Page 23 of Pleasantly Undead in Dark River

Brody’s growl was nothing short of terrifying and the pup began to whine. I gave Brody a furious look and he cut the noise off. “He bought her like she was a stuffed toy? Like a domesticated pet?”

He sounded mad at Lucius, which I totally got. “He didn’t mean it maliciously. He was trying to be… sweet, I guess? He didn’t realize that selling a human being is wrong. I’ll, uh, work on it with him. But I sent him back to get her littermates.” I stroked my hand down the back of the pup. “Hear that sweet thing? I’ll get you your siblings back. Just be strong.”

She looked up at me, caught sight of my fangs, and tried to scuttle out of my arms. Whoops, guess she just worked out I was a vampire. Tex stepped forward and grabbed the pup out of my arms before I dropped her on her head.

“Hush,” he whispered, and there was a distinct hiss at the end. He was letting his snake out a little. “You are safe here. You have my word. My Alpha will protect you. My mate will protect you. I will protect you. You are safe,” he murmured to her, stroking her head. The pup whimpered again, climbed up his chest and buried her head under his chin, as if this stranger could protect her from the horrors of the world.

My heart broke into a million pieces.

At some point, the poor baby fell asleep in Tex’s arms as he sang her soft songs from our childhood. Frank Sinatra had a song in there, but then so did Lady Gaga. If it hadn’t been such a serious moment, I would have teased him for singingPaparazzilike it was a lullaby. She wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t shift. Brody said he could force her to shift back to human, but sometimes the wolf was protecting the human side of the shifter, and it would be traumatic, especially as he wasn’t her Alpha.

I didn’t know if I was thankful to Lucius or mad as hell that he dropped this in my lap. What the hell did we do with a wolf shifter pup? It occurred to me that we knew the perfect person to deal with this problem, and he just so happened to be related to my main squeeze.

“We should call Alexander. Shifters are his thing. He could shut this shit down in a heartbeat, right?” I whispered furiously.

Brody just looked at the pup sadly. I think it broke his heart that she was so scared of him. My Alpha Mate was a softie, especially when it came to children. “We will tell him, of course. He has the resources to raid the auctions and burn that shit down, probably literally. We can take them back to Nîso until we can track down their pack.” He turned to me, and the sadness was mixed with rage now. “The way she reacted to my alpha scent? I have a bad feeling about her Pack. They aren’t all like mine.”

He’d said as much when Tex had turned up on my doorstep. How some of the American packs would have taken a blind shifter kid and torn him apart. “You think they weren’t abducted. You think they were sold?” The very thought made bile rise in my throat.

Brody gave a sharp nod. “Yes. Omegas are very coveted. They are rare, and are known to breed Alphas. Ironically, they aren’t treated very well. They basically have zero dominance and the animalistic hierarchy makes them the bottom of the power structure in a lot of Packs. Shapeshifters are different from normal two-natured shifters in that way. We don’t breed omegas. That's purely a two-natured trait.”

I cursed Lucius again as the front door opened and X strolled in. “Honey, I’m home,” he drawled in a truly awful imitation of an American accent. “Come over here and…” he stopped and inhaled. “Love, why does it smell like wet dog and mortal fear in here?”

Ah shit. If the pup was scared of me, she was going to be terrified of X. He was like six and a half feet tall and covered in tattoos and scars. He was built like a fridge and just oozed crazy.

I zipped toward him, hushing him. “Lucius gave me a omega wolf shifter pup as a present. You’re going to have to stay with Judge until we figure out what to do with her. Them.”

His eyebrows hit his hairline. “I really have to have that talk with Lucius about dating in the modern age before he tries to buy you with two oxen and a head of cabbage. Though I guess he got the head bit right? Though, if we are talking head, there's definitely a better option there too.” I just stared at him, and he reached out and dragged me into his arms. I inhaled deeply and breathed in the wild scent of X. Like blood and gun smoke. “What do you say, Love? Want me to buy you with a little head?”

I pushed him away. “Be serious.” But I was grinning. Asshole. “What am I going to do? She won’t eat, doesn’t want to be anywhere near Brody because he smells like Alpha. I’ve managed to get her to drink a few sips of water, but that's it.”

He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Fine, serious it is.” He walked over toward Tex, peeking over his shoulder. “What have you got there, Snakelet?”

The pup was awake and she was staring up at X with fearful eyes. X squatted down until he was eye height with the pup. “Well, aren’t you just fucking adorable,” he cooed, and a small white ear twitched. “But you look a bit skinny? Do you like pancakes? My girl here loves pancakes and I bet I could make cute ones that look like elephants and then we can drown it in bacon and maple syrup. What do you think? Ever tried to eat a stack of pancakes bigger than your body?”

The pup shook her head, but crept forward a little. X put out his hands and the pup crawled across Tex’s chest until she stood close enough for X to lift up. My mouth hung open, as did Brody’s, and I wanted to yell, “But he’s a vampire too, why do you like him better than me?” But I resisted. One, because it didn’t matter as long as she ate. And two, because I kind of liked the big, scary monster with the soft voice too. I got it. He was pretty damn compelling.

He set the pup on the kitchen table and then went to work. Brody came to stand beside me. “The hell?” he whispered.

Apparently it was a day for surprises. It hadn’t finished just yet though.

X made pancakes, talking to the pup like she was helping him in the kitchen rather than sitting on the table top with a faint tremor. But when he asked her for an egg, she nosed it over to his hand. When he put out the first pancake, she devoured it in seconds.

“Easy,” Brody warned. The pup looked over at him, and her body cowered in an instant. “I just mean you don’t want to be sick.” Brody’s fists clenched and unclenched. I stroked my hand down his back as his distress flowed down our bond. He hated that she was so fearful of him. “I’m going to take a walk. I’ll be back later,” he said softly, and I could sense the underlying rage from him. Not at the pup, but at whoever made her react like that.

“I’ll text you when she’s asleep.” I wrapped my arms around his waist and held him close to me. “You know it’s not you, right? We’ll help her. We’ll show her that you aren’t like whoever hurt her.”

He gave a sharp nod and kissed my forehead. He had shifted into a fox before he was even out the back door.

Tex came over and wrapped himself around me as I watched the scene before me. I softly explained what was going on in front of me to him, the way X was trying to make pancakes that looked like elephants, but accidentally looked like dicks instead. Well, at least I think it was accidental. By his grin, I was probably being a little too optimistic.

The pup was curledup on the couch, asleep with her bulging belly filled with pancakes when there was a knock at the door. It was almost nightfall again and Walker should be over before he started work. Jesus, how was I going to explain a damn human trafficked shifter pup to Walker?

Hey baby, so you know how I’m a succubus and have just allowed a crazy person into our love-nest? Well guess what? We’re now the proud owners of a traumatized kid my psycho admirer bought from a supernatural auction in a different country. Do you want lasagna for dinner?

I ran my hand over my face. Yeah, that probably wouldn’t go down well. But Walker was a pragmatist, plus he was in the best position to work out if the pups were stolen from their parents or if it was their Pack that sold them.

Instead, it wasn’t Walker, but a blood covered Lucius. Beside him, was a small boy about five. He was holding a little brown pup in his arms. Lucius grinned, and it was all fang. “Raine! I have returned with the rest of the litter. You may kiss me again,” he said imperiously.

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