Little Red and the Wolf

Chapter Ten

“Who did it?” Gray stood at the edge of the pool, arms folded tight across his chest. “Which one of you mutts committed suicide last night?”

Lynn raised her head to turn to the other cheek, one eye squinting at Gray. She was on her belly, topless, tanning in the late-afternoon sun. “What are you grumbling about?”

“Who sank teeth?” His hands fisted tight under his arms, thoughts of them squeezing around one of their necks flashing through his mind. Dammit, this wasn’t like him, but when it came to Maizie his priorities changed.

Rick shrugged from the back end of the diving board. “What difference does it make? It’s what you wanted. What we all needed.” He took three long strides, bounced once then angled headfirst into the pool.

“What’s done is done.” Joy sipped her iced tea then set it on the table between her and Lynn before finding her place in the romance novel she held. “I’m sure it was an accident, sweetheart. There’s nothing to be done about it now.”

“An accident? She fall into someone’s open mouth?” Gray didn’t need to be told. He was positive he knew which one of them would dare touch her.

He dropped his arms, striding along the pool to loom over Lynn. “Where is he?”

Lynn lifted her head again, squinting. “Who?”

“Your dead mate,” Gray said. “At least he will be once I get my hands on him.”

“It wasn’t Shawn.”

“Bullshit.” He’d had to pry the mutt’s jaws off Maizie. Being new, Shawn had the least control and the least respect for the pack. Gray looked to the house, saw the curtains in Lynn’s bedroom window flutter closed. Coward. Without a word he headed for the glass doors, murder in his mind.

“Gray, no. No! He didn’t do it. I swear,” Lynn screamed behind him. He knew she’d gotten up, was chasing after him. “Rick! Rick, stop him. He’ll kill him.”

Rick scaled the metal ladder at the end of the pool just as Gray neared. He foolishly stepped in front of him, hands up, as though that would even slow him down.

The newcomer would die. Someone had to pay for turning Maizie, for forcing him to face a fact he’d been working twenty-one years to avoid. Maizie was his mate. She’d always been his mate. His marriage to Donna should never have been. She’d deserved better. By the time Rick pushed against his chest, Gray’s whirling thoughts, his heavy guilt had weakened the foundation of his rage.

“Uncle Gray, it wasn’t Shawn,” Rick said. “He got excited and chased after her when she ran. He’s a new wolf, still learning control. But we stopped him. We had him back under control. He wasn’t the one who bit her.”

“Then who?” He was yelling now, his voice so close to a roar his throat protested, growing sore. “Who did it?”

Rick shook his head, looked away then back, chin high, eyes defiant. “It was me. Okay? I did it. I turned her. I told you I would if you didn’t.”

Anger, pain, guilt and remorse churned into a furious storm inside him. Gray exploded, shoving at Rick’s chest, sending him backward several feet. The younger man caught himself, landing on the balls of his feet, ready to fight if he had to.

“C’mon, boy.” Gray spoke through his teeth. “We end this today. Take the pack or get out.”

His body tight, Rick snarled at Gray, edging forward a little, but not attacking. Rick was born a werewolf and stronger because of it, but Gray was older and turned by his late wife, the strongest among them. She’d chosen him to be alpha, sensing the natural strength within him. It would be a battle, but Gray had rage on his side.

“No. Stop it.” Shelly scrambled out of the sunken hot tub and raced to the other side of the pool. “Ricky, if you lose you’ll have to leave. You can’t fight for alpha and then go back to subordinate.”

“Stay out of this, Shelly. I didn’t challenge him. He challenged me. I can’t be cast out for defending myself. I’ll handle this.”

“Uncle Gray, please. It wasn’t Ricky.”

The hairs at the scruff of Gray’s neck bristled, his muscles tight, instinct pumping a heady mix of adrenaline through his body. “Disobeying my order is a challenge. And I accept.”

“That’s how you’re going to play it?” Rick asked, disgust thickening his tone.

“I did it.” Shelly jumped between them and shoved Gray’s shoulders. “You hear me? I did it. I disobeyed. I turned her. Not Ricky. Not Shawn. Me.”

“Shut up, Shelly.”

Gray blinked, the fast shift of emotion fogging his brain. “You? Why?”

Shelly huffed, tears glistening in her bluer-than-blue eyes. She stepped back, dropping her gaze. For a minute she looked every bit the teenager she appeared to be, despite her true age and the way her curves filled her brown and pink string bikini. “I wanted things to be normal. I wanted us to be a normal family. Like it was before Aunt Donna…”

Gray stroked her cheek. “How does turning Maizie make us normal, honey?”

“It was an accident,” Lynn said, walking up beside them, her black bikini top now tied in place. Joy followed close behind. “Okay, I admit Shawn got a little out of control, but when Maizie started to run he just couldn’t keep a hold on his instinct. Well you know how it is. The chase, the prey’s fear flavoring the air. With him losing it, Shelly got a little overexcited.”

Joy joined them, slipped an arm around her granddaughter. “The twins are still young, Gray. Their wolf instincts get the better of them sometimes.”

“I didn’t lose control, Gram.” Shelly shrugged out of the one-arm embrace. “And it wasn’t an accident. I wanted to turn her.”

Gray’s muscles knotted across his shoulders, a dull throb thumping in his head. He loved his niece, but she was becoming every bit as complicated as all the other females he’d known. “Shelly, honey, explain to me exactly why you wanted to turn Maizie Hood into one of us.”

“Because I love my family and I want my pack to stay together. You know she’s the one, but you love your precious guilt so much you couldn’t let it go and take her. And I’m too young to marry some stupid old dog because you couldn’t take a mate and keep this pack alive.”

“Never would’ve happened,” Gray said, his anger simmering.

“It would. You can’t disobey the laws of wolves, Uncle Gray. They won’t let you,” Shelly said. “Either some self-appointed stud would eventually come sniffin’ around and challenge you, or Rick would take a mate and they’d see him as the strongest mated pair and challenge him. Neither worked for me, so I did what I thought would be best for everyone. Including you, Uncle Gray.”

Gray snorted, shook his head, looking from one set of eyes to the next. “That’s what you’ve all been thinking? You’re worried some asshole’s going to come in here and fight me for all of you?”

They didn’t answer. Finally Joy spoke up. “You’re family, Gray. I know you and Donna weren’t natural mates, but she truly cared for you. You were so strong. A born leader.” She stepped in front of him, cupped his face, loving, maternal.

“You made your marriage work even when it was clear the bond wasn’t there. But since we lost her, you haven’t even tried to find your true mate. And when you pushed the Hood girl away too, we worried you’d never take a mate.” Her hands dropped to his chest. “We don’t want to lose you. Losing Donna was hard enough.”

“No one is losing anyone.” They’d have to kill him before he let someone separate him from Donna’s family- from his family.

“Right. Thanks to me,” Shelly said. All eyes riveted on her. “I did what you couldn’t, or wouldn’t. Maizie Hood’s your true mate. We all know it. You’re just squeamish about turning her because of some twisted loyalty to Aunt Donna. She shouldn’t have turned you. You weren’t meant for her, but her death led you to the person you were meant for. Now you have her.”

“I don’t have anything.” Rather than admit his guilt, he’d allowed Maizie to believe he blamed her for the accident. Now she was out there alone, her body changing. She was too angry with him to let him help. He didn’t deserve her.

“She’ll be back,” Joy said. “She’s pack now. Pack always finds their way home.”