Beast Within (Loup-Garou Series Book 3) Page 7

  Ben couldn’t agree with that statement, even if he knew his own aggression was an internal conflict that was no one’s fault but his own. He could agree Darren was not doing well under the stress. “Do you think he’s going to be okay?” he asked as he took his first shot, falling into the game without having to ask. The table was always open to the pack, and formal invitations were never needed for one of them to jump in with a pool stick and take a few turns.

  “I think if he gets enough sleep, he’ll be all right. We’ll have to keep an eye on him, though.” Dustin paused with a fascinated look on his face. “It’s strange that we’re not alphas and we have to look out for him now.”

  Dustin took his shot and leveled a stare at Ben that somehow made him more alert. He straightened at attention and waited.

  “We found out something interesting, though,” Dustin began. “Jacob had his scouts search the town and perimeter of Crestucky, and there’s no sign of the hunters.”

  Ben squinted. “Logan said he saw them at the school.”

  “And many other Devian students did too,” Dustin nodded. “None of them thought the police officer was a hunter. That particular officer is an actual member of the Crestucky police force.”

  “What about the dog barking at Logan and Katey?”

  Dustin blinked. “Dogs bark at us all the time, Ben.”

  Ben pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to comprehend the whole thing. “So, are you saying Logan was the wolf who cried hunter?”

  “It’s happened before. Not with Logan, but with other packs. Things turn out to be a false alarm sometimes.”

  “Y’all just evacuated almost a couple hundred loups-garous and their families over this!” Ben exclaimed, looking to Dustin in disbelief. “If there aren’t any hunters, what was it all for?”

  “We did get confirmation that hunters were in the county, just not Crestucky,” Dustin assured. “It might have only been a matter of time before the hunters arrived. If there’s an all-clear pronounced, then everyone will come back.”

  Ben couldn’t begin to imagine the kind of upheaval those families went through. Some had to quit their jobs, drop out of school, leave their friends behind, and for what? A hunch? An instinctual assumption? He could never rationalize through senseless commands or executive actions that affected a group of people on such a large scale. The military had failed to eradicate his common sense in that way.

  “Hey,” Dustin said as he walked toward Ben and slapped him on the back. “Don’t worry about it. Everything will work out, right? Can’t let all that bad juju get to you.”

  Ben nodded and set his pool stick against the wall. Dustin was completely right. If the families were ushered back, there was a good chance they could continue life as usual. Jacob and Darren had connections in town and jobs could be reinstated. Kids could bounce back and catch up on school work. Ben couldn’t think too much about it, or it would drive him nuts.

  “The food’s going to spoil,” he finally said. “Why don’t we call the kids down and eat something? That’ll help you too.”

  Dustin looked up and down the green felt pool table and relented. “All right. As long as we can bring the two love birds in on the game and we can be on a team,” he said, jerking his head toward the billiard table.

  Ben grinned and nodded. “I think we can settle on that condition.”

  Chapter Five

  The pack sat at the dinner table that night for the first time since the beginning of the week. The usual talkative group ate silently. No one made eye contact or even showed the least bit interest in starting a conversation, except for Katey.

  She and Logan had spent the afternoon together, marinating in one another’s company and making up for lost time while he was away. Mostly they napped together in Katey’s bedroom, both exhausted beyond what should have been allowed for loups-garous. Logan showered and washed away the dirt and grime from the mission shortly before coming to join the others in the dining room. Katey didn’t mind in the least that her sheets were now soiled by his filthy clothes. She was too absorbed in holding him in the way that drove him mad with desire.

  The sun was close to setting outside and cast a tawny glow over the room, making it just bright enough that the overhead light wasn’t necessary. Logan could see their solemn and thoughtful faces as the minutes ticked by. There was a strange void of emotion about the group as if they were all too numb from the events of the last few days. Logan was too glad to be home to feel such deadness as the others did.

  The days spent apart had been pure torture for Logan. With every mile they traveled and each step he took farther north, he felt that unmistakable pull of their bond calling him back home to Katey. If he had his way, he would have stayed in Crestucky, but he knew Darren too well to cross him when it came to matters about hunters. They had lived through a massacre that claimed so many lives and any hint of disobedience within a pack could lead them down a hazardous road.

  That was why Logan had tried to indirectly show his disapproval of Katey’s outburst that morning before they left. He had hoped it would make her realize her transgression against Darren’s authority, but it only served as another thing to feel guilty over as the minutes passed by without Katey in his arms. Logan regretted the level of coldness with which he treated Katey and was determined to make up for it.

  They had all showered, and it seemed things had returned to normal apart from their silent dread. Logan wondered if it had anything to do with their state of emergency with the hunters or if it was simply because there was nothing to talk about. No one had been to work since the evacuation, so they had no stories to share as they normally did during the evening meal.

  While he chewed on a mouthful of beef, he glanced to Katey who sat beside him. Her food had barely been touched, and her gaze was vacant, her mind a million miles away. He began to wonder if she was ill. Logan reached under the table and stroked his finger along her thigh.

  Katey perked to attention and looked at him as if she had forgotten he was there. He gave her a questioning look, and she returned it with a faint smile. She could feel the void too, and the troubled look in her eyes told him all he needed to know.

  Something must have been bothering her. If he weren’t scared of upsetting the stagnant balance of the group, he would have asked her what it was. However, Logan knew all too well that Katey hated to have the attention drawn to her like that. After dinner, he would confront her about it, but not now. If she were ill, she would say so herself.

  Logan returned to eating, but a few moments of silence passed before Katey finally disrupted it. “So, Darren,” she began, starting out confidently. “I was going to ask you about something on Monday, and in all the hysteria, I forgot.”

  Logan quickly saw where this was going and tapped his foot against her ankle. Katey gave him a quick glance but continued. “There’s a weekly dance open to the public at the ballroom studio, and I’d like to go this Sunday.”

  Darren didn’t have to look up from his plate. “Absolutely not,” he replied.

  He heard Katey suck in a tiny breath. “Why not?” she asked, an obvious warble in her voice.

  “I know you’re not this dense, Katey,” Darren said with a sigh and set his fork down. “There may be hunters hiding out all over Crestucky, and I won’t have you leaving this house until we know they’re out of the area.”

  Katey let out a short laugh of disbelief. “It’s just a dance, and Logan will be with me.”

  Logan winced. He had made no such promises, and he didn’t want Darren to think he had anything to do with this scheme. If Katey had consulted with him earlier, he would have advised her to drop the issue. There would be other dances, and the studio wasn’t about to close its doors anytime soon.

  Darren turned a fiery stare on Katey. “No,” he growled, the very walls trembling in the wake of his displeasure.

  “Not even if Ben or Dustin goes with us?” she asked, the same pleading in her t
one as before.

  Logan looked up to Ben and Dustin at the other end of the table and saw they were just as distressed as Logan. None of them wanted these arguments. As much as Logan butted heads with Darren, he knew where to draw the line . . . sometimes.

  “I said no, and that’s my final word on it,” Darren said before turning back to his meal.

  He didn’t even manage to bring the next forkful of beef to his mouth before Katey started in again. “How long before I can leave the house?”

  Darren went still, and Logan saw the familiar expression of a man struggling to keep his cool while being pushed to his limits. The alpha set down his fork and looked up at Katey. “I’m not sure. If we see more activity from the hunters, it will be a while.”

  “And what if we see nothing?”

  A muscle jumped in Darren’s jaw. “Then it’ll be a month or so at the earliest.”

  A deep frown curved Katey’s lips. “Earliest? Ben and Dustin are allowed to leave the house, why can’t I?” she demanded, her voice raised in agitation, and her body leaned forward over her plate.

  “They’re going on a scouting mission to protect the Devians. That’s different than a frivolous dance.” Darren’s words were laced with contempt for the very idea that Katey would want to risk her safety just so she could go socialize with her human friends. For once, Logan agreed with him.

  Katey’s eyes went wide. “Frivolous?” she exclaimed. “It’s not frivolous! I haven’t seen my friends all week. I miss going dancing.”

  “I don’t care if you miss it or not,” Darren replied, his lips curled in a snarl. “You’re not going. Not until the threat has passed.”

  Katey rolled her eyes and threw her fork down onto her plate, the crash of metal on porcelain shattering the still air. “By then, they may stop having these weekly dances altogether.”

  “That’s not my concern,” Darren bellowed.

  Katey’s hands gripped the edge of the table, and Logan wondered if she were going to flip the whole thing over. “All you’re concerned about is having your thumb on everyone in this pack!”

  Logan couldn’t abide this anymore and reached out to grip Katey’s shoulder, hoping his words would somehow ground her in this outburst. “Katey, this isn’t the time or the place,” he said firmly.

  Katey swatted his hand away and turned back to her alpha, eyes blazing gold across the table. “What about my training? Is that going to be put on hold until the hunters are gone?”

  Logan was surprised at the amount of control Darren maintained as Katey made her irrational case against him. He was sure the others felt the same as he looked at their fretful faces. No one was eating.

  “More than likely, yes.”

  Katey eased back a bit. “More than likely? So, there’s like a twenty percent chance that I can keep training?”

  Logan hoped with all that was in him that Darren would give in just this much so Katey would settle down. Her emotional tantrums were grating on everyone, disrupting the pack harmony more than she might have realized.

  This side of Katey wasn’t completely new to them. They knew she had a temper and headstrong personality, but they thought Alaska had made her realize that such childish ways had to be given up for the sake of her new life and responsibilities. At least, that’s what Darren and Dustin had hoped. Logan loved the fire in her belly that gave her that bit of spice in everything she said and did, but at that moment, he wanted her to bank that fire for another day.

  “That’s just a formality of speech,” Darren replied. Logan covered his eyes and leaned his elbow on the table, feeling exhausted by the whole thing. “I have no intention of continuing your training until the hunters are gone, and we’re able to utilize the property and surrounding woods properly.”

  If nothing else, Logan could admire Darren’s calm. The hostility in Katey’s voice nearly doubled.

  “What happens when we need to go out and change? We can’t do that in the house! You’ve already made a rule about that.”

  “We will cross that bridge when we get to it.”

  “This isn’t fair to me or to Logan. The longer it takes to do my training, the longer we have to wait for our mating ceremony.”

  Logan felt like groaning at how she managed to pull him into the argument again. Yes, he wanted to be mated to her, more than anything else in this world, but he wasn’t willing to test Darren’s temper in the process. Not now while they were in the middle of a crisis.

  “I’m well aware of that,” Darren shouted. “But in our current situation, even if you two were ready, there would be no ceremony. There’s no point in preparing for something that won’t happen anytime soon.”

  Katey was silent for a moment, probably out of pure shock at Darren’s admittance. “That’s not fair!” she whined. “You have no right to keep us from mating!”

  From out of left field, Dustin slammed his hands on the dining table and stood to tower over the group, his own eyes blazing gold – which hardly ever happened. “Life isn’t fair, Katey!” he roared in his Irish burr, making the very crystals of the chandelier above their heads shiver. “And until you learn your place in the pack and respect Darren as the alpha, you will never understand what it means to be a loup-garou.”

  Katey’s jaw dropped, and her expression morphed from rage, to wounded and terrified. She had never been on the receiving end of one of Dustin’s rebukes. Logan had, and it was often the only thing that would make him fly straight afterward.

  Darren looked to his beta, his enforcer, with a mixed look of gratitude and uneasiness. Ben was too stunned to look at anything else, but his plate and Logan was ready to stand up and defend his fiancé.

  Katey was too quick. She bolted from the table and dashed out of the dining room. The remaining four listened to her storm upstairs and slam the door to her bedroom. Dustin lowered himself back into his chair, looking less than repentant of his choice of words.

  “That was low,” Ben muttered before he ate another bite from his plate.

  Logan glared at Dustin. “All Katey wants is to belong in our pack, and you throw that in her face?”

  “I did what needed to be done to shut her up,” Dustin contested. “She was disrespecting Darren, and after that last outburst of hers, I didn’t want it coming to blows. I don’t want to concoct another bottle of homemade blood stain remover for the carpet.” There was no remorse in Dustin’s eyes as he resumed his meal.

  Darren shook his head. “For once, I think I agree with Logan. I appreciate that you stepped in before she became too upset, but your last comment was unnecessary.”

  Dustin looked to his other pack members for support but found none. He sighed and stood up a little more gently this time. “I’ll go talk to her. I don’t know if she will accept my apology, but I’ll try.”

  Logan waited until Dustin was out of the room before looking to his alpha, prepared to make his own plea to follow Katey’s. With luck, it would be a balm to the frazzled nerves of the pack rather than an agitator.

  “I’m not supporting Katey’s argument,” he began. “But, I know how much this training means to her. She thinks about it all the time. You know she’s behaving like this because you’ve completely ripped that from her.”

  Darren picked up his water glass and tilted it to his lips. “I know,” he said before taking a long swig. “I also know she will find another diversion. Perhaps you should teach her to draw.”

  Logan sighed looked away, knowing that would not satisfy Katey. “I’d rather she be granted a little longer leash. Maybe she can practice changing in the house?”

  Darren set down his glass and made his fingers into a steeple on the tabletop. “My first priority is everyone’s safety, not their comfort or entertainment.” The alpha’s deep brown eyes looked up at Logan through dark brows. “I’ll take your suggestion into consideration, but if Katey continues to disrespect this pack and me, I’ll make sure her training is delayed. I won’t reward her behavior.”

 
Silence reigned at the dinner table after Logan nodded and continued eating. Consideration was all Logan could hope for, but as before, he was in agreement with Darren. Before the day was through, he would talk to Katey and see if he could reach her. If Logan could snap her out of this phase, then the pack would be better off for it.

  Dustin trudged up the stairs and approached Katey’s room. He could hear her soft sniffling from behind the door, and the remorse latched onto his heart like a leech. Before he got too close, she said, “I don’t want to talk to you.”

  From her thick voice, he knew she had been crying, even if he hadn’t smell her salty tears. “Nonsense,” he said cheerfully. “Women love to talk to me.”

  Humor. It was the only thing that saved his hide from countless conflicts and made an effective shield when dealing with reality. It had gotten him out of plenty of messes before and this one should have been no different, but it certainly didn’t feel that way.

  He could understand her eagerness, her anger, her resentment to authority. Logan had been there once before, and they had to handle him with care over the last century because of it. Disputes abounded, and there had been no shortage of oppositions between them for quite a long time. Once Logan began to accept his lot, and he understood that no matter how much training he did, it would not change his obvious handicap.

  Katey had none they knew of yet. She was perfectly well and able to train and excel as a loup-garou, and that must have been the root of her frustrations; to be so close, but shut down at the gate. He understood her need to belong, but not her lashing out to Darren. Perhaps it was her upbringing as an orphan or the lack of discipline in the foster homes she was passed through. Whatever it was, Dustin knew they all had a long way to go, hunters or no hunters, and the only one that didn’t know that was Katey.

  “Not this woman,” she replied.

  Dustin guffawed. “I can’t imagine why. I’m so likable.” He leaned against the doorframe and listened, but Katey wasn’t budging. After a pause, he tried the doorknob and found it locked. “You know I’ve always respected your privacy, but I’d hate for you to have no door after I break this one down.”