When a Pack Dies (6 page)

In Cutler’s mind—and he could tell from the look on his face, in Nath’s mind too—Fina was already a member of their pack. Ryan too. Just like she was their mate and the boy their responsibility. Maybe even a surrogate son. “Explain,” Cutler said in that no-nonsense, demanding tone of his. He took a sip of the red wine his brother had served with dinner. It hadn’t escaped his notice that Fina had chosen milk instead.

“I mean that my father was Alpha of our pack. The terms of his will gave me sole control of the pack’s assets as surviving heir. His personal ones too. I...I emptied the piggy bank before I left Tennessee. The rogues may have rightful claim to our lands by pack law but that doesn’t entitle them to the money,” she added with enough verve that one of Cutler’s dark brows shot up. He and his brother exchanged a look.

“Accepted,” Cutler said curtly. He set his wine glass down. “You had his will probated?”

“Yes.”

“Well if human law says it’s your money and the bank accepted that, that’s good enough. Pack law deals with land, inter-band relations and turning of humans only. It leaves money in the hands of individuals and the businesses they run.”

Fina nodded. “Thank you.” A part of her had started to worry she hadn’t been in the right by taking
all
of the pack’s assets. “He’ll have a number of financial needs before he reaches adulthood,” Fina said, nodding in Ryan’s direction. “His education—mine too.”

“Yours?” Nath asked. He wiped the residue off his plate with a slice of bread then popped it into his mouth. “I never asked how old you were.”

“Twenty. I’m going to...I
was
going back to college in the fall.” Something in Fina’s blue eyes dimmed and Cutler covered her hand with his. Nath cupped her shoulder tenderly in his rough palm. She blinked rapidly then looked up at the brothers. “My point is I have money but that money is earmarked for his needs.”

“Yours too,” Nath added pointedly.

“Mine too,” Fina agreed with a thin smile. “If I join your pack, will my assets become yours?”

Your physical ones? Definitely. The financial ones...?

“No,” Cutler answered firmly. “When you take a mate, it’s up to you if you share your money with him. It’s up to him and the pack to provide for your needs. Any children you have would have a right to a claim in your estate but that’s too far down the road to think about.” He popped a last piece of steak in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “Just for argument sake, how much money are we talking here?” he asked after swallowing.

“Approximately eight-point-six million.”

Cutler coughed violently. “So I don’t have to top up Ryan’s college fund, huh?” he asked dryly after he’d recovered.

Fina grinned.

“Ever think about investing in eco-tourism?” Nath asked saucily, picked up Fina’s hand and kissed her knuckles. She rolled her eyes and pushed his face away playfully.

*
   
*
   
*

“You warm enough?”

Standing outside in the hallway, Nath Powell listened to his future mate tuck Ryan into bed. He could hear his brother loading up the dishwasher at the other end of the house.

“I’m good,” Ryan muttered. “Leave the door open.”

“I will. Good-night, Ryan.”

“Night, Fina. Hey, Fina...?”

“Hmm?”

“We gonna live here now?”

“For awhile. Maybe. I haven’t decided yet.”

Nathaniel’s sharp, wolf ears picked out the sounds of lips brushing against a forehead and a hand smoothing hair back.

“Let me know. I wanna say good-bye to the cows if we go.”

“You like them, don’t you?”

“Sure,” Ryan answered with creeping drowsiness.

When the sound of Ryan’s breathing evened out, Nath stepped away from the door and waited for Fina. She tiptoed out and started when she saw him standing there. He held out his hand and, after a moment, she took it warily.

Nath took a step toward her and pressed his cheek against hers. His wolf was clawing at his self-control, wanting his share of Fina’s presence...his share of their mate and the wolf repeated a single word over and over inside Nath’s head.

Mine.

Nath didn’t say anything and, after a time, some of the tension thrumming through Fina’s slender body eased. He breathed her in, tasted her health, age, strength, fertility...Nathaniel’s eyes opened suddenly.

Wait.

Nath’s wolf retreated back into his head, curled around itself and settled down with calm, almost smug satisfaction.

Nath lifted his head, offered Fina a smile and led her toward the family room where he could already hear the sounds of a baseball game coming through the big screen TV.

*

Fina followed Nathaniel without protest. She settled herself on the big sectional and Nath dropped a pillow on the floor at her feet, sat on it and leaned his broad back into her shins. Pinned in place, she felt a moment of panic. His proximity roused the terrors Fina had tried so hard to repress. Breathing slow and even calmed her. He had the remote in his hand and split the image on the screen so he could check the day’s scores. Nathaniel Powell was massive, powerful and hadn’t even reached his prime yet. Just then, Nath chuckled. At what Fina couldn’t guess but the laughter rumbling through his broad back and into her knees comforted her. She reminded herself that he was gentle, easygoing and had a smile that could charm the panties off a nun. His sense of fun ran soul deep and he somehow felt younger than her, if that was possible.

Before the rogues, Fina had been sheltered, even coddled. The baby in the family, the daughter of an Alpha, she’d grown up privileged, indulged, perhaps even smugly entitled. She’d had a place in her well-ordered community—a place, a plan and a shining future with possibilities limited only by her intelligence and courage.

After the rogues, she’d...diminished. Feeling older than she was and somehow fragile, she realized that Fina Whitesage used to be more than she was now.

Her eyes tracked Cutler as he wiped down the counter. Focus, power and confidence reflected in every sure, precise movement of his huge body. Even something as mundane as cleaning up after dinner didn’t mute his dominant presence. Nath was powerful but in a friendly, endearing way. Cutler could be just as funny—well, almost—but there was always an innate maturity and reserve about him. This Alpha was responsible for so much and to so many. He wore it like he wore his other strengths and they rested on his calm, wide shoulders with deceptive ease.

Whenever the brothers looked at her, it was with veiled heat and it terrified her.

It comforted her too. For whatever bizarre reason, they’d taken her in, given her a home and a pack, and hadn’t made a single, sexual advance. Fina exhaled deliberately. They still frightened her, not as much as before and she wondered when she’d ever get over this shackling, groveling fear of prime males. Her fear made her want to run away but her instincts and common sense urged her to stay, for her sake and for the sake of the cub sleeping down the hall. Ryan was her responsibility. She had to be better than this to raise him, had to set an example of a loving, strong, intelligent parental figure. The trouble was, she wasn’t that person anymore.

Again Fina’s eyes moved between Cutler and Nath. One commanding, one gentle. One old soul and one young. She would stay with them, for now. Perhaps the two of them could teach her the things that used to make up Fina Whitesage. Things she’d so taken for granted that she’d forgotten what they were.

*
   
*
   
*

“Green Mountain Eco-Tours. How may I help you?” Fina looked away from her laptop screen and focused on the caller instead of the new Whitesage Nursery website she’d commissioned. She and Ryan had been staying with the brothers for ten days now and she’d tried to stay busy. Thinking distracted her from the pain. She lay her hand on the mouse of the office computer and brought up Nath’s calendar. “We
do
have openings in August for the Highland Trek package...oh you have? Let me check for you...”

Cutler leaned on the doorway. He blew across the steaming mug of coffee in his hand and watched Fina with quiet admiration. She looked up at him, grinned and mouthed “
you’ll be late for work
.” Cutler just shrugged, returned her grin and kept watching.

“Nathaniel Powell is available for only two nights in August...”

Glancing out the window, Cutler watched Ryan playing in the backyard. He and Nath had fenced in the entire area around the house, creating a clearly defined space where Ryan was allowed to play without supervision. It bordered on the south paddock, which suited Ryan just fine. So far he’d been good about not ducking under the picket fence and going into the barn or outbuildings on his own. Ryan was climbing on a big cedar play set with swings and monkey bars. After work tonight, Cutler was going to finish assembling the slide and raised fort sections.

“If you were willing to go with another guide I could offer you that date but if you want Nathaniel to guide you...yes he really is the best chef in the bunch. Uh huh. We also have a guide who’s Shoshone. Chris brings his people’s knowledge to the trek and cooks with only local ingredients. But I have to warn you he’s got a wicked sense of humor so unless you’re prepared to do a few sit-ups to get your abs in shape before you head out, I can guarantee you’ll have a sore belly by the end of day two. Oh you do? I’ll have to send the Johnsons a note and thank them for their lovely recommendation. Yes. Nathaniel’s chicken tetrazzine is to die for and I’m speaking from personal experience here. It’s so good you’ll roll over on your back and beg to have your stomach rubbed.”

Cutler heard a woman laughing on the other end of the line. He rolled his eyes and sipped his coffee.

“The date will be held for you upon receipt of your five-hundred dollar deposit.”

Cutler was impressed by how quickly Fina had picked up on the particulars of his brother’s business. Nobody had asked her to. The second day she’d been there, she’d figured out that Nath had a business phone line hooked up in the home office. If nobody there picked it up, it switched to his base camp. The official home of Green Mountain Eco Tours sat at the end of a dead-end road out of town. A number of trails their dad had introduced them to when they’d been kids, ones that snaked around the Great Divide Basin, branched out from there. Nath’s base camp was a pretty log building where he stored his company’s gear, food supplies and ran his tours out of. During the summer, Nath hired a high-school kid from their pack to run the office in his absence...keeping the shelves stocked, checking on the solar panels, running the sleeping bags into town for cleaning, answering the phones...that sort of thing. But Fina was just really, really good with customers.

“There’s a full information pack. I can fax it or email it to you.” Fina flicked her long, auburn hair out of the way, tucked the receiver between her ear and shoulder and started typing. “That’s right...you can bring your own gear or Green Mountain Eco Tours can supply everything you need except for shoes and the clothes on your back. There’s a complete supply list in the pack and you check off what you’d like us to provide and we’ll have everything ready for you. There’s also a physical-fitness self-check sheet. Oh that’s okay. The Highland Trek package will be perfect for you. It’s two days and one night under canvas. Just work yourself up to an hour of walking per day at a slightly faster than normal pace and you’ll be fine.” She glanced up at Cutler again. “Thank you for calling Green Mountain Eco Tours and have a terrific day.”

“My brother should pay you,” Cutler grunted after she hung up.

“Yes he should,” Fina agreed saucily. “Remind me to tell him.”

Cutler grunted again, this time in agreement and drank the rest of his coffee. He watched Fina with feral heat when she stood, lifted her arms over her head and stretched her back. His cock twitched inside his regulation, dark-blue trousers and he adjusted his gun belt. He wanted this woman even more than when he’d met her but his wolf, always the hormone-driven one, still wanted him to wait.

Cutler was just about ready to go out of his mind with need.

“Don’t forget there’s a pack run tomorrow night. Nath and I will take you. Dorothea Pike and her mate will be watching the kids this time so we’ll drop Ryan off there before we go.”

His high-handedness irked Fina but he was Alpha. It was how he was made. He wasn’t being rude, he was just being...Cutler. “You’re even bossier than my father was,” Fina grouched.

“Hmm. Sounds like a remarkable man,” Cutler grinned and walked up to her. He set his mug down, fit his hands around her waist and pressed his freshly shaven cheek to hers. Her hands settled lightly on his arms as she accepted the nuzzling. She’d been touching him back for a couple of days now—Nath too although that part irritated the hell out of Cutler. And this was the first time she’d talked about anyone from her past without prompting. Cutler took it as a hopeful sign that she was opening up...becoming more comfortable with him...and Nath. “Maybe you’ll tell me about him. Sometime,” he added with his friendly-guy smile and a light shrug of his big shoulders.

“Um, speaking about that...” Fina pulled back from him and leaned on the edge of the desk. “I haven’t spoken with any of my old friends and I was wondering—”

“You want to know if it’s a good idea to get in touch with your human friends,” Cutler finished for her with a discernment that caught her off guard. But then he was a cop. He leaned back against the desk beside her. She was wearing shorts and his uniform pants were rough against her bare leg but Fina didn’t mind. She liked the warmth and muscular solidness of him pressed against her leg, hip and shoulder.

Cutler looked down at her out of the corner of his eye. “I’ve made some contacts with other wolves near your home pack lands,” he told her and waited for her reaction. When Fina simply raised her brow and looked up at him without censure, he continued. “The rogues are laying low. They’ve had little or no contact with nearby humans. I think it’s okay for you to contact some of your friends but do it safely.” She shot him one of what he thought of as her oh-
yeah
-big-tough-guy looks. He ignored it and felt his expression harden. “Who do you want to contact?”