Page 30 of Happily Undead in Dark River

Brody strolled in behind me. “That’s what she said,” he rumbled into my ear, and I shivered. Only he could make a lame joke sexy.

I laid down on the floor beneath the television. “Red, what are you doing?” Brody asked with exasperation.

“Measuring. This television is legit longer than I am. Why would you need a television this big?”

Tex chuckled and winked. “To watch porn. On a television that big, it would definitely look like an alien Shar-Pei.”

Brody threw a cushion at Tex’s head and it nailed him right in the cheek. He stood above me, bemused. “You look like Tex in his snake form trying to work out if he can eat something.”

I screwed up my nose. “You eat things in your other form?” Poor Bambi and thumper.

Tex pointed in my direction. “Hey, don’t judge. You eat people now. People in glass castles and all that.”

The man made a good point. “Touché, Asshole.” I waltzed over and kissed him softly to take the sting out of my words. He knew I adored him though. What was the point of having a boyfriend if you couldn’t call them inappropriate cuss words from time to time?

He smelled delicious. If I inhaled deeply enough, the whole place smelled amazing, as if someone was baking cookies in the house next door. But it wasn’t cookies, it was blood. My fangs elongated, and I huffed. I was here three minutes and already I couldn’t control myself. Brody handed me a bag of blood and put the rest of my cooler full in his fridge. Walker, ever the cautious one, had packed me an abundance. I wouldn’t use that much in a month, let alone the two weeks he promised would be the maximum time he would be gone. Especially if I was topping up with Brody and Tex.

I sucked down the bagged blood like it was a kale smoothie. Nutritious, but not particularly satisfying. I wandered around Brody’s house, looking at the pictures on the walls of smiling people. Some who looked like Brody, but not many. The shapeshifters of this pack came in every size, shape, and color. Brody once told me that his Pack saw no race, no gender. You were judged by your commitment to the Pack, to your family and to your heritage. I thought that perhaps Brody had rose-tinted glasses when it came to his Pack. Prejudice was ingrained into the very fabric of nature. It was how we survived. It was how we evolved.

“You sure your Pack won’t be angry I’m here?” I asked again, and Brody came over, wrapping his arms around my waist, pulling my body against his. He buried his face in the crook of my neck, sucking in my scent.

I guess I smelled like cookies too.

“Rainey, I’m Alpha. I passed it by my grandmother, but in the end, the decision is mine. This is not a democracy, as much as I like to give everyone a choice in decisions that affect the Pack. But in the end, I have the final choice. Always. And I want you here. You are always welcome in my Pack.” He kissed me then, not his normal, sweet kisses. This one left me breathless and more than a little wet.

Tex groaned from somewhere in the house and Brody grinned. “You know, we have a couple of hours and I’m thinking the Pup had the right idea. I’m going to cover you with my scent so everyone knows you belong to me.”

He picked me up and carried me to his bedroom. He made love to me with such thoroughness that there wasn’t a section of my body that he didn’t touch or taste. By the time he’d wrung three orgasms from my body, I felt thoroughly owned.

Chapter Sixteen

When night fell and I stepped out into Nîso, the village that housed the Shapeshifters of this region, I scoffed at Brody’s description of ‘village’. This was no tiny, rustic village. The lights that spread out below Brody’s house on the hill were expansive, a sea of lights that lit the wilderness around them. It was a huge town, triple the size of Dark River.

Brody proudly told me it had everything his people needed, from a cinema to a small but well-equipped hospital. Daycares, elementary and high schools, supermarkets and even a tiny shopping mall. When Brody spoke about it, I could hear the pride in his voice. He should be proud, as should his forebears. They’d created something wonderful for their people. Something safe.

I dressed conservatively in a billowing blouse and tight blue jeans. Tex stood close to me, the heat of his body reassuring. “The Meeting House is just down the road, so we can walk,” he said softly. “Raine, Brody loves this town, loves every person in it. But you have to know, there will be more than a few people who aren’t going to like how much their Alpha loves you.”

I nodded as I heard Brody’s footsteps come down the hall. I’d figured as much. Brody basically skipped across his porch and wrapped an arm around both mine and Tex’s shoulders.

“Come on, Red. I can’t wait to show you my town.” He pulled me along by my hand. “But first, we have to meet with the Elders.”

Tex strolled along behind us, his senses more useful to him than his cane now. Since his first shift into his snake form, I’d noticed that he used it less and less like his snake form was always lingering in the background now, enhancing his other senses. I was so happy for him, I felt like my chest might explode with the sensation.

The town was filled with the same sort of houses, little cottages with wrap-around porches and good size back yards. The whole place was verdant like they’d built the houses around the trees, rather than bulldozing nature to fit their purposes. It meant that their streets weren’t perfect grids, their roads were winding and disorganized, but every single one of those houses seemed inviting.

It was quiet on the streets, which was weird, but I quickly realized it was because they were normal living beings who lived their lives during the daylight hours. Everyone was having dinner, tucking their kids in bed, and watching late-night television. They weren’t just starting their day.

There was something terribly lonely about being a night creature in a town of everyday people. Well, kind of everyday people. One building glowed like a beacon in the surrounding darkness. It was built a little like a church, with a steep, gabled roof and high windows. It also had huge reinforced wooden doors.

It had to be the Meeting House. There were a few cars parked outside, and people were milling around on the front steps. About a block away, Brody came to a stop and took a deep breath in. I almost saw his skin ripple as his Alpha power settled on him like a mantle. He turned to me, his eyes flashing but his beautiful smile still the same. “Let’s go,” he said, his voice husky.

Tex reached forward, grabbing my hand and pulling me back beside him. “It’s kind of hot when he does that. It's almost a shame he’s so damn straight.”

Brody scoffed. “I think you have enough paramours, Pup. Almost as many as Rainey,” he grinned, the cheeky bastard. He strode off, walking toward the crowd of people. I went to catch up, but Tex’s hand held mine firmly.

“He needs to go in by himself. Don’t make yourself a target straight up. If you walk in beside the Alpha, they’ll see it as a challenge.”

Politics. I sucked at it. I didn’t understand the nuances of political maneuvering. But Brody did. I remembered how he secured Tex’s stay in Dark River with just a few words and that earthy power.

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