11. Ulf
My Alpha was a fool, but he had good taste in women.
I had spent the last several days watching him make pup eyes at Madelyne while the rest of us waited for him to make a move. There wasn”t one of us who didn”t want her, who didn”t like her, who didn”t like her brave little son, who wanted so badly to grow up fast so he could defend his mother. But instead of taking her as a mate right away, or better yet, years ago, Nathan, our ridiculous leader, had spent time distracting himself mooning over her while resisting his instincts.
He wasn”t a fool because he was a bad leader. I hadn”t appreciated watching him get voted in when the old ways required that he prove himself in a fight against us. That he best us as an Alpha should and then take his place. When I had joined this Pack, when he had been acknowledged as leader, I had expected him to do much worse than he actually had.
He had proven me wrong. He had courage, strength, a good mind for tactics, and loyalty to us. Reluctantly, I had given my respect and watched him earn it afresh again and again.
And then he had come to this place and turned into an idiot all over again.
It was a relief that he had finally taken her as a mate. It meant I could confront him with certain realities that he had been too distracted and conflicted to accept before. And so, after that midnight briefing, I had started making my plans.
As the sun rose on another day, I joined him on patrol, knowing that the duty now fell to me to bring an end to this charade.
”Nathan,” I said as we walked the perimeter, ”we must talk about your new mate.”
Nathan looked back at me and lifted an eyebrow. He knew I had seen him, heard him with Madelyne. Everyone had. Of course, he wasn”t embarrassed. We were Wolves, not mortal teens.
”What is it?”
”We all want her, Nathan. You must have some idea of that.”
He blinked, eyes searching my face as I gazed back at him calmly. ”All of you?”
”We have done nothing and said little, Nathan. We have waited on you. This woman is important to you. We understand that. But yes. We wish to share in her. In a life with her and her son.”
He considered me a moment longer, then chuckled and shook his head. ”Did you get the duty to tell me, old wolf?”
”I am taking it,” I stated. ”I speak plainly. I get to the point. Who better?”
”Mm.” He licked his lips. ”Madelyne”s poly. She already spent an entire relationship denying that for the comfort of her husband. And I am not the jealous type.”
I squashed a surge of excitement. I had much business to attend to, and this was only part of it. ”Then you are not offended?”
”If she is not offended, then I am not offended. I have her, finally. She will not neglect me in anyone”s favor. That”s not who she is.”
”No. She has more nobility than most humans. More Wolf.” She was not one of us by birth, but if ever I had met a woman who would make an ideal mate for us, it was her. ”I would not touch her without knowing it was all right with you. None would.”
”You”re a good man, Ulf,” he said, without a bit of grudge. One thing he was not short on was security in himself and in us. ”I will not argue against it. But if she”s with all four of us, she”s going to be very tired.” He flashed a wolfish grin.
”I doubt that she will complain.”
He laughed. ”No, not at all. And she”s probably going to handle it better than the last time we shared a lover.”
I curled my mouth into a little half-smile. ”Miriam. That poor woman got too worn out to stay. Though I think we overdid it with her some.”
”Foursomes every few nights will do that,” he said casually.
”Indeed.” I sniffed. ”Bela says she wants us to stay.”
That made him smile much more brightly. ”Really? She already said so?”
”It is not fear of Matthias. I think she craves to land the killing blow herself. She seems… content with us.” I couldn”t quite find the right word in English. ”It is very comfortable living here with her and her son.”
”The commute to Sedona could be a little trying.”
”We can have our office anywhere. Computers and telephones and cars make all this possible. Many do it.”
”Yes.” He took a deep breath, then nodded. ”You”ve given me a lot of food for thought. We should ask her as a group, of course, but you need not keep your hands off of her on my account.”
I felt a familiar stirring in my loins and nodded. ”Thank you. Now, as for Matthias––”
It was at that moment that Madelyne rushed out of the house. The scent of fear on her hit me like a slap. Without a word, we rushed in her direction, only to see her standing with her phone in her hand.
”What is it?” Nathan demanded, putting his hands on her shoulders.
”It”s Matthias. He called through another number...he knows. He knows about us.”
My eyes narrowed. I could hear a man”s voice shouting and cursing over the phone. Insults. Threats. My lips skinned back from my teeth.
”Give me the phone,” I told her as Nathan took her in his arms to comfort her.
She handed it over. I put it to my ear.
”You absolute whore, you are mine! Mine to fuck, mine to kill––”
I let out a low, booming growl of challenge into the phone, and he immediately fell silent.
“Who are you to lay claim to this woman?” I demanded. “You skulking, lying coward. You miserable thief. You twisted maneater. Who? You should have thanked her every day for blessing you with her touch, but you are too craven and stupid to know treasure when you have it or do what is right to keep it.”
Nathan blinked. Madelyne was giving me a wide-eyed look. But neither one let out a peep of protest.
“Who is this?” Matthias demanded.
“I am Ulf Bjornsson, and my Pack and I are her protectors and more. We are here, here to stay, and here to make certain that she lives free, loves whom she chooses, and sees your corpse laid out at her feet for your crimes.”
His voice cracked with rage. “She belongs to me––”
“Nothing belongs to you, thief. You have never earned a thing. Not her love, not your wealth, not your power, nothing that you have or lay claim to.” I switched ears, taking a slow breath to keep my focus. I wanted my fangs at his throat so badly they tingled.
“How dare you speak to me this way––”
“How dare you call with threats like this when you’re not man or Tiger enough to come and take what you think you own?” I sensed Nathan tensing beside me, but he held off, giving me a chance to show my intentions. “If you want our woman, come and try to claim her. Stop sneaking around like a sniveling coward and come challenge us like a true shifter! Or are a handful of Wolves too much for you?”
“I will! I will come kill all of you!” He sounded completely unhinged. I could hear a woman’s voice shouting at him in an unknown language, but all he did was shout back at her. “And when I do, you will wish you never challenged me!”
“Men like you are all talk,” I mocked him, voice dripping with disgust. “Stop killing soft humans and pissing on trees and come! Come face us!”
The phone hung up on his scream of rage, and we were left in silence.
“Holy shit,” Madelyne said as I handed back her phone.
“That’s the most I have ever heard you say at one time,” Nathan breathed. “Do you think he can be goaded into attacking directly?”
“He may be direct. He may try his skulking ways, as may his companions. But one thing is certain. He will come. And in his rage and his jealousy, he will make mistakes.”
“Why did you do this?” Madelyne was looking at me in a mix of shock and awe as she nestled in Nathan’s arms.
“I have come to understand that we were making a mistake by playing by his rules. He ran, we chased. He hid, we searched. Everything we have done has been a reaction. But we must make him react. We must stop wasting time and never knowing when he will come by again. Now, he will come to us.”
“I hope you’re right, Ulf,” Nathan said quietly. “It’s a hell of a risk, but you may well be right. It’s time to end this.”
* * *
Nathan wasn’t very traditional.Before this, I had never seen that as a boon. But in a traditional Pack, the Alpha Female would have been his alone while the rest of us would have to seek out mates where we could manage it. Sharing a woman was an unorthodox idea, but had he been orthodox, we would all have fought over her. This I knew down to my bones.
Perhaps my challenging Matthias had been a touch reckless, but I knew from his seething rage that it had been the right call. His mother had been trying to rein him in, but I doubted it would work. The wound to his pride in knowing that “his woman” had not just shifter guardians but shifter lovers would draw him in.
It was cooler today. We actually had some cloud cover, and a breeze was blowing. Madelyne had finished her silver knives earlier. Simple things, with no decoration to them and unadorned suede-wrapped grips. They were for defense, not for show.
Aidan and I were practicing with the knife tied into its sheath. He had insisted, worried about burning me, the dear little cub. He probably would have been shocked to see all my battle scars.
“Keep the knife hidden under the back of your shirt until you need it,” I warned. “They are fast. Surprise is your best friend if one of them attacks you.” I gently shifted his grip to give him more control. “Draw it and hide it against your arm. When they turn toward you, be ready to strike.”
Aidan nodded, pressing his lips together. Then he looked a little worried. “I’m not very strong.”
“You do not have to be. The silver burns shifters. Even a touch on their bare skin is enough. It will hurt him enough to make him back off. That will give us time to get to you.”
Aidan was nodding when Madelyne came down the stairs and said, “Ulf? Can I talk to you for a second upstairs?”
I nodded once and straightened, touching the boy on his head. “Keep practicing the strike. I will return.”
She took me to her room, which left me raising an eyebrow but I was happy to go along. Once we were in there and the door shut, she turned and told me, “I wanted to thank you for handling that phone call. I always feel so helpless when he calls. Not knowing where he is, not knowing what he’s going to do…”
“Don’t thank me. I am supposed to be protecting you. His harassment takes a toll. The longer we go without a proper fight, the longer he can keep it going. I was done with watching it.”
She let out a sigh. “Yes. I don’t relish his coming here to attack when Aidan is here, but at least it means it will be over and done with.”
“We are better off choosing the battleground.” I reached out and touched her hair, which was spilling from its ponytail from her nape. She smiled and looked down. “And I like you. I do not want to see any more fear in your eyes.”
She looked at me in surprise, then smiled softly. “I like you too, Ulf. You’re straightforward, and Aidan adores you. And I…” Her gaze faltered, slipped away from my face again. I fought down a grin and moved closer to her.
“You what?” I murmured. The flush to her face deepened. Her eyes were bright, full of invitation.
Then, to my surprise and delight, she put her hands on my chest, leaned up, and kissed me.