Brand of the Pack - Tera Shanley Page 0,17
back-to-back had taken it out of him. “You broke in?”
“Oh, yeah. You need a new door frame,” Dean said, waving at the front of the house nonchalantly. Property damage was a part of life with a pack of werewolves.
Grey grunted. “You ready? I’ll tell you about it on the way.”
He told the alpha about the dream as they pulled out of the gravel driveway. It wouldn’t help to keep it bottled in.
“The Dragon? Man, that’s just weird. You need to lay off the chili cheese fries before bedtime is what you need to do. What did you eat last night so I know what to stay away from?”
“Deer.”
“Cooked?”
“No, I Changed. Dammit, Dean, why the twenty questions?”
“Because this kind of pressure is a lot! You are being challenged and you don’t even officially have a pack under you. And I know you. Your wolf runs the show and I want to know if you’re okay. Not Wolf. I’m sure he is loving this. But you.”
“I have to Change every day right now. I feel on edge all of the time.”
An old El Camino picked its way slowly up the gravel road toward them. Three witnesses sat comfortably in the back. He narrowed his eyes at the window and cursed softly.
“What?” Dean asked. He followed the direction of his gaze. “Again?”
“I’ve fought a challenger at least once every day this week. Sometimes more.” Grey pulled the truck to a stop. “Can you call the silversmith and ask him to hold on. We’re going to be a little later than we thought.”
Dean pulled out his phone and punched in the number while Grey hopped out of the cab.
A lanky man with tattoos stretching down one arm slid out of the El Camino. “My name is—”
“Yeah, I don’t care,” he growled. “Those your witnesses?”
The werewolf nodded and removed his shirt.
He waited impatiently as the other wolf Changed, and as soon as he was finished, he pushed his own. Good thing he was quick, because the other alpha fought dirty. He jumped him as soon as he started his Change. He wasn’t fast enough, though, and Grey yanked his front leg out from under him and wrapped his jaws around the back scruff of his neck. A bark of surrender echoed through the woods.
Dean clapped slowly from the open window. “Good show,” he said with a sarcastic arch to his eyebrow. “You thought you would fight Demon Wolf when you don’t even have enough dominance to hold a pack? Good decision.”
The wolf limped off with his tail between his leg and Grey pulled his shirt back over his head. He climbed in the truck and pulled the first aid kit from the back seat. Two butterfly bandages across a cut on his neck and he was good to go. Dean watched him in silence.
“What?”
“How many times?”
Grey sighed tiredly. “That’s the fifth.”
“Five times we didn’t know about? Why weren’t you calling for witnesses?”
“I have. Wade has been coming out during the day while the girls are out getting wedding stuff done.”
“Why Wade?” Dean sounded a little stung.
“Because you have to tell Rachel everything. You do! I don’t blame you. It’s part of the bond and all, but she’ll tell Morgan. And right now, I don’t think it’s good for her to be living in fear all of the time.”
“Hm.” He nodded. “Fair enough. Even if I tried not to tell Rachel, she could feel me withholding something. She’d pry it out of me. Morgan can handle this, you know.”
Grey pulled around the car full of somber wolves. “Look, it’s not like I enjoy keeping challenges from her, but when she comes home, she is glowing from all of the wedding planning, and every time I open my mouth to tell her, she just looks so happy. I haven’t seen her so happy since she was Turned. I can’t bring myself to take it away from her. Montana was rough on her. She was scared afterward. I couldn’t even hug her some days, and now she is back to her old self. I can’t just throw more dominant challengers in her face every thirty minutes. I don’t want her living scared that someone will take her away again.”
Dean chuckled. “That she-wolf is going to eat you alive when she finds out. You’ve always trusted her to handle her own battles, or at least handle them with you. That’s why you two have worked. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
“I’ll tell her when the time is right.