Craved By The Alpha Wolf (Firefighter Wolves Shifters Book 2) Page 4

  There were a couple of stools behind the counter and he dragged them so they were sitting side by side behind the counter while she set the food on the little desk that was built into the countertop.

  When she took her first bite of the chicken flavor exploded in her mouth and she had to close her eyes. “Oh my God.”

  “I told you they make the best fried chicken you’ll find anywhere.” He took a huge bite of his own food and they ate in silence for a few minutes.

  “Have you had many opportunities to make comparisons?” She wondered how much he’d traveled outside this small town. She had always gotten the impression that people who lived in quiet little places like this were content to stay where they were. But perhaps that was just her big-city thinking.

  “I’ve had some. We usually put a crew together once a year or so to help other areas with forest fires. It’s nice to get away from the town where you were born, where everyone knows you or thinks they do. I usually volunteer for those trips, since I like seeing new places and meeting new people.”

  “That’s so interesting. You must have been in scary places then.” She could only imagine what it would be like fighting fires the way he did. It took a special kind of individual to put his body and life on the line to help others.

  “Some places have been intense, that’s for sure. What about you? Have you been anywhere interesting?”

  She was almost embarrassed to answer that question. “Lenox, Massachusetts.”

  His mouth dropped open. “You’re kidding, right?”

  She gave a shake of her head. “Afraid not. I’m a Boston girl, born and bred, and have hardly left my own neighborhood.”

  “Why not?”

  “That just wasn’t something I’ve been interested in.” That was a lie, of course. she and Jack had always talked about traveling, and had made big plans. Once he died it seemed that the desire to go anywhere had faded away from her. She’d buried herself in her work to the point where she barely took any vacation.

  He looked at her quietly for a moment, as if he could see through what she was saying. The corner of his mouth pulled up, and he put his hand on hers. His palm was warm, and it made her pulse jump for a second.

  “Well maybe coming to Lenox will give you the desire to try something new.” He looked at her for a long moment, and she thought for a second that they were no longer talking about traveling. She glanced down at his hand and then back up at him.

  He squeezed her hand for a second before he moved it away. He stood up and she looked up at him.

  “Thanks for having lunch with me, Harper. I enjoyed it.” And before she could say anything else, he shrugged on his coat and walked toward the door. He looked at her one last time, smiled at her, and then he was gone.

  “I enjoyed it too.” The words came out after he had gone and to her surprise, she meant them.

  7

  Josh

  Josh walked into Shadowbrook with a huge grin on his face that refused to go away. He hadn’t had high hopes when he’d sought Harper out at the bookstore, but knowing that Lana was away at an appointment was too good an opportunity to pass up.

  The fact that she hadn’t been dismissive this time had emboldened him. And he was glad that he had taken the chance of her rejecting him again because now he felt that he knew her a little better. He wanted to go back, to ask her out for dinner, but he was mindful of what Lana had told him. Harper was worth going slow for and he would go slow with her even if it killed him.

  The sound of raised voices coming from the great hall had the smile melting off his face. He hadn’t heard a commotion like that since Ben had told about the Canergie’s ultimatum more than two months ago.

  He closed his eyes for a second as he moved on hurried feet toward the sound of the commotion. He had a feeling that he was not the only one who’d taken advantage of Lana being away for an appointment. It seemed likely that his brother had chosen now to tell the pack about the new addition that would soon be coming from the pack. And from the sound of it, things were not proceeding at all well.

  When he got to the doorway of the great hall he scanned the sea of angry faces. His brother stood in the middle, his face set in hard lines as he patiently waited for the room to quiet. He held up his hand and the pack soon settled into tense silence around him.

  “If everyone will calm down, I think you will all see that this is not the end of the world.” Ben’s voice echoed strongly throughout the room. “My mate and I are having a child, that is all.”

  “That is more than enough.” Tyler burst out. “First you ask us to accept a human living in our midst, and now you are bringing a child into this.”

  “Did you think that our Alpha and his mate would never have children?” Josh stepped forward and gave Tyler a hard look. The pack’s irrational fear of Lana’s pregnancy could not be allowed to fester. While no one in the pack view humans the way he did, surely they were sensible enough to see that little harm could come from welcoming an infant into the pack.

  “We expected our Alpha to do what is best for the pack,” Eloise spoke up and her eyes narrowed as she looked at Josh. Apparently she had still not moved passed their confrontation in this very room on the other night. “We don’t know what this child will be. Will it be a wolf? Will it be a human? And what happens if it is human and grows up to take over the pack? What will happen to us then?”

  “The child is not even born yet,” Ben spoke in as calm a voice as Josh thought he could muster. He knew by the look on his brother’s face that he did not like the turn the conversation had taken. It was only natural that Ben would want to have children with his mate, and it would not sit well with him for the pack to think that his unborn baby was some sort of threat to them. “We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, let alone what will happen twenty years from now.”

  “But this is how it starts. We have let a human into our midst and now our bloodlines are being diluted.” Tyler spoke again and the look that Ben gave him told Josh that his friend was treading on very thin ice. “The pack has a long memory, we all know what happened the last time an Alpha took a human as a mate.”

  “It was more than a hundred years ago. You’re being ridiculous.” Josh felt that he had to speak up for his brother.

  “So you think that pack being betrayed and slaughtered is ridiculous?” Tyler took a step toward him.

  Ben stepped between them and moved Tyler back. “I think what he is saying that being afraid of an unborn infant is ridiculous. I will not deny that our pack has suffered at the hands of the Canergies, both in the past and more recently. I think it should not be forgotten that my brother suffered most at their hands and almost died. And they are still out there. Our focus should be on finding them, not quarreling amongst ourselves about something that may or may not happen. The Canergies want us weak, and that is exactly what we are doing with these petty squabbles. The suspicions about Lana and my unborn child are only causing division. A divided pack is a weak pack.”

  Silence followed his pronouncement and Josh hoped that it meant that the pack was taking onboard what his brother was saying. He was right. How could they possibly fight their enemies if they were too busy looking inward.

  The sound of feet at the door had Josh turning to see Derek walk into the great hall.

  “What is happening?” Derek’s eyes went to his Alpha.

  “I have informed the pack that Lana is pregnant.” Ben looked at him steadily, and Josh waited to see how Derek would react. A few months ago he would have been among the loudest to protest. In fact, he’d used the moment of unrest caused by the Canergie’s return to issue a challenge to Ben. But it would appear that Derek had learned the lesson that defeat at his Alpha’s hands well.

  “Congratulations on the new addition to your family.”

  If Ben was surprised by Derek’s words, he did not show it. Perhaps his reaction was not that surprising, considering that it had been Derek who’d risked his life to save Lana when sh
e’d first been taken by the Canergies.

  “I hope you have some news for us. Have you been able to locate the Canergies?”

  Josh prayed that he had, since that would go a long way to diffusing the turmoil currently embroiling the pack, but the negative shake of his head Derek gave showed that his hopes would not be fulfilled.

  “I have searched but cannot find a trace of them. If they are hiding somewhere close they are well concealed.”

  Ben swore under his breath. “Does anyone have any ideas of what we can do to locate our enemies?”

  Eloise moved a little closer to her Alpha. “Perhaps someone else needs to take up the search. It could be that the Canergies are familiar with Derek’s face and are taking extra steps to conceal themselves from him. I would like to volunteer to go search. Perhaps they will be less likely to see a woman as a threat and might make a mistake.”

  Josh looked at Eloise in surprise. Of all the things he expected, this was not it. Eloise was certainly devoted to the pack, but he wondered at her volunteering to endanger herself. Did it have something to do with what had happened between them and was she taking it as a chance to get away from him for a while? He hated to admit it to himself that a part of him was relieved that he would not have to have another confrontation with her.

  “If you are sure this is a risk you want to take, then you have my permission to search.” Ben’s face was grave as he directed his attention to Eloise. “Make certain that you maintain contact with the pack and be careful.”

  “I will, Alpha.” Eloise bowed her head for a moment. “I will make arrangements to leave right away.”

  She strode from the room and it appeared that the rest of the pack figured the meeting was over as they slowly dispersed. Josh didn’t think that anything had been settled. And judging by the look that Ben gave him, it was certain that his brother thought the same thing.

  8

  Josh

  “Well, that could have gone a lot better.” Josh waited until the last of the wolves had left the room before he turned to talk to his brother.

  Ben rubbed his index finger between his eyebrows and he looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

  “I thought it best to break the news to the pack while I knew that Lana would not be returning for a few hours. I’m glad I did, since she would be hurt by the pack’s reaction. She wants to have a place here, and it is her right to expect respect from the pack as my mate and the mother of my child.”

  “Give them time, I’m sure they’ll come around.” Even as he said it, Josh was uncertain if the pack would ever accept Lana as Ben’s mate and the mother of his child. The wound inflicted by the start of the blood feud with the Canergies so many decades ago was still present in the pack now. They’d almost been made extinct by that human family, and it was a piece of the pack’s history that they would likely never forget.

  “We’ll see.” Ben didn’t look very convinced. “Hopefully Eloise will be more successful than Derek has been thus far. We need to find the remaining Canergies and eliminate the threat to the pack once and for all. It is the only way the pack is going to be able to rest easy.”

  Josh refrained from saying that he hoped she didn’t get killed in the process. He may not want Eloise as a mate, but they’d grown up in the pack together and he wanted her to be safe.

  He spoke with Ben for a few more moments before taking his leave. He had a twenty-four-hour shift tomorrow and he wanted to enjoy the rest of his day off in peace. He wished he could spend the evening getting to know Harper, but he would give her a few days before he approached her again.

  He was on his way to his room when Tyler stepped into the hall. Judging by the look on his face he didn’t appear to be very happy. Josh sighed. So much for finding some peace and quiet after the confrontation in the great hall.

  “I want to talk to you.” Tyler’s voice was an aggressive growl and Josh tensed. He had an idea what this was going to be about, and while he didn't want to fight with the man he considered to be his best friend, he thought perhaps it would be best if the air was cleared between them.

  “It would appear that we are talking.” Josh crossed his arms over his chest while he waited for Tyler to spit out what had put the deep scowl on his face.

  “In private. I don’t want any interruptions in what I have to say.”

  Josh shrugged and walked down the hall toward his room. He opened his bedroom door and swept his arm out to indicate that they should talk in there. Tyler stalked into the room and Josh followed, closing the door behind him.

  “Well, you want to talk, so talk.” Josh was not looking forward to this conversation. It had to be about Eloise. Tyler was hyper-protective of his sister, and while Josh didn’t blame him for that, he had a feeling that this was going to be the beginning of the end of his friendship with him.

  “What did you say to her? Why have you driven my sister out of the pack?” Tyler glared at him and Josh could see that his friend was not in the mood to be reasonable.

  “For one thing, I have not driven your sister from the pack. She volunteered, of her own free will, I might add, to hunt for the Canergies.” There was no way he would let Tyler fool himself into thinking he was to blame for Eloise volunteering to go on the mission to hunt the pack’s human enemies.

  “Eloise hasn’t said one word before today about hunting the humans. What did you say to her the other night that has made her feel like she needs to leave her home and endanger herself.” Josh could see the concern for Eloise deep in Tyler’s eyes. It was there beneath the anger, and Josh knew that his friend was doing this because he needed to lash out at someone.

  But he would not insult his friend by lying to him about the contents of his conversation with Eloise. “Eloise was under the mistaken belief that something would happen between us. I told her that it wasn’t going to happen.”

  “Why? Is my sister not good enough for you?” It seemed that Tyler was itching for a fight and that it mattered little what Josh said.

  “Eloise is like a sister to me. I don’t have those sorts of feelings for her, and rather than string her along and use her, I told her that nothing would ever happen between us. I would think that you would be grateful that I didn’t string your sister along with false hope.”

  “Oh yeah, I’m really grateful.” Tyler took an aggressive step forward. “I’m grateful that the man I thought was my best friend hurt my sister to the point where she felt the need to risk her life for the sake of the pack.”

  “I never gave your sister any encouragement to think that anything was going to happen between us. If Eloise wants to leave to help the pack, you cannot lay the blame for that at my door.”

  “Or maybe she doesn’t want to help the pack at all. Maybe she is humiliated that a wolf would think that she isn’t good enough because she isn’t human enough.” Tyler’s lip curled. “Maybe she didn’t want to watch you make a fool of yourself over a human, Ariel.”

  Josh ground his teeth when he heard Tyler speak the nickname his interest in humans had earned him years ago. The pack seemed to think that he was just like the title character of the Little Mermaid, and Josh hated it. He had not heard that name spoken to his face for a long time and he didn’t want to hear it now.

  “Go ahead, call me Ariel one more time.” His voice came out as a low menacing growl. Despite his desire to have a reasonable discussion with Tyler, it appeared that Tyler just might get the fight that he was asking for.

  “You’re pathetic. Do you really think that the human helping out at the bookstore will want you once she knows what you are? You’re living in a dreamworld, Ariel.”

  Tyler’s words played on the fear that lurked deep inside Josh and his muscles tensed as he struck out at him. His fist connected with Tyler’s mouth and his friend staggered back. Before Tyler could react, Josh grabbed him by his shirt and slammed him against the wall.

  “Shut your mouth.”

  Tyler laughed as blood trickled
from his lips.

  “You know I’m right.” He broke Josh’s hold and swiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “You’ve always been a fool for humans.”

  Josh said nothing as he fought to calm down. Tyler straightened away from the wall and tugged his rumpled shirt.

  “If anything happens to my sister, I will be holding you responsible. As far as I’m concerned, the only reason that she is leaving is because of you running around town chasing after yet another human. Don’t think that I won’t come after you if she gets hurt.”

  “Don’t think I won’t be here.” He wasn’t responsible for Eloise but if Tyler wanted to make it an issue, he certainly wasn't going to back away.

  Tyler left and slammed the door behind him. Josh sat down on the edge of the bed. He and Tyler had had their arguments in the past, and they’d always been able to mend fences. He had a feeling that this time was going to be different. The most important person in the world to Tyler was his sister. And Josh hated to think how he was going to react if something did happen to her.

  9

  Harper

  It was a few days after her impromptu lunch with Josh, and Harper hadn’t seen him since. She knew that his job as a firefighter made it so that he had to work long shifts and that was why she had not seen him since. But a small part of her wondered if that was all it was. And she couldn’t help but look to door every time bell above it rang that it would be him walking through the door. And she tried to dismiss the feeling of disappointment that went through her when it turned out it wasn't.

  It was almost time for the shop to close, and she was helping Lana take advantage of the quiet to put out some new stock that had come in with the order this afternoon. The bell above the door rang and she forced herself not to hope when she looked to see who had come in. To her surprise, it was Josh standing inside the threshold with flowers and a big smile on his face.