Milton, her chocolate Labrador retriever, was happily waiting for her, watching out the front windows. Those big front windows looked out toward the Ballard Locks. The water could look green and murky, black and cold or bright blue and glittering beneath the sun depending on the day and the season. The small porch had a glider swing and plants that were tended to by Nina. Even in the cold of winter, she’d had colorful plants. Nina planted some stuff that looked like cabbages and they were a vibrant purple. Tracy had no freaking idea just what it was, but she couldn’t argue that it made the house look nice with a bit of color to break the monotony of the gray Seattle skies.
The house had been built in the forties. Architecture of that type was dying in the area, where old houses were being bought and demolished and new ones replaced them. She preferred the old-style charm of the place, the curved doorways and big common areas and small bedrooms. Heck, the house still had the original hardwood floors. Tracy had stripped them down and refinished them herself a few years before.
She smiled to herself as she unlocked the front door and turned the alarm off. It was hers, this place. Filled with memories of weekends walking to nearby Woodland Park Zoo and having picnics. Time spent digging in the dirt with her grandmother, planting bulbs each November. Her father’s life had been consumed with the Pack and her grandparents had been a more tangible part of her life than her parents had been for a very long time. More than a few nights of her life it had been her grandfather who’d tucked her into bed and her grandmother who’d baked the snacks for her classroom celebrations. Her mother had been miserable without the presence of her mate and had retreated into herself and into community work for a great many years. Until her father had handed over the leadership of Cascadia to Cade.
Shaking her head to dislodge the memories, she grinned instead at what greeted her. A big overstuffed couch sat across from the fireplace and currently held Milton, who was giving her his lopsided grin, tongue peeking through his front teeth. She rolled her eyes at him and laughed at the sight he made.
It was odd for her to have a dog. Some werewolves didn’t have animals because they felt owning animals was exploitative or they were uncomfortable that they too were close to dogs on some level. But Tracy had found Milton at the animal shelter when he was a puppy. She’d fallen in love with him immediately. Most people wouldn’t adopt a dog with three legs. But Milton sure wasn’t affected by it and she couldn’t find a reason not to bring the goofy dog home with her. She hadn’t regretted her choice once in the four years he’d been with her.
“Hey, dude.” She leaned down and smooched the top of his head. Suppressing a smile, she scratched behind his ears until he made that growly moan, nearly falling over because his one back leg thumped in response.
She laughed and opened up the back door to let him out, tossing his tennis ball for him. She knew the dog walker had been by but he did love a good run out there while she made dinner.
Tossing her coat and scarf on a chair, she put her bag on the hook and took a quick look in the mirror, running fingers through her hair.
The juxtaposition of the eyebrow ring and the row of piercings up each ear and that tiny nose and freckled face worked for her. Her grandma said she had an air of wicked innocence about her. Of mischief.
After a quick change into jeans and wooly socks, she poured food into Milton’s bowl and made sure he had fresh water and cooked up a quick stir-fry before she went out to Nina’s. She loved these quiet evenings when she wasn’t expected at the Pack house, time that was hers alone. She did admit to herself that it would be nice to have a man around. It wasn’t like she never dated. She’d just gotten out of a six-month relationship a few weeks prior. The problem was, wolves tended to not get into long-term relationships while they were younger and looking for a mate. She pitied the poor human men she’d dated. They’d gotten the scare of their lives once they’d met her family.
When her phone rang, she looked at the caller ID and was relieved to see it was Nina and not her mother. “Yo.”
“Articulate. All that money on a college education and that’s the best you can do? What am I going to do with you?” Nina said this dryly and it made Tracy laugh.
“What do you want, old woman?”
“Hmpf! Well, I was calling to warn you that we’ve just had a visit from a certain furry mother-in-law who mentioned stopping by your place, but if you have that attitude...”
“Crap!”
“Yes. Well. I hear that there’s a nice werewolf boy who’d love to take you to dinner at Canlis and woo you. Because, you know, if I’m not going to breed a few puppies for her for a few years, you have to.”
“Milton and I are on our way.”
“Bring a bag and stay over.”
Tracy grinned. “Okay, twist my arm. Thanks, old woman.”
“You’re welcome, dog girl.”
She hung up and slid into her sneakers. Quickly, she tossed her dirty dishes into the dishwasher before running to toss some clothes into a bag.
Going to the door, she whistled. “Milton? Let’s hit it. Wanna go for a ride over to Auntie Nina’s?”
Hearing Nina’s name, Milton barked and ran to wait by the front door, tail wagging gaily. Nina was as goofy as the dog and they got along famously.
She finally let out a relieved breath as they drove away from the house. She really had to deal with this situation with her mother or consider transferring Packs to keep from going insane.
* * *
Gabe Murphy looked at the contents of his suitcases and double-checked the orderly placement of shoes and underwear. His personal assistant was very good about such things. Because he traveled so often she knew exactly what he wanted and how he liked it. She called and checked on weather, made his hotel reservations and set up his meeting space. All the benefits of a wife without the responsibilities.
Looking at himself in the mirror above his dresser, he smoothed down his tie, tucked his shirt into his pants and ran fingers down his pleats. The man looking back at him had a small bit of salt-and-pepper at the temples of his caramel-brown hair. Deep brown eyes gazed back at him, fringed by sooty black lashes. He was tall even for a werewolf. But he hadn’t started off as a wolf anyway. He had been changed while a graduate student at Harvard nearly twenty years before. The wolf that attacked him was the son of a very prominent member in the National Pack. And when that wolf had visited him in the hospital it was with an offer to rise in the ranks of the National Pack structure in exchange for excellent grades, superior service to the Clan and his silence to the police, Gabe weighed his massive student loan debt, his lack of family connection and the chance at a high-paying job and a limitless future based on his performance and he jumped at the opportunity.
And he had risen. That wolf had become a father figure to him who taught him everything he knew about mediating. Through Harvard Law, the Pack had paid the bills and he’d learned. Three years before he’d stepped into the Mediator spot and loved every moment of it.
Usually he’d set up mediations in a third-party territory. The problem in this case was that the nearest Clan spaces were in Canada or California. In the end, he’d decided to hold meetings in Pacific’s territory. He chose Portland for a number of reasons, foremost was the relative power of Cascadia Clan. They were one of the most powerful Packs in the United States and far more powerful than Pacific. To level the playing field a bit, he wanted Lex Warden out of his comfort zone.
Border disputes between Packs weren’t uncommon at all. In this case, with Portland being the seat of Pacific governance, being so close to the border with Washington and Cascadia territory, things tended to bleed into each other. Most of the problems were with Cascadia wolves who worked and lived on the border of the territory. A simple expansion of a buffer zone should work to diffuse most of the tension.
He did hate to leave right at that
moment though. Trouble was brewing. He’d fielded several calls already that month from different National Pack members. Many were concerned about Warren Pellini’s hold on the vice president and various members of his staff. Truth was, Gabe was concerned about it too, and had quietly spoken to the Alpha about it. At the moment it was all he could do, and he didn’t want to be accused of plotting against the Second, so he would think on it while he was on the West Coast.
He read through the file on his way to the airport. He’d heard a lot about the Wardens and the Lawrences and was impressed with both Pacific and Cascadia. There’d been a bit of trouble some eighteen months before when a human had been attacked at the Cascadia Pack house and had managed to defeat their Third, who’d turned up dead with the Pellini family written all over it.
Gabe frowned. He disliked Warren Pellini intensely. The man was a toad and very bad for the image of werewolves. If the humans ever got wind of the very idea of a werewolf mafia it would set interspecies relations back decades.
* * *
Tracy bounded up the stairs from the garage and Milton blew past her and straight to where Nina was standing in the kitchen.
“Stinky!” Nina grinned and knelt down and hugged the dog. Straightening, she tossed him a chunk of cheese and tipped her chin at Tracy. “Yo, Stinky’s mom, what’s up?”
“I’ll just go put this in the guest room.” Tracy held up the bag. “Don’t steal my dog and don’t feed him tofu dogs, blech!”
“They’re tofu corn dogs and he loves them.” Milton barked to underline his love of the tiny corn dogs.
Cade wandered into the kitchen, distaste clear on his face. “Bad enough she’s got a three-legged dog, you’re feeding him those nasty things?”
“Shut up, fur butt. He’s just fine. Your steaks are on the grill as we speak so you don’t have to sully your oh-so-manly stomach with tofu pups.”
“Werewolves are not tofu eaters,” Lex said as he came into the room.
“Is that from the official how-to manual?” Nina raised her eyebrow at him. “And he’s not a werewolf, he’s a dog. I know there’s not a huge difference and you both have that blank, slightly dazed look around food, but still.”
Tracy snickered as she came into the kitchen and kissed Nina’s cheek. “Thanks for the heads-up. Close call.”
“She’s just trying to help. She wants you to be happy.” Cade drank a beer and checked the steaks on the large indoor grill.
“Yeah and isn’t it nice she hounds me instead of you?” Tracy dug in the fridge and pulled out a beer of her own.
“Well, that is a bonus. I’ve tried to put her on Nina and Lex. If they gave her grandchildren she’d really back off.” Cade grinned at Nina, who threw a pot holder at his head.
“If you think I’m going to breed a litter because your mother can’t join the garden club or whatever other women her age do instead of harassing her children, you’re all nuts. Lex and I will have children on our schedule. I would have been in a bigger hurry if you people hadn’t made me a werewolf. Now that I know I have nearly double the lifespan, I’m good. Anyway, I don’t know if I like the Pack enough to bring a child into it.”
Nina was still hurting that the Pack had stood by as she was attacked and nearly killed. It was her mission to make them all more democratic and a heck of a lot less bigoted toward humans. It was a sore spot and she didn’t want to have children who would be part of that hierarchy until she could feel better about it.
The room got quiet for a moment. It was an old argument. Lex got up and kissed the top of Nina’s head and hugged her, not knowing what else to do. He loved her and she was his and he kept hoping the situation would mellow over time.
“So when does the big bad Mediator come to town?” Tracy asked to change the subject. “This whole thing reminds me of the scene in La Femme Nikita when they bring in the Cleaner and everyone gets all freaked out and scared.”
“Ah, I was meaning to talk to you about that. He’s holding the mediations in Portland. You want to come down and help me? Nina is coming, and well, we all know how very good she is at holding her tongue and playing werewolf politics. I’d like your help in managing the paperwork. Nina, tongue firmly held—” Lex looked at his wife with narrowed eyes and she shrugged and tossed Milton a corn dog with a bit of mustard “—will be my eyes. She’s good at knowing when people are up to something. But I’d like someone who can help with the Pack politics. Cade will stay here but I get to bring three wolves and I’d like it to be you, Nina and Megan.”
“How come he’s not coming here?”
Cade plated up the steaks and carried them to the table, where they all went to sit down. Milton went to lie in the corner near the fireplace on his dog bed, sated with the food Nina had given him.
“He’s a mediator. He’s going to come in, tell Nick and me that we’re both full of shit, kick our asses and make us each give up something and work to find a solution. If he had it here, he’d be giving me a lot of power. Ours is the more powerful Pack by far. I get it. But I think it’ll be a relatively quick process too. We get along well with Pacific and it’s not a big deal to enlarge the buffer.”
“So why is Nina coming? I mean, no offense, I think traveling with Nina is a hoot and all. But if it’s a quick thing and you can trust the Lawrences and this Mediator, why have her sneaky-peeky eyes on them?”
Nina snorted. “A hoot? You go with that big vocabulary, teen wolf.” Tracy made a score mark in the air with a finger. “Anyway, my theory is that he doesn’t trust me to be here without him.”
“He’s afraid I’ll steal her away.” Cade smirked and Nina laughed.
“Dream on. Is it a crime to want to be with my mate and take advantage of hotel sex?”
Tracy put her hands up in surrender. “Ugh! That’s enough sharing, thanks. So okay, well, yes. I’m sure I can get Charity to deal with the store for a few days. When do we go?”
“Tomorrow, if you can work it.”
“Let me call her and see. You know we have to stay in a place where I can have Milton.”
Lex looked at the dog, who was now on his back, three legs in the air, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. “That dog isn’t firing on all cylinders.”
Nina smacked his arm. “Hey! He enjoys life. He’s a Lab, they’re all a bit goofy but he’s very smart, you know. You just underestimate him. You do that a lot for someone who is supposedly the Big Bad Enforcer. Take one look and dismiss.”
He grinned and kissed her hard. “You’re right, beautiful. I’m sure Milton is a genius. You were certainly a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Or a siren in librarian’s clothing.”
“You’re so going to get lucky.”
“Ugh. I’m going to go call Charity.” Tracy pushed away from the table and went into the office.
They finished dinner and Lex went to make calls while Nina and Cade cleaned up the kitchen.
“You’ll take care of him, right?” Cade asked quietly as the two worked side by side. “And Tracy too?”
She quirked up a smile and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. “Of course. Nobody is going to fuck them over on my watch. I promise.”
His hand stayed at her hip, thumb sliding back and forth over the exposed skin between her sweater and pants. Her heart sped up as it always did when he turned his attention on her like that.
Their connection through the tri-bond tied them together emotionally and physically, and because Cade and Lex were brothers, in many ways Nina was biologically close to being his mate too.
“I’m going to miss your smart mouth,” he murmured and stepped back before he did something monumentally stupid like lean in and kiss her.
She smiled, a bit of bittersweetness at the edges. There was so much there between them that would never be realized. Despite that, other than Lex, he was her heart and she love
d him as a friend and brother and as her Alpha, and a part that she tucked away loved him as a man. But she would never let that part free because Lex was her everything. He was what made her take every breath, her laughter and her annoyance and her safety and comfort. He was her other half.
“I’ll call you every day and bitch at you. I have a list, you know.”
He barked out a surprised laugh and turned on the dishwasher. “I bet you do. You call me if things get out of hand.”
She nodded and shrugged. She wouldn’t call without Lex’s input. Cade was her Alpha, yes, but she didn’t follow him blindly and she wouldn’t go around Lex, especially when it concerned his job. Nina knew that Cade didn’t mean it in that way, he just cared deeply about his siblings and his wolves, but it was not something she’d do.
“I’m going to go and pack. Lex is hopeless at it. Good night.” She put a hand up and pushed the hair out of his eyes and turned and left the room.
Cade leaned back against the counter and sighed, scrubbing his hands over his face. He knew she was not his. He’d never betray his brother, Nina or his Pack that way but god he wanted her.
“Hey.” Tracy walked into the room.
Cade looked around his hands at his youngest sister. She hopped up on the counter and looked at him, seeing it all. “Did you get things arranged at your store?”
“Yeah, Charity is going to handle it. You okay?”
He tousled those golden curls and cupped her cheek. “Yeah. I’m fine. You... I... Nina and I...”
“I know. Neither of you ever would. Lex knows that too. It’s hard with brothers sharing the tri-bond. Layla has feelings for her Anchor too. It’s a common enough thing. You’ll find your own mate and it’ll be easier.”
“I hope so. I’d like to find her. What about you?”
“Yeah, I’d like to find him. I want to share my life with someone and as an added bonus, Mom would have to move on to you, Megan and Tegan.”