Page 22 of Their Shared Mate
Alex backhanded the mouthy wolf hard enough to knock him to the floor. “So why lie about what happened?” He stood over the other wolf, demanding an immediate response.
“No one is sure what you want from us,” Jake defended as he wiped blood from his swelling lip. “Elias was ruthless, but he was easy to understand. You haven’t made your expectations clear.”
Alex held out his hand and helped Jake to his feet. “I expect honesty, and loyalty to our village. Your interaction in the woods was not the problem. It was your choice to lie to everyone. I should have been informed immediately after the doctor tended your wounds.”
Jake straightened his spine and lifted his chin. “I apologize for my reaction. It will not happen again.”
Accepting the apology with a nod, Alex motioned toward the door. “You’re dismissed.”
Nate closed the door after Jake left the office. “I’ll keep an eye on him for a few days, make sure his shitty attitude doesn’t return.”
“I hate to admit it, but Jake is right,” Alex returned to his chair behind the desk and sat down. “I haven’t been clear with my expectations.”
“You haven’t had time to clarify them in your own mind,” Nate defended. “It has been one crisis after another ever since the night we took out Elias’ pack.”
“That’s no excuse. The other packs can’t support us if we haven’t told them what we need.”
Nate studied Alex for a moment, then nodded. “Did you learn anything helpful from any of your contacts?”
“I learned that I need new contacts,” Alex grumbled. “I honestly think that Jake might have stumbled onto the only piece of useful information.”
“If anything he said was true.”
Alex leaned back in his chair with his hands locked behind his head. “The details of the fight are irrelevant. Do you believe the meeting took place?”
Nate nodded. “It’s too odd and Jake isn’t that creative. I think a bird was bragging to one of the lions about a successful raid on our stronghold.”
“I think you’re right. Which means the fucking birds are working with the cats.” Alex lowered his arms and scooted to the edge of his chair. “So much for Gabriel’s neutrality.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“Gather the pack alphas so we can plan a raid on Eagle Village. We’re going to get our females back.”
CHAPTER 4
Claire didn’t see Raphael for the next three days. Victor supervised the bunkhouse, but gave Claire no special attention. Perhaps she’d been wrong about their attraction to her, or maybe they’d decided that she was so broken that she wasn’t worth the effort. She wouldn’t blame them if that was the conclusion they’d drawn. They could have any woman they wanted. Why bother with someone so weighed down by emotional baggage?
Visiting with Tara helped the first day pass pleasantly, but Kyle was conscious by day two so Tara spent all her time with him. Typical.
Heather, on the other hand, had become withdrawn and gloomy. Claire wasn’t sure what was wrong with her, but all her attempts to cheer Heather up had failed.
“Are you angry with me?” Claire asked as the sun began to sink beneath the horizon. They sat in rocking chairs on the wide front porch of the bunkhouse enjoying a colorful sunset. They were bundled up and sipping spicy/sweet tea.
“I was never mad at you,” Heather assured her. “Areyoustill mad at me?”
“Why would I be mad at you?” Claire asked with a smile. “Nothing happened, at least nothing I can remember.”
Heather’s lips curved for a millisecond and then she stared out at the horizon, which was streaked with orange and red. Both her hands wrapped around her mug and her breath created little puffs of condensation. “I’m in serious trouble and I don’t know how to escape,” she finally admitted, her voice barely audible.
“What are you talking about?” Setting her mug aside, Claire scooted her rocker around until the two chairs faced each other. “What’s the matter?”
Heather paused to finish hersunjittea before she answered, “I wasn’t in the shelter because I refused to participate in the alliance.” She was referring to the primitive barn-like structure the lions built outside their village walls. It had been meant to keep the stubborn females from dying while they came to terms with the necessity of the alliance.
“Why were you staying there?” Trepidation gripped Claire’s stomach. There was only one possible answer. If Heather hadn’t been protesting the terms of the alliance, then she’d been ineligible to participate. “Were you…”
“Yes,” she lamented. “I participated in the experiments. I’m a PA, a physician’s assistant. I gave injections and drew blood, ran scans and brought them food. I was never told exactly what the objectives were, but it was obvious they were being transformed.”
“Why didn’t you quit?” It wasn’t fair to judge her, but Claire wanted to understand. “You had to know that what Nuevo was doing was illegal. Weren’t you afraid of being arrested?”
