need you!” She heard a vicious snarl and when she turned back, Randy had backed off, tail between his legs and ran behind Sara.

She looked at Zach. He was still in the same position he had been in five seconds before. Leaning against the wall. Arms crossed in front of his chest. Looking completely unimpressed.

“What did you do to him?”

“Not a thing.”

Jake came around the corner, “What in hell?”

“You better take him, Jake.” Sara handed over the leash.

Jake took it, but didn’t leave immediately. “You sure y’all be okay?” He sized Zach up with narrowed eyes. “Randy don’t usually act like this, ‘cept when he don’t like somebody.”

“I’m fine. Really. Thanks, Jake.”

Jake gave Zach one more nasty look, and dragged the whimpering Randy back around the concrete wall.

“I’ve never seen Randy act like that.” She looked at Zach, “He really hated you.”

“But I’m so charming.”

Sara gave a short laugh, “Yeah. Right.” She headed back to the store. “So, why are you here?”

“Julie’s new bike. I need to get it.”

“Well, then, come on.”

Zach had caught her scent as soon as he’d gotten out of the pickup truck the Pack brought with them just for hauling stuff around in. He’d followed it to the side of the shop, but never expected to find her lathering up some pit bull. Shamelessly, in fact.

Who’s my good boy? Was she kidding? Hell, he could be her good boy. Her very good boy. Or her very bad one.

As he watched her tight ass move into the store, he could tell one of Marrec’s Pack—Jake, right?—was watching him. He turned and snarled at the nosy bastard, sending his weak-willed pit bull whimpering for safety and causing Jake’s eyes to shift away.

When he turned around, Sara was staring at him. “Did you just… snarl?”

“I have a cough.”

“A snarling cough?”

“Something like that.”

Looking truly distrusting, Sara went into the store and Zach followed behind her. “MARREC!” Sara screamed into the back. “Someone’s here to pick up that girl’s bike!”

“Gimme 10 minutes!” Marrec yelled back.

As she perched herself on the stool behind the counter, she caught Zach’s look. “What?”

“Are you always so loud?”

“You’d be amazed.”

Zach smiled, “Kind of a screamer?”

She blushed and rolled her eyes. “Cute.”

He liked it when she blushed.

Zach leaned against the glass case. “You and your friends definitely coming tonight, right?”

Before Sara could answer, Marrec yelled out from the back, “Yes she is!”

“He doesn’t think I get out enough.” Sara muttered quietly

“Do you?”

“Not lately. Death in the family a few months back.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. No one else is.” Sara winced, “Okay. That was bitchy. Forget I said that. I mean, she wasn’t that bad.”

“Who?” Although he already knew.

“My grandmother. She raised me… sort of. Died about six months back. The last few months I’ve been busy sorting out all her finances and business. I just finished cleaning out her house a few weeks back… well, I guess it’s my house now.”

“Find anything cool? When my father died, my mom and I found a ton of cool stuff at their place.”

“Some. Had to give a lot of it back to the government, though.”

Zach frowned, “Give what back to the government? Money?”

“No.” She started counting off on her fingers, “The M-16. The armor-piercing ammo. The rocket launcher. The grenades.”

“Your grandmother had a rocket launcher?”

Sara chuckled, “Apparently she was expecting some kind of attack. She was extremely paranoid. I don’t even know where she got that shit from. And you know what, I don’t wanna know.”

No wonder the Pride had waited until the old bitch died. Even they couldn’t have handled a full-on assault from military weapons. Yates hadn’t been kidding. That old woman had been truly dangerous.

“Did you get any money for that stuff?”

“No. I just wanted it gone. I have my daddy’s old shotgun, which I use for huntin’. And Miki and Angelina gave me a pump-action shotgun couple of years ago for ‘basic home defense.’” She smiled, “So, I don’t need much more than that.”

“You a good shot?”

“I’m okay. Miki’s better. I’ve seen her nail a buck at 200 feet. Right between the eyes.”

“That’s a lovely story. Learn that in etiquette school?”

“Texas etiquette school.”

He liked that too. She didn’t shrink away from his teasing. Or get insulted. She just rolled with it.

“You work here long?” He looked around the impressive store. Marrec did some amazing work. There were custom-made bikes here that he knew he’d seen on the pages of some of his chopper magazines. They weren’t just bikes. They were pieces of art.

“Since I was 14. Marrec said it would keep me off the streets.”

Zach glanced out the window to what had to be the quietest town he’d ever been in. “Big gang problem around here? Lots of cow jacking?”

“We have all sorts pass through our little town, thank you very much. Bikers. Cowboys. The always dangerous rodeo clowns.”

“Rodeo clowns?”

“Don’t ask.”

Zach shrugged. “I don’t want to know.”

“So, any other condescending questions about my town?”

“Oh, I’m not being condescending. I’m very interested in your tiny little town, with its tiny little people. I bet you guys even have a movie theater.”

Sara barked out a laugh, “You certainly are a charmer.”

“So I’ve been told.”

“By who? Your mother?”

“She does adore her son.” He looked out the window again, “I thought there’d be desert. Coyotes. Clint Eastwood.”

“You’re in Hill Country. We have rivers, canyons, and forests. You want desert, you need to hit the Panhandle.”

Zach leaned across the counter and smiled at her, “You’ll have to show me around some time.”

“I have been known to go off alone with strange bikers.” She responded sarcastically. “It’s a thing I do. Like eating glass.” He heard the front door open and she frowned.

“Oh, shit.” She muttered under her breath.

“Well, hello, all.”

Angelina walked up to the counter, a brown paper bag in her hand. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“He’s here to pick up that girl’s bike.”

“The one who crashed?” Angelina looked at Zach, “How she doing anyway?”

“Right as rain.”

“That’s interesting.” Angelina was thoughtful, “She’s a mighty fast healer.”

“That she is.”

Angelina turned to Sara. “I just came to drop this off. Didn’t want Miki to see.” Sara took the paper bag and looked inside.

“Christ!” She slammed the bag shut and tossed it into an open back pack behind her. “I hate you.”

“Just looking out for my friends.” Angelina turned and strode out of the store, “See ya tonight, Zach.”

“Bye.” He didn’t turn around. He was too busy staring at the blush that had crept up Sara’s neck and straight to her hairline. “You okay?”

“Fine.” She bit out way too quickly. “Just fine.”

Zach wasn’t buying it. “Can I see what’s in the bag?”

“No!” She almost yelled it. “Tampons.”

“I’m ready!” Marrec yelled from his workshop. “Send him back.”

“Well, you better go.” She was actually trying to shoo him from the room.

“You know,” Zach moved toward the workshop entrance, “When my sister and I were teenagers, she always threw out ‘tampon’ when she didn’t want dad to see our bag of pot. But you and your friends seem amazingly straight edge to me. So it just makes me wonder… what’s really in that bag?”

Zach backed into the workshop as Sara’s face turned a darker crimson. Then he hit a wall and turned around to find that wall was Marrec.

“Having fun?” Marrec asked, his arms folded across what might be a normal chest for a bear. The man was short but powerfully built. Red wolves were always a little “stunty,” though.

“Loads.”

“You know her father died when she was very young.” Of course he did. That’s why they were here in the first place. “And I kind of took his place. She’s as close to me as any of my daughters. And I’ll kill any man who fucks with her.”

Zach wondered if he already had. “Good to know.”

Once Zach had disappeared in the back, Sara shoved the bag filled with boxes of condoms into her backpack. She was going to kill Angelina when she saw her.

She had one friend throwing condoms at her and the other telling her men were nothing but trouble. But as much shit as the three of them talked, they probably knew less about men than anyone on the planet. They all had their own ways of keeping people at bay. Miki had her intense distrust of… well, everyone. Angelina had her fortress of ice. And Sara had her armor. They’d all destroyed potential relationships in record time and without much regret. And although they never discussed it, none of them ever really thought they’d find true love or romance or any of that other crap.

So why did Sara feel like Zach was some how different? What was it about him that spoke to her on some other level that the few men she’d had in her oh-so-tame past just never could? Why did she itch to touch his skin? To feel him touch her? What was it about this man that made her feel like she’d been waiting her entire life for him to come walking through her door?

What was it about this man that made her want to punch him right in the forehead?

Marrec moved over to the bike he had readied for Julie.

Zach kicked the door to the workshop closed; ensuring Sara couldn’t hear the conversation. “I have a question.”

Marrec leaned against the bike, his arms crossed in front of his chest. “Why didn’t I turn her myself?”

“It would make sense.”

“Her grandmother. The craziest bitch I’ve ever met on two feet or four. When my oldest boy showed interest in Sara, she set my car on fire. She said after that it would be my house.”

Zach felt a growing sense of horror for this woman’s hatred of herself. He couldn’t imagine his life without the Pack. Without being who he was.

“If only she would have shifted, I would have snapped her neck. But I wasn’t going to kill her as human.” Zach didn’t blame him. Kill one of them as human, they stayed human. Killed them as beast and they stayed beast. In the end, much easier to explain the dead animal on your territory to the cops. “So, I figured I’d wait until the old bitch died on her own. I just didn’t know she’d take so long to do it.”

“She’s in a lot of pain, you know.”

Marrec sighed. A sad one from deep inside his chest, “I know. And her aggression is getting worse too.” Marrec grabbed a sheath of papers off the counter behind the bike. “To be honest, I think it’s poison.” He handed the papers to Zach.

“Poison?”

“The Withell Pride is known for dipping their claws in poison. Prolongs the agony.”

“That’s very human of them,” Zach noted with disgust.

“But I can’t get her near a doctor. Her grandmother made sure of that. The girl’s terrified of anything medical.”

Zach flipped through the bill of sale and other paperwork Marrec had handed him, “What would she need done?”

“It’s a little barbaric… she’d have to be bled. But one of the docs at the hospital is one of my Pack so it wouldn’t be a problem.” Marrec shook his head, “But not until she knows who and what she is. Maybe I’ll talk with Yates about it. About the timing.”

Zach nodded, keeping his expression purposely blank. “Sure. Whatever.”