The Great Wolf: A Legacy of Kilkenny Novel Book Three (The Legacy of Kilkenny Saga) (15 page)

“My final announcement tonight is to tell you who will be my
beta.  My beta who will serve with me is, Pru Phelan.   From this day forward,
the three of us are as one!  I will not be taking any questions tonight. 
Please respect our privacy as we embark on this journey.  We’re all new to this
Great Wolf business, but I’m happy to serve you all.  Good night!”  I throw
back my head and howl.  The crowd goes wild with howls and whistles.

“I thought Oakley was your beta.”
Pru thinks to me.

“No, you’re my beta and always have been.  I need you by
my side,”
I reply. 
“I wanted to surprise you….SURPRISE!”

“You’re hilarious.”

“So I’ve been told.”

****************

Everyone in the pack except Shaynie and Oakley were at the
reception.  We sent Shaynie with Phillip until she leaves for the states. 
Brianna has my hand as we walk around the crowd, stopping for quick hellos and
selfies with other wolves.  My wolf is getting territorial over  people bumping
into Brianna as they walk past. 

“Here comes MecKenzie,” Brianna says. 

MecKenzie’s long dress hugs her petite frame as she walks
over.  “Abel, I just heard from Kane.  He wants you to call him when you get
back to the hotel.”

I study her body language as she talks, looking for signs of
deceit, which there are none.  Her thoughts are filled with worry and curious
to find out why Kane deceived us all.  “Are you holding up okay?”  She nods her
head up and down, but her eyes don’t look okay.  She appears as though she’s
been crying all day.

“I want to tell you that I saw your member Shaynie talking
with Kane one morning.  She came down before everyone got up for breakfast.  I
didn’t think anything of it until today.  I was told that she’s the one who
said Oakley murdered those guys who kidnapped the girls.  If I were a betting
person, I’d bet all I have that she set him up.  The council can drag their
feet sometimes.  Be careful about leaving without getting statements from
people in town.”  Her concern is genuine.

She’s right, we need to make sure everything is uncovered
the right way.  Two years ago, I convinced the council members to go public
with the supernatural community.  They’ve always worked in secret, only
allowing the alphas to know of their existence.  Now everyone knows and so far,
we’ve all been happy knowing we have law enforcers.  “You’re right, we need to
get statements.  If you can think of anyone we should talk to, please let me
know.”

“I will.”

“Do you need help running the Inn?  I can get someone to
come over and help with the day to day operations.”

“No, I’m used to running it alone.  Kane takes a lot of
business trips to the Middle East.”

He must be part of it all.  What a great actor he is and
what a fool we’ve all been to think nothing like this would happen.  “If you
need anything, please contact me.”

****************

“
Brianna, let’s get out of here for a while.  There’s a
set of suites upstairs, I bet we can sneak off to one.”
I put my arm around
her waist and guide her towards the stairs. 

“How do you plan on escaping without anyone noticing
we’re gone?”

“Oh they’ll notice, but they won’t stop us.  Come on.”
 
I nod at Bryon and think to him, “
We’re going to go upstairs for some quiet
time.  We’ll be back in thirty minutes or so.”
  Bryon nods back and helps
clear a path for Brianna and I to pass everyone without any problems.

“I need to check the room first, I can’t let you go into
one of the suites without a sweep.”
Bryon says, referring to checking a
room for any bad guys or equipment.

In the distance, someone is asking where I am.  I take
Brianna’s hand and we run around the corner to the suites.  Bryon checks the
doors and finally finds one unlocked.

“Give me a second and then you can go inside.”  Bryon
cautiously disappears into the room.

I turn Brianna until her back is against the wall.  I put my
hand against the wall and kiss the tip of her nose.  “You’re pretty amazing.” 
I kiss her on the cheek.  “Everyone here kept talking about how beautiful you
are….it’s true, I can hear everyone.”  I give her a light kiss on the forehead.

“Were they talking about how handsome you are?”  She watches
me before she gives me a quick kiss on the lips.  “You’re kind of a tease.”

I watch her as she looks up through her long lashes.  “I
wouldn’t tease you….” I kiss her other cheek.  “Well, maybe a little.” 

Bryon steps out of the room and gives us the green light to
go inside.  After a moment of him saying he’s going to stand outside to keep
guard she and I enter the room.

There’s a slight vacuum cleaner smell in the air.  We used
to have a vacuum that smelled that way, like old smelly socks that have been
set on fire.  The only place to sit is on the king sized bed.  I sit down on
the edge of the bed and pull Brianna until she’s standing between my legs.

“Are you doing okay?  I mean, well, uh, this has been all so
fast.”  I say, anxious to know everything about her.

She nods her head, “I am, I really am.  Growing up as a
were, I knew there would be a day when I’d find my mate.  I’m not going to lie,
I didn’t think I’d be moving to America.  It is probably different for someone
who wasn’t raised in the lifestyle of a werewolf.  Sapphire came to talk to me
and she has adjusted very well for someone who was bitten.  My wolf would die
without you.  You’re pretty cute too,” she says flirtatiously.

“Oh yeah?  You’re pretty cute too.”  I tug on her until
she’s sitting on my lap.  The sound of her heart rapidly beating, is music to
my wolf.  Her hair cascades down her back.  I try not to be too clumsy as I run
my hands along her waist.  They make it look so easy in the movies, yet my
brain is on overdrive trying to be a gentleman. 

The two of us find ourselves lost in each other’s eyes.  She
leans down and gently kisses me.  We start out slow and steady until my wolf
was begging for more.  I scoot us both back on the bed until only our feet are
dangling over the side.  God I want nothing more than to make love to her.

She reaches down and slides off her boots and then scoots up
further on the bed with me by her side.  It is then that I notice something
I’ve only ever seen in the mirror….her eyes are glowing.  That can only mean
one thing, she is gaining some of my powers by being my mate.  I dip into her
thoughts for a moment to make sure she’s okay.  She’s having a mental meltdown
with her wolf screaming for her to have sex with me.  Her human side is arguing
to wait until the wedding.  I’m having the same struggles going on in my head
too.

I roll us until she’s on her back and I’m hovering over
her.  Slowly, I kiss my way down her jaw and to her neck.  Her breathing is
getting faster, so is mine.  I kiss down to her chest, kissing her to the
neckline of her dress.  My hands go around her until I’m pressed into her and
it is getting harder and harder not to unzip her dress and make love.  Without
warning, I scramble to stand up.

“We need to stop, I’m not doing it this way and not here,” I
whisper.

“You’re right….we’re pushing the limits with all of this
kissing.  Will you hand me my boots?”  She sits up and puts her boots back on. 

“We should probably go back out there and mingle some more.”
I smooth her hair down from where it was messed up from rolling on the bed. 

“Mingle, that’s exactly what I had running through my mind
as you were kissing me,” she teases.  “How long does it take for your eyes to
go back to normal?”

“Did they go all wolfy on you?  You’re eyes are glowing too,
I guess I had you a little hot and bothered.”  I tease back.

“No way!” She races to the mirror over the dresser.  “That’s
never happened before!”

“I’m not sure, but I think you’re getting some of my
powers.  We’ll have to test it out when we get to the farm.”  I stand behind
her in the mirror and wrap my arms around her.  I breath in the scent of her
shampoo and find the nerve to walk us to the door.  Never in my life have I
wanted to have sex so bad as I did at that moment.

****************

“Don’t look now, here comes Patrick O’Connell  headed this
way,” Brianna whispers to me.

I met Patrick when he showed up in Oklahoma at my high
school.  He tried to convince the General that I should be trained by him. 
He’s the most feared werewolf I’ve ever heard about.  I look around the room
for my beta, in hopes Pru hasn’t left to say goodbye to Oakley yet.

Hopefully, he didn’t bring any child-blood-drinking-faeries
with him.

“Pru, Patrick O’Connell is here and walking towards me
right now.”

“Oh that bastard.  I’ll be right there.”

When Patrick was in Oklahoma, he tried to have me attacked
to prove I’m not trained.  I was able to handle myself and we stopped him from
forcing me to go with them to Ireland.  That was the day Pru kissed me to
distract me. 

“That was some speech you gave tonight,” Patrick said.  I
remember being so intimidated by him when we met, tonight, I’m not
intimidated.  “We’ve all been wondering when you were going to take over.  I
think we should have coffee in the morning and go over a few things.”

Yeah, that sounds like fun.

“I’m sure we can work something out.  We’re running at five
in the morning if you’d like to join us.”  I studied his face.  Oakley once
told me he’s in his mid forties, that would make him close to fifty now.

Patrick purses his lips together and nods, “I’d be honored.”

He just said he’d be
honored
, is he kidding?  “After
the run, we’ll eat breakfast; I’ll have them set a place for you.  I don’t mind
you and your beta running with us, but we like to keep the numbers low.  You
may bring your other pack members to breakfast though.”

His heavily starched yellow Polo under his sports coat makes
him look even younger than fifty years old.  “I like your style Abel.  For a
while, I thought you weren’t getting the training you needed.  I’m happy to say
it looks as though I underestimated your pack.”

What’s his angle?  “Thank you, now if you don’t mind, I’d
like to take my lovely date home.”  I look across the room and see Violet and
Bri talking and snacking on crackers.  We haven’t had a big meal in a few days,
not with all the drama going on.

Patrick nods at me and promises to see me in the morning.

“Hey girls, you want to go get something to eat?  I could go
for a good steak about now,” I take a slice of cheese from Brianna’s hand. 
Funny how our relationship is so casual and easy.  Violet even fits in well.

“Oh, I could tackle a sheep and eat it raw about now,”
Violet exclaims.

I bust out laughing at her.  “Tackle a sheep?  Wow, that’s
so violent.  We better go before Violet has more homicidal thoughts about
sheep.”  I put my arm around Brianna and call for the pack to meet us at the
cars.

****************

During the night, I received a text from Philip telling me
Shaynie disappeared.  After seven calls to the IT department, we were able to
find she removed her tracking device.   We never suspected she’d be a flight
risk, so Philip didn’t keep her restrained.  Why we underestimated her motives
again, is beyond me. 

It’s four in the morning and I wanted to meet with Dolly,
Parker, Pru and Brianna.  It isn’t long before we head home, and I want to
figure out what organization is behind everything.  I tried contacting the
Council about releasing Oakley on his own recognizance’s, but they rejected the
request.

“Hey everyone.  I can’t fathom Shaynie doing this.  She’s
been a team player for so long.”  I gaze out the window that overlooks the
entrance.  It’s still dark since we’re up hours before the sun will be up for
the day.

“I know,” Dolly says.  “I really wanted to have faith in
her.  Our Oakley is incarcerated because of a girl we welcomed in with open
arms.”  There are lines on her face that weren’t there yesterday.  She’s
dressed in a black designer warm-up suit and running shoes.  She must have
gotten up for a run before the meeting.

“This isn’t our fault.  The fact is, she’s affiliated with a
terrorist group and for all we know, she’s on her way to Egypt now.”  I take a
sip of my coffee before continuing.  I take a deep breath and blurt out,
“Patrick O’Connell will be running with us at five.  He said he wants to talk
to me about something in private.  I can’t imagine what about, nevertheless,
I’m intrigued.”

Parker leans back in his swivel chair and crosses his arms
over his chest.  “Yeah, that should be an interesting talk.  He’s such a douche. 
Of course he’s already trying to get in your good graces.   He sure gave us
bullshit your first year as a wolf.”

“Politics are like that, they fight until you’ve taken
office and then they become your best friend when you do.  Parker, I want you
and Bryon to go to Egypt and find out what you can about this group.  There are
wolves missing in America that we need to find.  Another wolf abduction
happened yesterday morning from the Mall of America.  We can’t keep losing
wolves.    Quinney gave me a thought yesterday about them building some type of
army.  It makes sense.”

“What about Sapphire and Storm,” Pru asks.

Parker unfolds his arms and leans forward to sip on his
energy drink. “That’s something I want to talk to you all about.  Sapphire and
I have talked about this for the last year, but didn’t know how to go about
it.  I know the timing sucks…..well, the fact is, I want to start my own pack. 
I’ve been thinking about us being a
sister pack
to yours.  I would be
the acting alpha of my pack.  We’ve been contemplating about staying here in
Ireland.  It would give the Phelan Pack the inside scoop about everything going
on around here.  Storm would have a chance to learn a new culture.  And don’t
worry, I’ll help your transition and everything.  You and Brianna could move
into our cottage for privacy.” He blurts everything out in one continuing
sentence.