The Power Of The Bite (18 page)

Chapter Twenty One

Dax hummed as he checked over the bar receipts from the previous night. The problems with the pack didn’t seem to have impacted his business with any negativity, not that Dax was worried. Over the years he’d worked hard to create a safe place for gays of all types to enjoy a meal, a drink, dancing and the odd hookup. It wouldn’t hurt his business at all if another paranormal never set foot in the place. Not that that was likely. Broz and his friends liked it well enough and from the details Dax saw on some of his receipts, it seemed the young people in his pack were happy to frequent his premises.

Dax hadn’t been in the club at all the previous evening. After chatting with Broz and the others over lunch, he and Zane had retired to their apartment, where Dax did his level best to show Zane how much he was loved. He thought he might have been partially successful, and he planned to continue his project later that day.

He had phoned Lance earlier, to get an update on the mood around the pack and the man had promised to come in before lunch to fill him in on the details, which was why he was hanging around the bar, watching the place slowly fill up as first staff and then patrons came into enjoy what the club had to offer. There was not a lot of choices when it came to eating out in Portrain, and during the day the place resembled more of a family restaurant than a gay bar. Dax smiled and waved at a couple of men from the local council who often took a long lunch break at the club. The sight of Manfred and Archibald reminded him that one of the pack members was going to have to resign their position on the human council. In a council of five, only two of them could be shifters. Otherwise it wasn’t fair on the human population. Actually, they may have to go down to one, if Broz wanted a vampire in on it too.

Zane came through from the office, scowling at some sheets of paper he had in his hand.

“Problems, babe?” Dax caught sight of Lance and Bruce coming through the door just as Zane reached the bar. Zane looked up, and nodded, but then he too saw Lance, and said quickly, “It can wait. If you’re using your office, then I can…”

“Come with me and help me deal with pack problems, then we’ll deal with yours,” Dax said quickly. “I won’t be making any pack decisions without your input babe, so get used to it.”

“If you want me to be treated with respect, it might help if you didn’t call me babe all the time,” Zane grumbled, but he had a small smile on his face by the time Lance and Bruce reached them both. Dax smirked. He’d keep calling Zane babe simply because he could. Sometimes his vampire was a little too stuck up for his own good. Prince he might be, but Zane was a wolf shifter’s mate.

“Lance, Bruce, let’s head into the office. Can I get you a coffee, cold drink or anything else while you’re here?” Dax loved being a host, especially when he had such a well-run establishment. Lance and Bruce both looked a bit surprised, but then Dax remembered meetings with his father never involved anything resembling refreshments.

“Coffee would be lovely,” Lance said, “And if you have any of that pasta stuff we had the last time we were here, I wouldn’t say no to a portion of that either.”

Dax called Toby over. The man came willingly, although his eyes were on Lance rather than Dax. “Can you ask the kitchen to prepare four steak meals with pasta sides, steaks to be rare, a large carafe of coffee and some of the chef’s chocolate cake if he has any left? We’ll take it in my office.”

“Yes, Mr. Portrain,” Toby said, blushing a deep red when Lance and Bruce looked at him. Dax would swear that boy put a swish in his hips as he headed out to the kitchen. Probably a wasted effort, but Lance and Bruce both seemed to enjoy the show.

“Let’s go through.” Dax led the way with Zane by his side, who was still flicking through the papers he held. They appeared to be bar supply receipts, and Dax hoped there wasn’t a problem with any of his staff. He treated everyone who worked for him like his second pack and the thought of someone stealing from him, or whatever else had got Zane up in arms, was distressing in a lot of ways.

Dax waited until Lance and Bruce settled themselves. Their food would be at least ten minutes, and Dax wanted to get the gist of what was going on with the pack.

“Alpha,” Lance reverted to the traditional mode of address the moment the office door was closed. “As you can imagine the pack was a little unsettled after you left yesterday.”

“Did George cause any more problems?”

“He tried,” Bruce laughed. “But then Marjory had a go at him in front of the whole pack, claiming that if he even tried to upset the status quo, with you and Zane as Alphas then she would personally take his balls and hang them around his neck. As you can imagine he didn’t get a lot of support after that.”

Dax laughed. He could totally see Marjory being like that. She might be married to George, but she ruled their household with an iron fist. Not many pack members dared to go against her.

“They did bring up one issue that might cause some problems – with your succession.” Lance clearly didn’t want to raise the topic, but it was part of his job. Dax had to know what the pack were concerned about, otherwise he couldn’t do his job.

“I’ve only been in the job five minutes,” Dax said, taking Zane’s hand. With all that had been going on, the two men had hardly had the time to talk about whether or not they would have children.

“Nevertheless, George was pretty pushy about his daughter being the surrogate for any children you might have.”

“Not going to happen,” Dax said firmly. There was no way he was going to allow George anywhere near the pack house on a familial basis.

“We have plenty of options when it comes to prospective mothers,” Zane said suddenly. “I have two cousins who would be more than happy to carry the Alpha’s children on my behalf. That may stop any favoritism angles within the pack.”

“Half breed children, what a lovely idea.” Dax beamed. “We could have a couple, at least one each.” Suddenly the idea of filling the pack house with children seemed like a really fun thing to do.

“And it obviously wasn’t what the pack had in mind.” Bruce laughed. “But of course, the issue of children is a decision for the Alpha and Alpha Mate to decide,” he added hurriedly.

“Glad you’re catching on,” Dax said, his eyes still twinkling at the thought of having children. A long dark haired daughter with Zane’s fine bone structure, or a fair haired wolf child who looked a lot like him. But those were thoughts for another day.

“Are we going to lose any pack members?” Dax said, getting serious again.

“I don’t think so.” Lance looked at his second. “Bruce and I were inundated yesterday evening with various calls and people coming to see us about what type of work the coven might offer. It seems that the pack’s insistence that only half of the town be blessed with any resources has seriously limited some of the member’s ways of making money.”

“We’ve got a list here,” Dax said looking at all of the papers on his desk. Where had he put it? Zane pulled open the desk drawer and handed him a folder. Seems his mate was organizing things. How sweet.

Dax opened it up and sure enough there was a list broken down into trades, supplies needed to refurbish the coven house, and then he noticed as he flicked through additional pages, there were listings for road gangs, graffiti cleaning, a rubbish removal service, not to mention administration, marketing and computer personnel. He raised an eyebrow at Zane as he looked over the list.

“Broz has already had offers of investment in the area from three out of town vampires. A computer tech who has his own web design business, another security firm that has operatives all over the United States, and a publicity firm who is interested in considering Portrain as a tourist destination for paranormals.”

“Those vampires move fast,” Lance said and he sounded impressed.

“It’s a matter of necessity,” Zane said in a droll voice, and Dax laughed again.

“Let’s look at these lists and see what we can get sorted out.  The coven house needs to be worked on first, but there looks like there will be plenty of work for everybody.”

Dax, Zane, Lance and Bruce worked well into the afternoon, and long after their meal was finished. By the time Lance and Bruce had gone through into the dining area to enjoy a late dinner, Dax felt he was finally getting his feet wet as the Alpha of Portrain.

Chapter Twenty Two

Zane was getting edgy and yet for the life of him, he couldn’t pin-point the cause of his anxiety. In the three months since Dax had taken over the Portrain pack, and he and Dax had moved into his apartment over the club, their life had been cruisy. Dax seemed happy enough. He still refused to live on pack grounds, because of Zane’s safety apparently, but wolves had been working at the coven house, and in a number of other jobs the vampires had set up for them.  Dax also still refused to lead his pack on the full moon pack runs, something which Lance had confided more than once, was really upsetting the pack. Unfortunately Dax refused to believe that Zane was safe with his pack members, and as he also refused to run without him, Dax ran on coven grounds. Zane didn’t mind, but he sensed his mate needed more than to play hide and seek with a vampire once a month.

This anxiety was a recent thing though, just within the last week, and Zane had learned long ago not to ignore his sixth sense. So when Broz phoned, asking him whether or not he and Dax would be moving into the coven, or taking a house on the grounds, Zane actually growled at him. He wasn’t angry at his oldest friend, and Broz seemed to know that, but his agitation was getting out of control.

“What’s happening with you?” Broz said quickly. “Are you still feeding regular? You did tell Dax you needed his blood every day now that you’ve claimed him?”

“Yes.” Dax was letting him feed every day, exactly as Zane needed, and that…. “There’s something in his blood though and I can’t put my finger on it, but I would swear he’s hiding something from me.”

“Maybe he’s planning a birthday party for you or something?” Broz was trying to be helpful, but he was way off track. Zane struggled to find the words to explain the nature of his discomfort.

“He doesn’t know when my birthday is. I’m not even sure when it was. I gave up celebrating those decades ago, you know that. And besides, if it was a surprise for me, then I would taste the excitement in his blood as well, and it’s nothing like that. It’s almost as though…there’s something going on, I can just sense it.”

“Those senses of yours have saved our lives more than once, my friend. It wouldn’t pay to ignore them. Do you think Dax is in danger?”

“Ha,” Zane snorted. “He wouldn’t tell me if he was. The man is still so busy protecting my ass from his fucking pack he won’t even allow me to go with him when he goes to the pack house. He’s over there right now, apparently dealing with some meeting or other. Claimed I’d be bored and I would be better off staying at the club. He doesn’t let me meet with any wolves except the enforcers, and they don’t come around too often.”

“Hmmm,” Broz said thoughtfully. “Ewan and Foyle picked up the traces of non-pack wolves coming into town last night. They stayed right on the edge of town, and didn’t encroach on vampire or the pack territory, but Ewan let me know in case we had to contend with an attack on the coven.”

“How many wolves?” Zane said, his heart quickening. Wolves wouldn’t be interested in coven territory because then they’d be in trouble with the council.

“About a dozen, maybe more, but they didn’t step foot on coven territory.”

“They wouldn’t.” Zane cursed, as all of the puzzle pieces fell into place. “They’re after the pack. I’ll bet you anything you like Dax has been challenged and the furry git didn’t want me to know about it. He’s been edgy for about a week and he was damn evasive when he left this morning.”

“It is a pack matter,” Broz said slowly. “It doesn’t really concern us.”

“It concerns me,” Zane said decisively. “For better or worse, I am fucking Alpha Mate of that pack, and if Dax thinks he’s going to walk into fucking danger without me, then he’s got another thing coming.”

“And we have a treaty with the pack, that includes safety and security,” Broz said, his tone lightening. “Be ready to head out in ten minutes.”

“You don’t have to involve the coven,” Zane said. He would feel better with his friends by his side, but he didn’t want to lead them into an unnecessary fight. While the wolves that worked for the vampires did a good job, relations between the two factions were still strained.

“This isn’t coven business, this is about being there for friends,” Broz said. “Get your gear, and be ready to kick some wolf butt. If the strangers aren’t at the pack grounds, then you can kick your mate and find out what the hell is going on.”

/~/~/~/~/

Dax stared in horror at the wolves that poured from the tree line. This was supposed to be a standard Alpha challenge and Dax had been waiting with his enforcers for Carmine to arrive. The pack had been summoned, as was pack tradition, but from the number of the wolves that were even now launching into attacks on the nearest members they could find, Carmine had planned a massacre.

“You should have told your mate,” Lance yelled, as he hurried towards the attackers. “He and his friends could have helped us.”

“I fucking know that now,” Dax said, cursing as he tore off his own shirt. If he got out of this alive, he swore he would tell his mate everything that had been going on – his fears, the threats, the whole kit and caboodle. That’s if he got out of this with his skin. From the size of the Alpha bearing down on him complete with another four large wolves, that wasn’t a definite. Dax initiated his shift and prayed to the Fates as he did it.

/~/~/~/~/

Ten minutes later Zane and his friends swept into the pack house driveway to see carnage all over the lawn. He recognized Dax’s wolf form fighting off a group of wolves, while the enforcers were busy trying to keep the women and children safe from another group of men that were trying to take them. Sprinting from the SUV, Zane let out a roar as he let his true self emerge - his vampire side that had men weeping in fear on both sides of the globe.

“Save the women and children,” he yelled to his friends, as he rushed to where Dax was fighting. Even with his black fur, Zane could smell the blood on his mate and he was beyond enraged. His eyes changed, his claws emerged and he felt his shirt rip as his muscles enlarged. He waded into the fray, pulling wolves off his mate and throwing them about, with no care as to where they fell. The only thing he was concerned about was saving Dax, and by gods the man needed some saving.

Dax was fighting hard, but even an Alpha wolf couldn’t overcome the odds he was facing. Wolf after wolf kept coming. Zane didn’t have a clue who was pack and who wasn’t, but in that moment it didn’t matter. Anyone who came near his mate was history as far as he was concerned. Before long his claws were blood red, and still the furry shits kept coming.

Some wolf landed on his back, taking Zane to the ground, and he roared again as he rolled and grabbing the offending wolf by the throat. Seconds later the wolf was slung aside as Zane ripped his head off, leaping to his feet, and plowing back into the crowd that were still fighting his mate. He was beyond furious and it showed in his complete lack of mercy. Wolf after wolf fell under his claws, and still they kept coming. Broz’s information had seriously been lacking – this wasn’t a few visiting wolves, this was a pack on pack attack.

Slowly working his way to his mate’s side, by the time Zane had gotten to Dax, his Alpha wolf was left fighting one man and something told Zane this was not the time to interfere. His instincts were confirmed when Lance came running to his side, shifting as he went.

“That’s the Alpha of the Carmine pack. You can’t interfere, or Dax will lose by default,” Lance gasped, half bent over, trying to catch his breath.

“And this was a standard fucking challenge?” Zane roared, waving his hand around at the litter of bodies that covered the lawn.

“It was supposed to be,” Lance said darkly. “George called in his cousin who is Alpha born, and who runs the Carmine pack. Told him Dax was soft, the pack was affiliated with vampires, and that it was ripe for the taking. Apparently Carmine took him literally.”

“Bring George to me. His wife, his family, the whole fucking lot of them,” Zane snarled.

“Er, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” Lance looked worried and Zane figured he had every reason to be. Although Zane’s vampire form had receded, he knew his eyes were still flaring red and his torso and claws were dripping with blood.

“I don’t care what you think. Am I, or am I not Alpha Mate of this fucking pack?” Zane put as much growl as he could into his voice, willing Lance to submit. The wolf didn’t stand a chance.

“Yes, Alpha Mate.” Lance tilted his head to one side as he ran off to do as he was told. Dax’s fight was winding up. His mate was wounded, there was more blood covering his dark fur than not, but Zane trusted his mate to succeed where any other would have failed. In a fair fight his mate was not only Alpha born, he’d been trained by one of the best Alpha wolves around. Zane watched as his mate dispatched the offending Alpha with a savage wrench of his teeth, and his lips curled up in a small smile as his mate howled out his victory.

To his surprise, Dax didn’t shift, but trotted over in wolf form, as Zane turned to see the enforcers had George and his family encircled, driving them towards him. The rest of the pack, apparently unharmed were being kept at a safe distance by Broz and the other vampires. Zane was only interested in George, who looked decidedly shaky, as well he should.

“You’re responsible for this attack?” Zane didn’t believe in small talk.

“I arranged the challenge, yes. But I didn’t know Carmine was going to bring fighters with him.” George kept looking at Dax who was growling softly and showing his teeth. Zane whipped out his hand and slapped the man around the face.

“It would pay to focus on me, pup. I’m your Alpha Mate,” he said firmly. “Now explain before your Alpha and all those present, why you thought it was a good idea to invite a madman here. A man who could have been responsible for the death of dozens of women and children in this pack if we hadn’t come along.”

“I didn’t know Carmine was looking to increase his numbers,” George cried out, when he saw he wasn’t getting any support from Dax. “No one else was meant to be harmed. It was supposed to be a regular Alpha challenge.”

“What lies did you tell him, this challenging Alpha?” Zane stalked closer, Dax still in wolf form by his side.

Now George looked positively evasive. His mouth opened and closed a few times, but he didn’t speak. It was Marjorie who stepped forward, tilting her head respectfully to the side.

“George was concerned with the amount of time the Alpha was spending in the vampire territory. Even though everyone has said how happy they are earning more money and living a peaceful life working with the vampires, he insisted that because the Alpha wasn’t living in the pack house, hadn’t considered taking a female wolf as a surrogate to ensure his succession, and…” Marjorie’s voice dropped a little, but continued, “That he was in the thrall of his mate, that he wasn’t a fit ruler for the pack. Carmine is the son of his mother’s brother, and we’d heard he was a good leader.”

Zane looked down at Dax. “Hear that babe, apparently you’re in my thrall. How cute that George here thinks so little of his Alpha and Alpha Mate to the point of arranging for a cousin to step in instead. A cousin who is mad enough to want to kill off every male member in the pack.”

Dax snarled and snapped at George who tried to step back, but was being prevented by Lance and Bruce who held him firmly.

“Alpha Mate,” Marjorie continued. “Please. I understand that George has to be punished, but my children and I had nothing to do with this. We just wanted to live our lives in peace and safety.”

“But none of you seem prepared to accept the changes that your Alpha is working hard to put in place.” Zane had no intention of harming women and children. That wasn’t his way, but this business with the pack had to be sorted and maybe now was the perfect opportunity to do it. He looked around, and saw the porch was behind him. Taking a quick leap, he stood on the railing, so he could look out over the whole pack. They were certainly looking at him.

“Members of the Portrain pack, take a good look around you. Look at the mess made by stupidity, ignorance and fear. Some of you could have been badly hurt or killed today. The challenger didn’t come here to fight your Alpha, like a wolf with honor - he came to take your pack members, for slavery, subjugation or worse. If my friends and I hadn’t come along when we did, many of your women and children could have been killed or kidnapped. Even as a vampire, I know that an Alpha challenge is supposed to be one on one and this wasn’t anything like it. It was a takeover, pure and simple.”

“Think about it. Think about how many of you would have been killed if it wasn’t for the vampires standing here among you now? How many of you wouldn’t have jobs, would still be struggling financially? Are we really that bad that none of you could tell us what was going on?”

“You weren’t standing with your mate when he accepted the challenge. Why should we listen to anything you have to say?” A random voice from the crowd yelled out.

Zane arched an eyebrow at Dax, who plodded over and climbed up on the porch, shifting as he went. He stood in naked magnificence, and Zane had a sudden longing to get the man behind closed doors. He’d paddle that ass good and proper before he fucked it.

“I didn’t tell my mate what was going on, because I didn’t trust my pack to keep my mate safe,” Dax said clearly. “I have grown up with you all, watched you build families and lives together, held you in my heart, and done my best to keep you safe. Yet despite everything I have tried to do, I was still hearing of plots to kill Zane. I have no idea how he found out what was going on here today, but I thank the Fates he did. Without the help of him and his friends, the outcome for all of us would have been a lot worse.”