Kitty Rocks the House

  Well, it was the only thing I knew how to do, really. “So, what are you doing? You think you can do a better job? You calling me out?”

  “You’re the one who brought it up, not me.”

  Ben started to lunge, but I stood and braced against him, stopping him. An aggressive response might have been instinctive, but it showed weakness, showed Darren that he could get to us. Never mind if any of what he said was true. This was all about appearances. This didn’t look too good.

  I had an urge to attack him myself, really. I imagined the taste of his blood on my tongue, his flesh parting at the touch of my teeth. My heart burned with the thought, but the sound of voices calmed me. The manager in back, talking to the cook who was scraping the grill. This was the human den, the human place, where people sat in chairs, ate with forks, glared at each other across the table and didn’t throw punches, no matter how much they wanted to. This wasn’t the place for a fight. Not Wolf’s kind of fight. Surely I had that much control. I would not start a fight here.

  “You can’t have Denver,” I said, startled at how petulant my voice sounded. I didn’t sound strong, but like a whining child, and this all felt like it was happening to someone else. I watched myself glare at him. I radiated challenge. But that was Wolf, not me.

  Ben broke away from me, but didn’t get any farther than leaning across the table, teeth bared. Darren stood, knocking the chair back to the floor, mirroring the glare and snarl.

  “You going to start something?” Darren said, eager.

  “There will be no fighting in my restaurant,” I said. Not that I could stop them if either one of them decided to cross the table.

  “Yeah,” Darren said, chuckling. “That’s what I thought. You don’t have it in you.” He walked away, flicking his hand in a way that made me think I was the one being dismissed.

  Ben rushed him, and I grabbed his arm, held him back. Somehow, I stopped him. Maybe because I was trembling and close to losing it. My husband curled back to hold me, turning his startled gaze on me, searching for what was wrong. That was what stopped him: I was about to melt, and he paused to take care of me rather than fight the challenger. I leaned into him.

  At the front door, Darren paused, waiting for Becky to scramble to his side. She hesitated, looked over her shoulder at me staring back at her—and she didn’t turn away. Her gaze, her stance, held determination. Challenge. Then they were gone.

  Wolf trembled in my gut. Standing in disbelief, I didn’t know which of them I was more angry at. I wanted to murder them both. I almost ran after them, as if murder were not only a viable option, but something I could accomplish. And wouldn’t get prosecuted for when I was discovered on the streets of downtown after midnight next to two eviscerated bodies.

  Ben lowered me into the chair. I was shaking, trying to hold Wolf in, trying not to howl in fury. If Shaun had been managing tonight, if any of the other werewolves had been here, I might have. They would have understood.

  “Kitty,” Ben said, kneeling in front of me, holding my face, making me look at him. Bringing me back to myself. I pulled him into an embrace and felt better. He spoke in my ear, “Why didn’t you let me murder the bastard?”

  “Because we can’t fight.”

  “Of course we can, we’re werewolves. We’ve both fought, we can take him. We can take both of them right now. We have to—”

  “I don’t know if I can do this anymore, Ben.”

  His frown made him look suddenly old, furrowed and worried. “What do you mean?”

  It was a crossroads. I could walk away from everything. Flee Denver, like I had before. “You’re always saying that if I really want kids, if we want to adopt a kid, then I can’t keep on with all this, can I? Secret meetings with vampires, battling an international conspiracy, leading a werewolf pack. If I gave it all up, we could have a house, kids, a normal life—”

  “You don’t mean that.”

  Oh, but for a moment I did mean it. I could shed it all like a skin. All those people looking to me for answers, me standing tall and declaring that I actually had them. I was tired of it, and the thought of being just Kitty, lowly werewolf making do, made me feel light-headed. Giddy. And the kids thing—I still had hope, though I tried not to think about it. Werewolf physiology—shape-shifting—meant I couldn’t have a baby, but I had other options for having children. What would it be like, to explore some of those options, without feeling like I was dragging some poor kid into a war?

  Could I really walk away from the life I’d built?

  Ben was still talking. “It means leaving Denver. Your family, my family, the restaurant, everything. Is that what you want? If it is, I’ll back you.”

  And if I stayed and fought, he’d back me then as well.

  I drew myself close and kissed him. Nice, long, rich, wonderful. He tasted of beer. His muscles relaxed under my hands, and his responding touch gave me strength. I could straighten my back again, and square my shoulders.

  Reluctantly, I pulled away, but stayed close enough that my breath brushed him when I spoke. “Darren’s making a bid for the pack, and he’s got Becky on his side.”

  “And who knows who else? He’s had to have been planning this.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “But I don’t think he realizes the job he’s taken on. He can’t have gotten to everyone. He’s assuming he only has to take out us two, then he and Becky step in as alpha pair.”

  “That’s a really big assumption. He takes out us two, he has to deal with Cormac.”

  I smiled. That was only one of our aces in the hole. “He doesn’t know that. He’s only thinking about you and me. The thing is, he just might be able to take us out in a fair fight.”

  He huffed, indignant. “I wouldn’t make that assumption.”

  “It’s okay. Moot point. Because we’re not leaving—and we’re not going to fight.”

  Chapter 15

  SATURDAY MORNING, back at the condo, we called everyone. It was an attempt at an end run. Darren had convinced Becky that she could be alpha, that they could be the alpha pair together. But I had a feeling he was working top down. Becky was the strongest, most eligible woman in the pack, and she’d been perfectly willing to be wooed—this was the only way she could move up in the pack, and her wolf must have thought that was a good idea. Darren thought Becky was all he needed to convince everyone else. But if we had a chance to warn people, they’d never stand with him. Becky had to know this.

  Never mind what Rick would think of a takeover of the Denver pack. I liked to think he’d side with us and help us keep it from happening, if it weren’t for the fact that he was a bit preoccupied at the moment. Darren had never even talked to Rick, as far as I knew. Either way, I couldn’t count on Rick or his Family to pull us out of this fire. We could do that on our own. And if we couldn’t, we didn’t much deserve to lead the Denver pack, did we?

  Darren worked top down. I worked from the bottom up, just like I always had. I called my pack members, told them what was happening, asked them to stand with me. Every single one of them said yes.

  Shaun did more than that. “I should have seen this coming. The way he latched onto Becky—”

  “I’m not entirely sure what to do about her,” I said. She had been with us since the beginning—she was the second wolf after Shaun to leave the old alphas and follow me.

  “She wouldn’t turn on us, not her.” His very decisiveness hinted at his uncertainty.

  “I’ll find out, one way or another.”

  “I can take on Darren. Track him down in some dark alley. The problem will just go away.” I imagined him making a gesture in the air, a flick of his fingers.

  “I appreciate that. But I want to do this in the open, so there isn’t any question. I’m trying to build a reputation here.”

  “You face him down, maybe some of these foreign vampires will take you seriously?”

  “I’m that transparent, huh? Darren’s a friend of Nasser’s. This’ll get back to him.”
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  “Whatever you decide to do, I’ll back you.”

  “Good,” I said. This was my pack, not Darren’s, and I’d just proven it.

  The hardest call to make was to Trey. All the help I hadn’t been giving him, and now here I was, asking for backup. The nerve of me. I thought about not calling him at all—he didn’t need to be worrying about me. But he was pack, and leaving him out would be the worst thing I’d done yet.

  “Kitty?” he said, answering his phone.

  “Hey, Trey? Couple of things. First off, you’re right, I haven’t been around like I should be, and I’m sorry. You needed help and I wasn’t there. I’m going to do better. I’d like to have lunch sometime and talk about Sam, but I’m in the middle of a crisis right now. That’s the second thing.”

  “Kitty,” he said. “You’re always in the middle of a crisis. But it’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

  “I really haven’t forgotten about you, honest.”

  “I know. But seriously, it’s taken care of. Everything’s good.”

  I furrowed my brow, bemused. “It is? Well, that’s great. I guess.”

  “More than great. Sam … she said yes. We’re engaged.” He sounded astonished and giddy.

  “Oh my gosh, that’s great. See, you don’t need my help at all.” I might have felt a tiny bit conflicted about that.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t say that. You know what turned her around?”

  “What?” Maybe I could take notes for the next time this came up. God, I hope this never came up again, not like this. But please let him not say talking to Darren is what helped him.

  Trey said, “I gave her a copy of your book. The one about being a werewolf.”

  My first book, a memoir called Underneath the Skin, had done pretty well for itself. This was a use for it I hadn’t considered. I hesitated, astonished. “Wow. That’s … that’s kind of crazy. But I’m glad.”

  “She said it helped her see my side of it, and helped her explain to me what was bothering her. We must have talked about it all day.” He went on like that, waxing poetic about Sam and how amazing she was, his voice going all dreamy. I heartily approved. I almost forgot about the main reason I’d called.

  “She wants to meet you,” he said, proudly.

  “And I want to meet her, definitely. But I’ve got another problem right now—Becky and Darren are challenging for leadership of the pack.”

  He paused a beat. “What?”

  Yeah, exactly. I explained, and he said, simply, “I’ll kill him. Just point me at him.”

  That’s my pack … “I’m hoping that won’t be necessary. We’ve got a plan brewing.”

  Trey promised to side with me when the time came. We could do this, we really could.

  The last person I called was Becky.

  Her phone shunted me to voice mail, which I expected. I couldn’t imagine what she thought when my name came up on her caller ID. “Hi, Becky,” I said in a suitably cheerful voice that probably came out sounding saccharine and evil from her perspective. “This is Kitty. Of course it is. I’d really like to talk to you. You know how it is with me and the talking. No pressure, no strings attached, just talking in a well-lit public place. I’ll keep calling until you feel compelled to pick up the phone. Just to warn you.”

  I called again ten minutes later. Then ten minutes after that. On the sixth call, she answered.

  “What?” she’d said, sounding like a kid who’d gotten caught stealing gum.

  “Not over the phone. I want you to look me in the eye when you explain to me why you think screwing me over is a good idea.”

  “I don’t have to do that,” she said sharply.

  “Nope, you sure don’t. I just want you to ask yourself how Darren’s little coup is likely to succeed when it’s you two standing on one side of the fight and me and the rest of the pack standing on the other.”

  She only hesitated a beat. “He says the others will follow him. When they see how much stronger he is, how much more experienced. Kitty, you know you aren’t cut out for this, you never were, and with all the traveling and all this stupid vampire politics—”

  “Becky. You know this pack. Who are they really going to listen to, him or me?” She didn’t seem to notice that I hadn’t actually said Darren was wrong on anything he’d said about me. He may have been right. But he’d severely misjudged my response to the situation. He assumed I’d fold. Because I wasn’t a “born alpha.” To hell with that.

  Her voice cracked a little. “If there really is going to be trouble with the vampires, we’ll need someone strong, like him.”

  “And you?”

  “I’m strong enough.”

  “Yes, I know,” I said. “Which is why we’re going to talk about this.”

  “Talking isn’t going to help—”

  “Says you.”

  “Kitty—”

  “Now you’re going to tell me I’m being naïve, unrealistic, that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, and I’m setting myself up for failure.”

  She didn’t say anything to that. Score a point for me.

  “The diner on Sheridan. Can you meet me there in a couple of hours?”

  “I’m not sure—”

  “Come on, yes or no. You want to come talk to me, or are you chicken?” I didn’t think that would actually work, but it couldn’t hurt.

  “Fine. I’ll be there.” Still sounding like a pouting kid. Which meant I was still alpha, at least for now.

  I donned the insufferable perkiness of a morning talk show host. “Great! Looking forward to it! I’ll see you there!” I clicked off the phone before she could respond.

  Ben was watching me from the other end of the sofa. “You got her, but will she listen to you?”

  “That, I don’t know. I hope so.”

  “Yeah,” he said, unconvinced.

  Because if we couldn’t talk her out of the coup, we’d have to drive her out of Denver. At the very least.

  * * *

  BECKY WAS already at the diner when Ben and I got there. An attempt to gain the high ground. She occupied a booth and sat facing the door, so she’d see us as soon as we entered. And we’d see her.

  Ben and I made our plan before arriving. I went to Becky’s booth, and Ben waited by the door, arms crossed, staring at her. She couldn’t leave without getting past him. She’d have to sit and talk until I said she could go.

  I approached, and she stood. Again, to claim high ground, to avoid having to crane her neck back and look up at me from a weak position. All I had to do was stand and glare. To her credit, she matched my gaze, didn’t look away. She really was strong enough to lead the pack, I believed that. I just couldn’t let her do it while I was around. I wasn’t going to let anyone drive me out of the city again.

  “You’re not going to change my mind,” she said in a rush, another attempt to one-up me by getting in the first word.

  I stayed calm. I had all afternoon for this. “Have a seat,” I said, nodding at the booth. To press the point, I sat first. Conceding the ground because it didn’t matter to me—I was stronger, and I didn’t have to prove it.

  She sank into the seat opposite me. Looking deeply uncomfortable on the hard plastic, she perched on the very edge, hands folded on the table in front of her, shoulders bunched to her neck, jaw hard and her eyes like ice. Good. This wasn’t supposed to be comfortable. Though with both of us sitting like that, staring at each other like we were getting ready to arm wrestle in what was supposed to be a hip happy fun-time coffee joint, we were really out of place. Let people wonder.

  “Why are we here?” Becky said, her voice low.

  “I want to talk.”

  “No, I mean why are we here?” She gestured at the setting. “Why not New Moon? That’s where you usually do your talking.”

  I had a moment of doubt. Becky had been a werewolf longer than I had; she’d been part of this pack longer than I had. Where did I get off thinking I could boss her around? But I knew the
answer to that: she didn’t look at the big picture. She wasn’t in charge—couldn’t be in charge—because she didn’t care. She didn’t think ahead. Otherwise she would have known the answer to her question.

  “Because that’s my territory and I wanted to meet on neutral ground,” I said. “No, scratch that. Forget about the pack. I want us to have a normal conversation. Two people having coffee. Change of context. Got it?” She didn’t let her expression flicker, not a millimeter. I tried again. “I want to hash this out as people. Human beings. Without all the claws and blood.”

  “If you want to avoid that, you can just leave town. You and Ben both. Nobody has to get hurt.”

  Oh, she was trying so hard to be brave. Offering me the same deal I’d—me and T. J.—had tried to get from Carl, once upon a time. It hadn’t worked then. Didn’t Becky remember?

  I said, “What do you want, Becky?”

  “You know what I want,” she said, dodging.

  “You think you want to be alpha, right? With Darren? You don’t even know him.”

  “Neither do you.”

  “I’m not the one sleeping with him.”

  Her gaze dropped, only for a second before zeroing in on me again. A flash of weakness that made her blush. Wolves didn’t blush, that was the human side coming through. “He’s right, Kitty. You shouldn’t be alpha if you can’t even be here to lead.”

  They were going to keep beating me up with that, just like Cheryl did. But only if I let them, ha. “That’s a different issue entirely. One we can deal with separately. Right now I’m talking about you.”

  “I’m strong enough to be the alpha. Darren and me both.”

  “I never said you weren’t.” My smile felt absolutely rigid. Titanium hard. “I just want you to understand something. If we can’t work this out here, we have to fight. You and me, Darren and Ben. Same shitty cycle over again. I’m not going to leave, and it sounds like you’re not going to leave. If we can’t decide not to fight, then we’ll fight. But let me warn you: if I have to fight, I will win, because I’m fighting for me, Ben, my job, my family, my home. My whole philosophy and outlook on life. I’m fighting for everything I believe in—everything I’ve fought for up to this point. And what will you be fighting for? A guy you met a month ago? He’s cute, he’s got charm, and maybe he’s a great lay—and what else? Who do you think’s going to win that fight, Becky?”