Wolf Home: Paranormal Werewolf Romance (3 page)

“Uh huh, sure.” She elbowed him into shifting so she could settle herself between his legs on the chair, but didn't get out of his lap. This was
plenty
comfortable.

“Having fun, there?” Katherine MacCrae called, sitting down. She had a toddler in her lap and a slightly older child on her shoulders, and looked heavily pregnant as well – she and whichever Fannon she'd married had been busy.

Trying to be bitter about Adam was like trying to grip water in her fingers, but everyone else was fair game. Nicole bared her teeth at Katherine in response to the taunt, and added a slight growl when it just touched off laughter. She felt Adam's hands tight on her hips and snuggled back into him, then directed another warning to the table in general.
Mine
.

“Isn't that kind of rude?” Adam breathed in her ear. “Sheila told me not to do stuff like that around the other pack.”

“You were an outsider,” Nicole murmured back. “If you didn't behave someone would smack you into line.
I
am the future alpha of Blackwood pack.” She'd just been thinking about falling into old patterns, hadn't she. “And if you marry me, you're the other one.”

“Oh, well, in that case.” Adam nuzzled her hair, then lifted his head. His growl reverberated through the room, making several of the wolves at the bar startle. Nicole's cousin, Alex, fell off the stool, to general entertainment.

“They're cute,” Mary said, dropping into a chair on the other side of Nicole's father. “I'm jealous. Anyone have a guest room I can stay in during the honeymoon?” Laughter again.

“Don't you have headphones?” Nicole flipped her off.

“Girls, girls.” Nicole's father finally turned his attention to the table. “And boys,” he added when Mary's younger brother Ethan opened his mouth. “Quiet, please.”

“That means shut the fuck up,” Sheila Fannon said, settling next to her wife at the opposite end of the table.“All of you.” The last few people who'd been inattentive were very swiftly silent. “Great. Scott, you want to start the agenda?”

When Nicole was a child, the meetings had been a lot less organized, and very rarely inside. The current MacCrae alpha couple included a first generation wolf who had been in school for business when she was bitten. They had convinced the others to try running meetings a little more civilly one at a time, and the results had been effective enough that indoor meetings with schedules were standard by the time Nicole left for college.

Of course, they didn't have paper copies of agendas or anything. No need to go too far.

She sat up and resolved to put aside her personal feelings. This was important.

“First thing is the landslide damage,” her father said. “The casualty list in the region is six as far as we know, although no one's gotten a hold of the Hirsch pack yet. Four of the casualties were in the Priddy pack,” he said, and began to list the names. When the list of the dead in the three packs that had lost members was finished, he paused for a moment, then threw his head back and keened.

Nicole joined him an instant later, hearing her mother and cousins join in. The Fannon pack, led by Sheila and Dawn, joined at a very different key after a longer delay. The eerie notes harmonized in the air, seeming to shimmer and distort the picture of the restaurant. She felt the back of her neck tingle, and a sort of phantom impression of her fur stiffening along her back, although she was not shifted.

The howl phased out slowly, and she twisted to nuzzle Adam. His hands rubbed at her shoulders soothingly.

“Thanks, everybody,” Sheila said, after several moments. “We thank the mountains for leaving our children alive and wish the affected packs reconciliation with the earth soon.” There was a moment of quiet before she added, “How's the Blackwood damage look?”

“My daughter is the expert here,” her father said, looking to her.

Nicole swallowed. She hadn't been at a pack meeting in so long... she straightened slightly, feeling Adam's hands resettle cupping her hips. The contact was reassuring. She had his support, physically at least.

“Our territory's pretty heavily forested,” she began, “And because of that the damage wasn't as bad as it could be. The worst was on the northwest slope, by the road up, where there was the tree blight a couple decades back. The trees on that slope were all young, without extensive root structure, and they couldn't hold the soil together.” There was nodding, all around. “We're going to need to replant the whole slope again, and I think we should – since we're going to have to rebuild the road anyway, it would be best to relocate it some. Anywhere there's a slide there's a risk of it happening again, and the trees won't be big enough to protect against it for a long time coming.

“Apart from that, most of our buildings are intact. I had a look at the communal kitchen building, and while it's still standing, unfortunately the ground under the foundation was pretty badly affected. It should be safe to retrieve most of what's inside, but we're going to need to tear it down and rebuild somewhere else.

“Overall, we got off lightly, and I'd like to offer my services in deciding where to rebuild to the Fannon pack if they need it, and any others.” There should be representatives from some of them there, and the meeting summary would be emailed to all of the packs after so that they knew about the decisions being made.

“Thank you, Nicole,” Dawn Fannon said. “We're likely to take you up on that, especially if Adam is going where you go now.” She glanced meaningfully at them.

“Hmm?” Sheila had said something about his old job. She twisted in his lap to give him an inquisitive look.

He cleared his throat some. “Right. Most of the Blackwood pack doesn't know me, so – I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Adam Langley, I'm a first generation wolf. I used to be a ranger at one of the federal parks,” he added wryly, and noises of comprehension came around the table. Nicole glanced back at the table and saw Mary giving her an approving look.

“Anyway,” he continued, “I'm not a specialist in landslides or anything, but I got my bachelor's degree in earth sciences so I know a little more than the average guy. I guess Nicole's in my field, too?”

“I'm supposed to defend my dissertation in May,” she affirmed, taking a moment to be grateful the crisis had happened in her last semester. She could probably get an okay to leave for a month to finish up the degree she'd spent most of the last decade on. Years would have been iffy. “Geology stuff on the composition of the Catskills.”

It struck her for a moment that a lot of men didn't like being outsmarted by women in their fields, and she shot a slightly nervous look at Adam. What would she do if her mate rejected her? A minute ago she had been angry about having her choices constrained by the bond, but really, she had few enough other options. That was the problem with first generation wolves, really – you could get caught out for violating human
or
wolf norms.

She needn't have worried. He beamed. “You really are perfect,” he murmured against her hair, and she wriggled, imagining her wolf rubbing against his chest.

“Anyway,” Sheila said dryly, making them both jump and incurring snickering and a few yips. “My expert seems to be occupied, so I'll summarize our damage. We had two injuries, neither life threatening. Mark is home with a broken ankle, but Logan had to be taken to the hospital with a head injury. We're assured he'll be fine soon.” There was nodding around the table. “Most of the damage came when the pack meeting hall collapsed, during which time a meeting was in progress with the Blackwood pack. Tara Blackwood was also injured at that time.” She nodded to Nicole's mother, who smiled tightly back and squeezed her husband's hand.

“Two of the closest houses to that area have similarly had their foundations destabilized. The families are accommodated. We haven't had any slopes totally deforested like the Blackwood pack, but there's some damage to fence lines in the pastures that needs to be fixed, and we're still determining which of the fields are safe for livestock.”

Adam was playing with her hair again. Nicole drifted out slightly as the alphas of both packs discussed repair work and the lending of members with related skills. She could do threat assessment, but construction wasn't really her thing.

She guessed Adam must be bored, too. Nicole wished she could twist around and look at him, but as the adult heir she really should at least pretend to be putting her father's words about how long it would take to get houses raised for the two temporarily homeless families, and then the communal buildings for both packs, if they all pitched in to mind. Instead, though, she found herself thinking about the heat of Adam's chest pressed into her back, and the
very distracting
way he was fidgeting with her curls. Her wolf wanted to curl around him and never move again.

She imagined the hands in her hair, not stroking and playing but grabbing, pulling her around. She imagined them lower on her body and his lips on her neck instead. She didn't usually let people kiss or touch her neck, but for Adam she might make an exception. Her mate would never really hurt her, and she didn't have to assert dominance against him.

Nicole would be free to let him not just kiss her throat, but sink teeth into it while his hands slid under her skirt or down her ass. She imagined being pinned like that, unable to escape the grip of his teeth or hands, and bit her tongue to make very, very sure she would not whimper at an inappropriate time.

It was a great relief to Nicole when the meeting wound down.

“On a happier note,” her father said, standing, “I'd like to ask everyone to welcome my daughter and heir, Nicole, home.” He was greeted by a chorus of barks, yips, and at least two howls from the back of the bar. Nicole threw her head back and let out her own howl, greeting the pack again. She felt her wolf's pleasure in her mind, much less mixed than her own; to the wolf, they were home after a long and stressful parting. Why had they even left in the first place? Now that they were back, they had a mate and could settle down and start having pups.

Nicole shut that thought down rapidly. The cacophony of canine greetings was quieting enough to let her father speak again. “Nicole will be going back to school for the next month to finish up her degree, but after that she's home for good – and in other excellent news, she seems to have found her mate wandering in the parking lot here.”

This got
another
group of entirely human howls. Nicole glared furiously at them. A bark at the one closest to her got him to flinch back and quieted most of them – or at least the offenders old enough to remember her and the way she bit when she was mad.

“I think that's all,” her father said. “Thanks for coming everyone. The food's on the alphas as usual, so someone go get the waitress and let's eat!”

The fact that her family was dying to interrogate Adam was obvious, but Nicole managed to deflect the worst contenders by staying in his lap, ordering half a cow in steak and furiously digging into it, complete with occasional snarls when her mother or cousins tried to redirect her from food or talk to her at all.

“I don't remember you being this territorial over food,” Mary commented, leaning over. “Maybe we all should chip in and send you to obedience classes when you're done with grad school.”

“I don't remember you being this loud,” Nicole sniped back, “Maybe we should all chip in and buy you a bark collar.”

“
Ouch
,” Adam muttered into her hair. “You two always like this?”
“No,” Nicole said. “
You
can have some. You're allowed to share,” she added, passing up a fry over her shoulder. He took it from his fingers and then kissed them lightly.

“Oh, look, she's relaxing her food guarding ways. It must be true love,” Mary said.

Nicole kicked her under the table, but sat up some, finished with the first steak. “Are you ready for the hot seat?” she asked Adam.

“Depends. Will there be pliers?” He smiled crookedly back. “How about a single, uncovered light bulb?”

“We'd just use our teeth, dear,” Nicole's mother replied. “But I'm sure that won't be necessary. Nicole, really, were they feeding you at all at that school? You don't
look
starved.”

“Just hungry, Mom,” she said. “It's been a while since I've spent much time shifted.”

She got a disapproving look that told her what her mother thought of that, and decided to take another steak fry instead of arguing.

Adam ran his hands over her shoulders lightly. “So what do you want to know, Ms. -- um, sorry, Tara. I'm still not totally used to the manners in human form.”

“The wolf part is the really important one,” Mary said, twisting to sit cross legged in her chair, facing them. “How long have you been with us again?”

“I've been with the Fannon pack about a year, but I've been a wolf for three.”

“Where were you before that?” Nicole's mother asked.

“Honestly, I was kind of... drifting. I was a park ranger in Yellowstone when I got bitten -- after that I couldn't really keep my job. I had to take a ton of sick days, and my boss finally sat me down and said that I should apply for disability, since I was obviously traumatized from the attack.” He shifted uncomfortably -- she felt the movement against her back and pressed into him.