Tessa had moved her plate to the foot of the table and had seated Meara next to him in her place. He smiled at Tessa’s tenacity. Still, he was angry with himself for feeling more than he should toward Tessa and that Meara had to remind him of his duty to their pack, but most of all to their kind. Yet, he couldn’t help but admire the spunky human female.
“They’re getting married in the spring,” Cara said, as the tension escalated in the dining room as thick as the snow was getting outside. “Won’t they make a cute couple?”
Meara choked on her water. Tessa avoided looking at Hunter and cut up her sausage.
“She just said that so she could get in to see Hunter at the hospital.” Rourke glowered at Cara. “Why are you here anyway?”
“To bring the hospital release forms for Hunter. So what do we do after dinner? Do you have any board games? Cards? Anyone want to play strip poker?”
“After we finish here, I need a word with Ashton, and then we’re all going to bed. We’ve had quite a day of it. And we’ve got a lot of work to do tomorrow,” Hunter said.
“Can I be in on this little adventure?” Cara asked.
“You can keep Tessa company. Both you and Meara. Rourke and I have some hunting to do.”
“Can I go, too?” Ashton asked, looking chagrined.
Cara patted his arm. “We need you to protect us.”
“Are you going to Bethany’s place? They’ve removed the police locks, and I have a key if you need one,” Tessa said.
“Yeah, we’ll need a key.”
Tessa’s eyes filled with tears and Hunter couldn’t tell if she was happy he was still looking into this situation for her brother, or was worried they wouldn’t discover who really murdered Bethany.
Meara cleared her throat and patted Hunter’s hand. “And if you see those three guys I was with while you’re at it, don’t kill them, okay, Hunter? We were just having some fun. Nothing more.”
Hunter gave her a dark look. He wanted to bang those guys’ heads together for stealing an alpha leader’s sister right out from under his nose. They had to be some of the dumbest betas around. He thought his sister would have had better sense. He was surprised neither Ashton nor Rourke showed any interest in her. But maybe they were afraid of how Hunter might react—and for good reason.
After dinner, Cara and Meara helped Tessa with the dishes. Rourke and Ashton went with Hunter to get another load of firewood in case the electricity went out again. The wind was gusting higher and the waves were growing more violent. If the weather got much worse, the increasing storm would flood the beach, and they wouldn’t be able to forage for firewood.
“Remember how I told the two of you that mating is for life? That’s something that can’t be broken except by death. It might be a hard concept for you to understand since you’ve always been human, but it’s the wolf way and the lupus garou way.”
Rourke grabbed an armload of wood. “What about Tessa?”
“She’s different.” Hunter didn’t want to have to defend his actions to a subordinate wolf and wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been that Rourke was Tessa’s friend and was sincerely concerned about her well-being.
“You mean, she’s human so her feelings don’t count.” Rourke headed back up the hill.
“Damn it, Rourke, of course her feelings matter. We’re both adults. We had consensual sex and that’s all there is to it. As a lupus garou we can’t have sex with another lupus garou unless we accept the female as a permanent mate. Humans don’t live by the same rules, as well you know. And I’ve already explained to her our relationship can’t be permanent.”
“So if we want to party with a woman, she has to be a human.” Ashton trudged up the slope with an armload of timber behind Hunter.
“Yeah, so that means you can sleep with Cara, but no sex. If you go all the way with her, you’re mated— for life.”
Rourke chuckled. “What if she forces herself on him?”
“In the case of a forced mating, the punishment for the perpetrator is death. Unless the victim chooses to accept the perpetrator as his or her mate. We don’t tolerate the abuse of our lupus garous or laws.”
Wide-eyed, both Rourke and Ashton stared at him.
“Hell, I knew it would be a lot of trouble teaching the two of you all the rules.” Hunter gave Ashton a sympathetic look. “If you don’t want Cara for a mate, just say no. Firmly! Don’t waffle.”
Rourke laughed out loud. “She doesn’t look like she readily accepts taking no for an answer. Thank god she latched onto Ashton and not me.”
When Hunter opened the back door, he heard Cara say, “If you want him—” She abruptly quit speaking, but he wished he knew who she had been talking to and who “he” referred to.
“Ashton, do something with that dead duck.” Hunter motioned to the kitchen on his way to the living room. “Stick it in the fridge or something.”
Then he walked into the living room and found the three women watching him. “Early morning, ladies. Let’s get some sleep.”
“Is he always this bossy?” Tessa rose from the couch, scarcely giving him a look.
“Always,” Meara said.
“I’ll get you some sheets and blankets, Rourke.” Brushing past Hunter, Tessa headed down the hall.
Cara hopped up from recliner. “Need some bandaging, Hunter?”
Hell, he forgot he’d removed his bandages on the run, and Tessa was sure to wonder how come he was healing so fast as soon as she saw his naked torso when they went to bed. “Yeah, let’s go to the bathroom.”
In the hall, they passed Tessa carrying an armful of bedding, and she gave Hunter a scornful look. He was definitely in the doghouse, but he didn’t know why. He closed the bathroom door behind him.
Cara located the bandages in a drawer. “You’re going to have to turn her.”
“No.”
“The way you look at her, you could melt her heart. She’ll accept our ways before long.” Cara taped up his shoulder.
“She has a brother. Even in the distant past, lupus garous targeted those who had no families so they wouldn’t be missed.”
“All right, so change her brother, too.”
“I’ve already got enough trouble on my hands in the form of two new lupus garous.”
“Your wound is looking much better, but I bet it hurts after that run you took for as long as you were gone.” She found some medicine and handed him a glass of water. “I want to join your pack.”
He choked on the pills. “I thought you didn’t like pack politics.” All he needed was another female alpha upstart in the pack. Although they were always short on females, and she might entice some of the rest of his pack to return.
She smiled and wound a dark curl around her finger. “I didn’t like my pack’s politics. But I’m intrigued with yours. Besides, you need some help with these new guys. I don’t think your sister is interested in showing them the ropes.”
“Don’t push Ashton too hard.”
“Hmm, he’s an awfully interesting candidate. The vote is still out on him. But I’ll let you know one way or another what I decide.”
“I mean it. He doesn’t understand our rules, even though I’ve explained them to him. Don’t force him on this.”
“As in seduce him? I’ll try not to.”
Someone banged on the bathroom door. “Are you going to hog the bathroom all night, Hunter?” Meara scolded. “Why don’t you use the master bathroom since you’ll be sleeping in the master’s bedroom anyway?”
Cara patted Hunter on the chest. “Yep, you could use my help.”
Hunter opened the bathroom door, brushed past his sister, and stalked into the living room. Time to settle matters between him and Tessa and get a good night’s sleep.
Tessa was speaking low to Rourke while she helped him make a bed on the couch. Hell, couldn’t Rourke make his own damned bed?
She gave Hunter a cursory glance and then ignored him. He shared a look with Rourke that meant he had better not be getting any ideas about Tessa either.
Rourke quickly caught the message. “I can do the rest of this. Thanks, Tessa.”
Hunter seized Tessa’s hand. “We’ll be leaving early in the morning, Rourke, so get a good night’s sleep.”
Before Tessa could object, Hunter hauled her down the hall.
Cara winked at her from the entrance to Michael’s bedroom. “Sleep tight.”
Meara was already running the shower in the guest bathroom, and Ashton had gone to bed. Hunter hoped Ashton could resist Cara’s charms if he didn’t truly want her in the event the woman decided to seduce him after all.
In Tessa’s bedroom, Hunter released her hand and shut the door.
She folded her arms and glowered at him. “What, Hunter? What do you want from me? I’m not in the habit of having flings with guys I’ve just met. And since you’ve made it abundantly clear you’re leaving as soon as you fulfill your promise, I don’t want you staying in here with me any longer.”
Hunter motioned to the window. “If I leave you alone, the stalker could try to break in. So I’m staying with you, end of discussion.”
“That’s it? That’s all the reason you’re giving for wanting to sleep with me?” Her eyes flamed hotter than a fire’s blue flame.
“That’s a pretty damned good reason.”
She whirled around and headed for the master bathroom, walked inside, and slammed the door.
He raised his brows. If he didn’t know better, he would think Tessa was going through her first wolf’s heat. Women.
He yanked off his shoes, sweatshirt, and pants and climbed into bed. Why couldn’t women be more like men? More… logical? Surely, she could see how he needed to be here for her protection after all that had happened. He pulled the covers to his waist.
