Alpha’s Challenge

  The French envoy called the match and Warren’s body was left there, disgraced, as Cade explained to them what had happened. For a wolf to cheat, especially after he’d already disgraced himself by violating the Palaver and was the reason for war, he’d pay the price. His body was carefully removed after Grace had a blood sample taken and put away. They’d take it, burn it and scatter it at the dump.

  Her parents were taken into custody but she didn’t bother to ask what would happen. Cade had been surrounded by people since he’d been declared the winner and she needed him.

  She pushed her way through and when she got to him, simply wrapped herself around his body and held on as he held her and finished up his business.

  * * *

  Cade saw her break, saw her weeping and relieved, watched his parents comfort her as Lex had moved down to the ring. He’d held everyone off until he stepped into the holding area and took a quick shower, wanting to get any potentially infected blood off his body.

  The two brothers embraced but he’d still noticed Grace giving orders to get a blood sample from Warren’s body. In fact, she’d looked over the corpse carefully even as Cade had answered questions about the virus and Warren’s actions. Right as he’d finished, he noticed her removing something from his hands and slipping it into a bag.

  God help him, he couldn’t hide his reaction when she’d snapped off the latex gloves and tossed them into a garbage bag she’d then ordered Dave to be sure got burned.

  And when she’d pushed her way through a throng of male wolves all well over six feet and grabbed him, he’d just held her, needing her as much as she’d needed him.

  They’d gone back to Gabe’s condo afterward. She’d really wanted to change into a track suit but put on a very nice dress instead, knowing she’d have to deal with werewolf politics.

  Before that, she’d used the lab equipment Templeton had sent over and saw her suspicions were correct. She’d present the information that night when they went to the National Pack House.

  She hadn’t seen much of Cade since they’d returned. The War Council had met and were essentially wrapping up hostilities. Once the wolves associated with Warren had been exposed and shamed, they’d given up. Their lands and territory were even then being redistributed. Pack members would have the chance to swear fealty to the new governing Pack or leave, and Pellini-allied Pack leadership was being dealt with. Most would be shunned but some would face a worse fate. Grace decided not to think about that.

  The war was over. Her baby would grow up in a world that was safe and she could do her job, go back to being a doctor and not have to be followed by ten wolves at all times.

  “You okay, Grace?” Tracy asked her when she came downstairs. “Gabe just made sandwiches, here, sit.”

  “I wanted to thank you for letting us use your place.” Grace sat. Gabe pushed a plate in front of her and she automatically began to eat.

  “It was our pleasure to be able to give you shelter at such a time. You know, I understand you’re looking for a place where you can live alone with Cade but have guards housed nearby. I own this building and I leased it to National. It would make us very happy to offer it to you and Cade.”

  “I think the bedroom right next to the master would be perfect for a nursery. It’s secure, there’s a guard station on the first floor and on the roof and the other guards could live here. Right now only two of the condos are occupied, one of them is Jack’s. He moved in after we left for Portland.” Tracy poured a huge glass of milk and gave it to Grace.

  “Really?” Grace had been instantly enamored of the place. She’d loved the view, loved the sleek elegance of the building and the old-world class of the neighborhood. It was plenty big, although it might be nice to take over the whole floor.

  “I can see you’re already planning.” Gabe laughed. “I spoke to Cade and he said to bring it up to you. You two talk and we’ll go from there.”

  Cade finally came in and moved straight to her, picking her up and kissing her as if he hadn’t seen her for weeks. She held on, luxuriating in his taste, in knowing they had forever.

  “Hi. That’s a welcome.”

  He put her back down and nodded at the plates and everyone at the table.

  “The war is over, boys and girls. Yellowstone, acting as the Pellini-allied representative, signed the agreement and I believe it’s truly over.”

  “How are you feeling? Any lingering effects from the virus? I checked your blood, you show no traces at all.” She’d breathed a sigh of relief at that. She’d held off on giving herself the vaccine when she’d inoculated Cade and now that she was pregnant she wanted to wait. But if he’d become a carrier it would have been a tricky thing.

  “Fine. Better than fine. I still can’t figure out how he infected me though.”

  “Ah! I can answer that.” She got up and went to the mini-lab she had set up in the downstairs office and brought back a vial.

  “I was watching, it was when you transformed back that time and had your arm at his throat and were choking him. He scratched you. Do you remember? That’s when he infected you. You fell back right then.”

  Cade thought for a moment and nodded. “Exactly. But he didn’t have any jewelry on and by that time he was naked. And he wasn’t infected because when I bit him he got infected and was dying when I snapped his neck.”

  She gently shook the vial and it made a gentle clinking sound. “He had this under one of his fingernails. A small injector, with a reservoir in it. It had been imbedded in his nail bed, which is why it stayed when he took his wolf and then changed again. All he had to do was hit it just right and it would have released the virus through the needle. He appeared to scratch you and then he jumped back. He was waiting for you to die but not getting close enough for you to grab at him. You surprised him when you transformed like that.”

  “That’s some heavy-duty spy-type shit,” Gabe said and she nodded.

  “That’s exactly the kind of place you’d expect to see this sort of thing.”

  “Are you okay?” Cade asked her. “We need to go to the Pack House. If you’re okay with me taking over as Supreme Alpha that is. You know, Templeton can stay on and I’m sure Lex will let me have my old job back.”

  “I told you a week ago, and a week before that, and before that, I accept it. My place is beside you in all things, Cade. If fate means for us to lead here, we’ll do it. And our child will come into a world we’ve made better.”

  “I’m so lucky.” He kissed her again.

  “You are. Now let’s go.”

  The streets around the Pack House were filled with cars and inside it was wall-to-wall werewolves. When Cade and Grace entered, all heads bowed and then applause and howls broke out.

  Templeton, with his wife, Carla, at his right and Jack at his left, waited for them in the main living room.

  “Are you ready, Cade Warden? Are you ready for the leadership of the wolves on this land to fall to you and your mate?” Templeton asked.

  “I give all I have and all I am to my wolves.” Cade got to his knees.

  “I give all I have and all I am to my wolves.” Grace followed.

  Templeton sliced his palm with a sharp knife. The metallic scent of blood filled the air. Carla took the knife and did the same. Their mixed blood hit a small chalice of earth, symbolic of the nation of wolves.

  They stepped back. “We’ve given ourselves and now fade away so that a new Alpha may reign.”

  Cade helped Grace up and sliced his hand open and Grace followed. Their blood hit that same earth and the magic of that action, the magic of their intent crackled through the room and suddenly she felt it. Felt the lives of wolves for miles and miles.

  At first it was frightening but slowly, as Cade held her with one arm around her shoulders, it settled into place.

 
“I feel my nation and I take them as my own. May I always do honor as their leader.” Grace repeated the words and it was over.

  The party went on into the very late hours of the night until Carla tucked Grace up into one of the spare bedrooms in the Pack house. Dave settled in a chair nearby. He’d decided to come to Boston with them to stay as her guard. Megan would be the new Enforcer of Cascadia.

  Cade came in as the sun rose and woke Dave. Cade carried his sleeping mate to the car and they drove back to the condo. Tracy and her men had gone back to Portland and the place was all theirs. Dave took the place just across the hall and a full guard regiment passed from Templeton to them and were in place in the office downstairs and would be twenty-four hours a day. Monitors, movement sensitive alarms and sniper positions would guard them and keep them safe.

  Epilogue

  A year later

  “Hurry up! She’s asleep and I’m so horny I’m going to die if you don’t touch me.” Cade closed the door to Becca’s room and tossed his clothes as he approached his very beautiful and demanding wife.

  “Naked and horny, my favorite combination.”

  She laughed and opened her arms. And he went where he belonged.

  Her hair had gotten longer and he freed it from the loose braid. It fell down around her face and shoulders like fine silk, her scent hitting him in a way only she had the power to.

  He kissed her. Took her mouth, owned her, possessed her and feasted. Teeth and lips, tongue against hers as her gentleness made way for his ferocity. She gave him what he needed, her hands held his head, keeping him in the kiss until he was drunk with it.

  She pushed and rolled him, straddling his body. “I can’t wait. I don’t want to wait.”

  “I wanted to go down on you,” he said in a growl.

  “You can later, after.”

  He let her have her way with him, watching the sweet line of her body as she reached around and grabbed his cock and thrust herself down on it.

  Sensation rushed through him, nearly blinding him as the tight, hot silk of her cunt gripped him.

  “That never fails to feel so fucking good I think I may die.” He caressed up the curve of her hips, over the flat again belly, even just months after Becca’s birth. She’d joked about wanting to find a way to bottle werewolf metabolism and make a billion dollars. But he’d loved her body when she’d been heavy with their daughter as much as he loved it now.

  He found her breasts, marveling at their shape and sensitivity as he always did.

  She made the sounds that drove him wild as she began to ride his cock, her nails slightly digging into his ribs as she held on.

  He fell into their link, lazing through the heady pleasure they both felt. Even tired, he wanted her every moment. He wasn’t going to rush through now that they had the time alone.

  She dragged it out, keeping her rhythm slow and steady.

  “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, Grace. You make every day worth living.”

  Her eyes, glazed with pleasure, cleared as she looked down into his face with a surprised, but pleased smile. “Cade, I love you. I don’t think I even had much of a life before you came into it.”

  He slid a hand between them and found her clit, brushing his fingertip over it slowly, just a feather-light touch.

  Her body tightened slowly as he drew closer and closer. When she came, he held back so he could watch the transformation of her features. “So gorgeous when you come around my cock.”

  “Now you,” she gasped.

  And after he came and had laid her down, he spent long minutes kissing her. Taking her lips and across her jaw. She arched and he took the invitation to kiss down her beautiful neck and over her collarbone, stopping to feast on the hollow of her throat. Her breasts, her nipples and the enticing curves below beckoned as did each rib, the hollow of her belly, the rise of each hip bone—all drew his lips, all gave him a different taste of his wife, his woman.

  He coaxed her with whispers and caresses and her thighs parted. Pressing his lips at the hollow behind each knee, he moved to her center, opened the folds of her pretty pink pussy up and gazed. Feasted his eyes on the part of her that’d sheltered him half an hour before.

  Long slow licks, he took her slow and with great care. He tasted every part of her cunt, the line of each curve and dip, loving her responses.

  She came in a hot rush, and afterward, he simply rested with his head on her thigh as she sifted her fingers through his hair in that calming way only she had and he closed his eyes against the overwhelming goodness of that very moment. His wife in his bed, his child in the room next door and his people all thriving.

  * * * * *

  Read on for a sneak preview of BONDED PAIR, the next book in New York Times bestselling author Lauren Dane’s CASCADIA WOLVES series.

  Chapter One

  Dear God, kill me now. Megan Warden pretended to sleep rather than engage with her insane mother and listen to her prattle on and on about men, children and pregnancy as she had for the last seven hours. Seriously, the military should look into using Beth Warden for interrogation. No terrorist could ever hold up under this stuff.

  “I was telling Grandma, there are going to be many single wolves at this event, Megan. Who knows who you might meet,” her mother repeated for the thousandth time.

  Megan kept her head down, her chin against her chest and tried to regulate her breathing. She’d been drinking “special” coffee all day long but werewolf physiology meant the alcohol wore off relatively soon.

  So her mother continued talking, knowing Megan wasn’t really asleep but Megan kept pretending anyway. Oh the little games you play with family.

  “You can’t hide under those dark glasses forever,” Layla cracked from her place next to Megan. They hurtled down the road in the huge SUV her older brother Lex had arranged for them. She’d taken the farthest row back, hoping her mother and grandmother would get into the other car in this caravan of horrors but no, they both decided to ride in this one.

  “Shut the fuck up. You’re married and you’ve bred. You’re the freaking golden child.” She kept her head down and her voice low but they’d hear her anyway. Damned wolves.

  “Megan, did you just say the F word?” Her grandmother tsked at her. She had a twinkle in her eye as she said it, proving she was just as much a Warden as the rest.

  “She started it.” Megan knew she sounded petulant but she was past doubting her sanity, and full throttle into cursing her life.

  Tracy snorted out a laugh and not for the first time, Megan wondered why in the hell she’d agreed to take a road trip to a wedding with her mother, grandmother and her married sisters.

  Because she was the Enforcer of the Cascadia werewolf pack and it was the only way Lex would agree to them going without a full escort of armed wolves. As it was, Dave, her cousin and her sister-in-law Grace’s personal bodyguard, was there in the car behind them along with two other guards.

  And okay, so she did love her family, and her sisters were all in from out of town and she didn’t see them nearly often enough. On paper, conceptually, it sounded like fun to hang out with the Warden women for a week or so.

  Stuck in a car with them for hours on end? Not so much with the fun.

  “Can we stop sometime soon? I have to pee.” Tracy ran a hand over her belly and smiled at Megan. “Maybe she’ll stop for a few minutes.” She winked and Megan rolled her eyes.

  “We should be stopping for the day at some point anyway. Tracy has got to be uncomfortable and Grandma needs to rest.” Beth turned around in the seat. “Oh you’re awake now!” she said when she caught Megan with her eyes open.

  Damn. The woman was diabolical.

  “I think we should at least get to the California border before we stop. And I’m fine. I’m ju
st pregnant for goodness sake. But dinner would be nice. I’m hungry.” Tracy’s lips quivered, barely holding back laughter.

  That suggestion met with enthusiasm and Tegan called out that she’d pull over in the next town.

  * * *

  Their noisy group took over pretty much the entire small town Oregon restaurant. Megan wanted to laugh at the picture they all made. Boisterous, happy, all of them emanating that vibrant otherness Weres seemed to.

  “Why are you bogarting the catsup?” Tegan demanded.

  “Just to annoy you apparently.” Megan shoved the bottle at her sister with a smirk. She looked back over to her mother, pasting sincere-looking concern on her face. “You know, you might be more comfortable in the other car with Dave. You can feel the road more in our car I think. You and Grandma both.”

  Dave kicked her but it was every werewolf for herself.

  Nina laughed from down at the other end of the table but didn’t offer her opinion on the matter. Better for her anyway as Megan was her bodyguard as well as the pack Enforcer. One suggestion from Megan to Lex about Nina’s safety and suddenly her sister-in-law would have to go everywhere with three bodyguards.

  “Well, aren’t you sweet? But we’re fine. We’ll be stopping for the night soon enough and I don’t get enough chance to visit with Grace and Tegan now that they’re on the other side of the country.” Her mother smiled, patting Megan’s hand.

  She’d go in the other car herself but with Grace and Nina along, that was two Alphas, including the Supreme Alpha, so as the Enforcer, Megan needed to be there. Gah.

  “Here, Beth, have I shown you the pictures of little miss I’ve-got-my-daddy-wrapped-around-my-finger? Last month we took her for her first haircut and I think Cade might have cried.” Grace, her sister-in-law and current savior, grinned at her before turning her attention back to Beth. “I know he baked two dozen cookies when we got home.”

  The pictures began to circulate from several directions and Beth eased back, happily engrossed in her grandbabies. For the moment, Megan let herself relax and enjoy the people who vexed and charmed her most in the universe.