“So I am man enough for you,” he rumbled in reply, the words ironic because the wolf had the upper hand as the alpha spoke.
“Definitely,” I answered, then I had to rein in my own wolf who thought now might be a good time to run our hand down Wolfie’s firm jaw. Focus, I reminded her, and I felt my canine half settle. “I’m sorry it’s taken so long,” I continued. “At first I just wanted to protect you, but the longer I stayed here, the more I realized Haven was falling apart. I didn’t want to leave them in the lurch.”
“The pack needs a new alpha,” Wolfie said, having understood a situation in two heartbeats that had taken me several days to untangle. “Your father’s wolf is eating him alive.”
“And we need to find Keith,” I added. “That part’s true, right? My nephew is missing? Has he changed forms?”
“We were waiting for you,” the young alpha responded, and his words warmed me from head to toe. Not only had Wolfie believed I really would be coming back, he’d continued to abide by my wishes that I be the one to help Keith learn to shift. Unfortunately, that seemed to have been a poor decision on my part given my nephew’s rash behavior.
“My father’s too territorial to let you wander around in Haven’s woods,” I thought aloud. “And I don’t know how we can challenge him here without having the pack tear the challenger apart. Did you bring anyone with you?”
“Out at the highway,” Wolfie answered, then cut right to the chase in typical wolf fashion. “Do you want to challenge Chief Wilder or should I?”
Neither, I wanted to say, but I knew that answer wasn’t going to hold water. It almost felt like my father had set me up to take over his leadership, but I couldn’t quite believe it—I’d never heard of a female pack leader, and Haven was far too hidebound to allow one. Plus, was I really alpha material?
“You know you’re an alpha,” Wolfie said quietly, rubbing my back in the same gentle circles my sister had once used, but with far more interesting effects on my nerve endings. “Remember how you ignored me the second time I commanded you to stop running away in the city?”
It was true that I’d been able to pull away from Wolfie’s bark, but I’d thought my reaction was only possible because Wolfie hadn’t been my pack leader. That issue was academic at the moment, though, because who would challenge the Chief didn’t seem as important an issue at the moment as how that challenger would win. “I don’t want to kill my father,” I whispered into Wolfie’s shoulder, hoping the fabric would muffle my words. How’s that for proof I wasn’t pack leader material? The Chief wouldn’t have spared a thought for the casualties that stood in the way of achieving his goal.
“No one is going to die,” Wolfie said as if stating fact, putting one finger under my chin to tilt my face back up toward his and brushing a gentle kiss across my lips. “What do you think I spent the last few days doing while you were living here in the lap of luxury? I was working on my pool.”
Chapter 20
Tearing myself away from Wolfie—again—was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. But I could just imagine my nephew’s terror since the boy hadn’t grown up among werewolves and was now facing his first shift alone and in a strange place. My urge to protect Keith was nearly as strong as my yearning to take Wolfie and run away from Haven as fast as I could, especially when I considered the fact that my nephew might even now be caught midshift. Or perhaps Keith’s wolf brain had completely taken control of their shared body and was heading past Haven’s boundaries and toward the normal human population. I’d do just about anything to prevent Keith from having to live with the same guilt I bore due to my wolf’s actions during our shared teen years.