Kristal Hollis - Captivated By The She-Wolf

Chapter 4

“It’s past quittin’ time.” Ronni tried to turn her grin into a frown as Rafe and Alex ducked their heads from beneath the car hood and stared wide-eyed at her with identical “oops” expressions.

“Rafe was showing me the guts of Brice’s Maserati.” Excitement flushed Alex’s handsome face. Every day, he looked more and more like his father.

Except his eyes. Those cobalt blues were a gift from Ronni’s maternal line. A gift that Rafe had also inherited.

Over the last year, Rafe had become like a brother to Ronni. And, at the very least, a favorite uncle to Alex. Rafe’s quiet strength and patience had helped steer Alex through the maelstrom of emotion the last year and a half had wrought. Alex was in a good place now.

So was she, until this morning.

When coming to Walker’s Run, they had nothing to lose and everything to gain. After receiving today’s letter from the Woelfesenat, the exact opposite was true.

“I meant to call,” Rafe said, cleaning his hands with the shop towel he drew from the back pocket of his gray coveralls. “I’m dropping off Brice’s car and I told Alex he could come along, if it’s okay with you.”

Blood pressure inching up, Ronni eyed the expensive sports car. “By come along, you mean as a passenger, right? Not the driver?”

“Mom!” Alex’s brow scrunched in tandem with a ferocious frown. “I do know how to drive.”

“My four cylinder.” Ronni swallowed the screech in her voice. The upcoming drama with Jeb paled in comparison to the thought of her son speeding along a narrow, crooked road, missing a sharp curve and sailing off the side of the mountain. “Not something with a rocket engine.”

“It doesn’t have quite that much horsepower.” Rafe snorted. “And I’m not crazy. I didn’t agree to let him drive.”

“Brice said I could and he’s the Alpha-in-waiting.”

“Brice isn’t your mother. I am.” She raised one eyebrow, her signal to Alex that the discussion was over.

Alex humphed resoundingly, indicating his compliance under protest.

“I’ll see you after school tomorrow,” Alex said to Rafe, then glanced longingly at the flashy car.

“We’re not leaving yet. It’s time for a family meeting with Rafe.”

“Let’s go inside.” Rafe punched the buttons on the wall. Motor humming, the bay doors descended slowly to close up the service area. He held open the interior door leading into the empty customer service lounge. Ronni and Alex followed him through the short hallway to the employee break room.

The layout of Wyatt’s Automotive Service was similar to Rafe’s first repair shop, which had burnt down in an industrial fire caused by the same deranged wolfan who had torched the home Rafe had given Ronni and Alex upon their arrival in Walker’s Run. Only Rafe’s new building didn’t have an apartment like the old one did. Of course, now happily mated and a new dad, Rafe no longer cared to sleep where he worked.

She and Alex sat at one of the round tables in the kitchenette. Rafe pulled three bottles of water out of the refrigerator. Alex accepted the one offered to him, but Ronni waved hers away. Anything in her stomach might come right back up.

Rafe sat in the chair directly across from Ronni, concern weighting his gaze. “Whatever is eatin’ at you, just spit it out before it chokes you.”

“Remember how we thought you were our only blood-kin?”

Nodding, Rafe swallowed a gulp of water.

“Well, Zeke had an older brother.”

“Uncle Jeb,” Alex announced. “Dad said he left the Pine Ridge pack and was killed in a bar fight before I was born.”

“That’s what we thought, hon. But I got a letter from the Woelfesenat.” She handed it to Rafe. “Jeb isn’t dead.”

Alex blinked and gave a slight shrug. “What do they want us to do? Let him live here? Like Rafe did for us when Dad died?”

“Jeb doesn’t need a place to live. He’s the Pine Ridge Alpha now.”

No emotion registered on Alex’s face. The loss of his father, relocation to a new pack, a devastating home fire and nearly losing Rafe, whom Alex idolized, in a deadly wolf fight... How much more could a teenage wolfling handle?

On the flip side, plenty of emotion flickered in Rafe’s laser-intense eyes. She didn’t need to explain the gravity of the situation to him.

“Well, he can’t be any worse than the last Alpha,” Alex said.

Oh, he certainly could. Jeb had been a terror in his own right. He liked to hurt people, something he learned from his abusive father. Jeb hated his sire and eventually put him down, but the fallen apple hadn’t rolled away from the tree in his case. Those violent seeds took root and Ronni doubted the years had wormed out those traits.

“The Woelfesenat said Jeb wants to get to know us.” Ronni’s brain silently screamed furious defiance and she had to force herself not to shake.

“When?” There was a cold edge in Rafe’s voice. Likely, he was sensing her outrage and his protective instinct had kicked in.

“Soon, I imagine.” The thought of running had crossed her mind more than once, but she had no doubt that Jeb would track them down. Better to face him in Walker’s Run where she had the protection of her pack. “I asked Brice to schedule a video conference with the councilman he knows.” The Alpha’s son was highly respected within the Woelfesenat and he had promised to do all he could to keep the situation from escalating. “I’ll know more after speaking with them.”

“If you want me to be there...” There was a pregnant pause.

“Of course I do.” Ronni’s heart squeezed. As the oldest male blood-kin in her family, he could make significant decisions concerning her and Alex, until she took another mate or Alex turned eighteen. However, Rafe allowed Ronni the freedom to make choices and act in her and Alex’s best interest without interference. “I’d appreciate the support.”

“Where do you think he’s been all this time?” Alex toyed with his empty water bottle.

Not dead and buried as she had believed. “I don’t want to imagine where he’s been or what he’s done. Jeb isn’t like your father, Alex. Your father was a good man. The only decent thing Jeb ever did was leave Pine Ridge.”

“Why did he go back?” Rafe leaned in his chair, arms crossed high on his chest, his default posture when mentally digging in his heels on an issue.

It warmed Ronni’s heart to know he really cared about them.

“I guess he finally heard about Zeke’s passing. Alex is now his only blood-kin.” And Ronni was the she-wolf Jeb had been dead-set on claiming, until Zeke beat him to it.

Finally understanding the significance of Jeb’s return caused the bright blue of Alex’s eyes to turn icy. “I’m not leaving Walker’s Run. If Uncle Jeb wants to see me, he can come here.”

Ronni would inform the Woelfesenat of the same. Both she and Alex had finally settled into a comfortable routine within the Walker’s Run pack. It wasn’t fair to uproot them because a stranger with a closer genetic relation to Alex had suddenly risen from the dead.

Regardless of wolfan law, she was Alex’s mother. It was her right to decide what was best for her son and that definitely wasn’t Jeb Lyles.

* * *

“What’s going on?” Stepping into the camper serving as their temporary residence, Bodie nearly choked on the tension between Willow and his mother, Mary.

“Enisi!” Willow ground out the Tlanuhwa word for grandmother. “She never lets me do anything fun!” Willow sat at the small dining table, her arms folded across her chest, an uncharacteristic, cross look on her angelic face.

Equally visibly vexed, Mary took a plate of food from the refrigerator and shoved it into the microwave.