Built for Lust (8 page)

“My baby,” Ruth shouted. She lunged at Gray and carefully took Tommy into her arms. She held him, stroking his face and kissing him. After a moment, Tommy whined -- the sort of pup sounds he’d never let anyone hear now.

The wolves crowded around, sniffing the child. Ilse licked him a few times and then tipped her head back to howl.

Cara would have collapsed into the stream with relief, but Gray caught her and pulled her against his chest. She trembled, her teeth chattering. They were, after all, still kneeling in cold water. Her feet and hands hurt -- probably bleeding -- and she’d have a nice gash in her knee. None of that mattered, of course, but when Gray lifted her in his arms and set her on the bank of the stream, she didn’t fight.

“You all right?” he asked.

“Never been better.” She glanced back at the others. Tommy was squirming in his mother’s arms, and the others looked on as if he were the most miraculous thing on Earth. He probably was.

“I’ll run back and get the four wheel drive,” Gray said.

“Gray.” She kissed him briefly. “You don’t know how to drive.”

“Right.”

Sam separated from the group, nodded toward Gray, and took off in the direction they’d come from.

“Sam’ll do it,” Gray said. “Why don’t we just sit here and enjoy the evening?”

* * *

Back at the compound, Cara didn’t get a hero’s welcome. Anything but. Her mother finished cleaning up and bandaging her cuts and shut her medicine kit with an angry snap. “You’re lucky you weren’t hurt or worse. Much worse.”

“I wasn’t,” Cara answered. “So, you can stop looking at me like that.”

Her mother got up from the low stool she’d used to reach Cara’s feet and arched her back, rubbing her palm along her spine. Quite the display of self-sacrifice for a woman young enough to keep up with her children on a run. It worked, anyway, as a stab of guilt shot through Cara despite herself.

“My daughter acts as if she doesn’t have a brain in her head sometimes,” Bess said. “I expected better of you, Gray.”

“I tried to stop her.” Gray moved closer and draped an arm over Cara. He’d hardly allowed her more than a foot away from him since he’d almost landed on her at the bottom of the ravine.

“When were you two going to tell us about the baby?” her mother demanded.

“As soon as Cara let me,” Gray answered.

Bess tsked. “A fine pair, you two.”

“For crying out loud, Mom, cut her some slack,” Joe snapped from across the room. “She found Tommy.”

The others murmured in agreement. They’d all taken turns thanking her with a hug or a kiss on the cheek. It had felt good, but now, her mother’s disapproval soured her moment of triumph.

“She could have killed herself,” Bess said. “We might have had three lives to mourn.”

“I caught Tommy’s scent. What did you want me to do?” Damn, now she was shouting at her own mother.

“Tell the pack. Operate like a family,” Bess shouted back. “That’s what our kind do.”

“You’re not being fair, Mom,” Peter said calmly.

“What, are you all ganging up on me?” Bess asked.

“It’s not like that,” Ilse answered. “You weren’t there. We were all desperate. Cara found him.”

“You’re damned right I did, and I’d like a little credit for it.” Despite the cuts on her feet and her knee, which hurt like hell, Cara got up and paced the room. “My whole life I’ve amounted to nothing.”

“That’s not true,” Bess said.

“Stop giving me pity points,” Cara shouted. “You’ve done it my whole life. ‘Don’t worry, darling, your gift will come to you.’ ‘We all love you just the way you are’.”

“We do,” Peter said.

“You love me the way you love the little ones. Not as an equal. I’ve never been an equal until tonight.”

“But, sweetie…” her mother tried.

“You see?” Cara crowed. “That’s what I called Tommy tonight. That’s what we all call Sally. When do you call Ilse sweetie? Or Joe?”

“I’m sorry,” Bess said. “I didn’t know it bothered you.”

Damn it all to hell. “It didn’t. It does now. Finally, I did something to fit in with this pack, and you can’t take that away.”

“That isn’t what she meant,” Joe said.

“How do you know what she meant?” She stopped pacing and glared at her brother. “I accomplished something tonight. No one else could find Tommy, but I did. I found him.”

A soft voice came from the hallway that led to the bedrooms. “You did more than that.” Ruth stood there, leaning against the threshold.

Joe went to his wife and tried to pull her into his embrace but Ruth held him off. “No. I have to say this. Tommy was dead when we got to him.”

“What?” Gray said.

“I’m a healer. Tommy was dead,” Ruth repeated.

“That isn’t possible,” Cara said. “You don’t know. You didn’t touch him.”

“I did before you got there,” Ruth replied.

Joe got an arm around Ruth and pulled her against him. “You’re overwrought.”

Ruth looked toward Bess. “You have to believe me. I’m not just a healer. I’m Tommy’s mother.”

Bess searched Cara’s face. “Is this true?”

“It can’t be,” she answered.

“Ruth’s right,” Ilse said. “I could barely detect Tommy when we all started out. I lost him completely just before Cara took off.”

“You’re all out of your minds if you believe that.” Cara glanced around. They all had to be nuts because they were all staring at her as if they’d never seen her before. Except for Gray. His smile was full of pride and love. “Come on. I can’t give people life.”

“You did for me,” her mate said.

“That was a fluke,” she answered.

“Nope.” He got up, went to her, and pulled her into his arms. “Once is a fluke. Twice is proof.”

She rested against her mate’s chest and listened to his heartbeat. Different from the way she’d sensed Tommy’s and much the same. Could what he said be true?

Her mother’s hand stroked her back as it had done so many countless times in her life. “Love gave you the power, Cara. First loving Gray and now Tommy and the baby inside you.”

“Yeah, I guess. Maybe.” She burrowed her nose into Gray’s chest and felt rather than saw the whole pack gather around her. Maybe they’d been right all along. The greatest gifts took the longest to appear.

Alice Gaines

Award winning author Alice Gaines has published several sensuous and erotic works. She prefers stories that stretch the imagination, highlighting the power of love and sex. Alice has a Ph.D. in psychology from U. C. Berkeley and lives in Oakland, California, with her collection of orchids and two pet corn snakes, Casper and Sheikh Yerbouti. Alice loves to get mail at [email protected]. Visit her website at http://home.pacbell.net/halice/. She also sometimes updates her Twitter account (AliceGaines at Twitter) and you can find her on www.goodreads.com.