Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Travis
Iwasn’t sure who I wanted to kill first: the lawyer sitting across from me or the half-brother I’d just met. If my father were still alive, he’d have been at the top of my list.
“This can’t be legit.” I shoved the papers away, scattering my father’s last will and testament across the top of the mahogany table.
“Darkaway Ranch has been in the family for generations. Our family,” I said, indicating my sister Jada and me.
Our three younger siblings weren’t present, but I meant them as well.
“Not some shirttail relative.” I pointed a finger at Merrick, who just sat there, scowling like a brainless idiot.
“I’m sorry, Travis, but it’s true,” the pack lawyer said.
“Your father was very specific about his wishes. It’s stipulated that upon his death, if his eldest-born son doesn’t have a mate by the next White Wolf Moon, his next eldest son—provided he was mated—would inherit the property. As the Alpha, his word is pack law.”
I growled. Even from the grave, my father was an arrogant, manipulative asshole who tried to control everything.
A friend of mine who worked with me on the set of Secret Shadows, the supernatural soap opera I starred in, would say it wasn’t good to think ill of the dead—ghosts often had anger-management issues—but I didn’t give a fuck.
My father and I had stopped being cordial long ago. Death wasn’t going to change that.
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the signet ring and slipped it on my left pinkie.
For decades, it had sat on Franklin Monroe’s finger as the leader of the Darkaway Island Pack.
Now, it was mine. I held up my fist for them to see and gave it a righteous shake.
“I’m the rightful Alpha, and I say Jada gets the ranch. ”
The lawyer shook his head. “I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way.”
I glared at the little weasel. If I were in my wolf form, the fur on my back would be raised, and I’d be baring some fang. “Are you suggesting we fight to see who becomes the pack leader?”
The lawyer gave a nervous laugh. “Of course not. Those old ways are long gone.”
I shot a glance at Merrick, a guy whose muscles were a whole lot bigger than his brains despite the fact that he wore studious-looking glasses.
You want a piece of me?
Although we weren’t packmates and couldn’t read each other’s thoughts, he got my drift. He squirmed in his chair, his gaze not meeting mine.
Next to Merrick was his bony, angular wife, whose name I’d forgotten. Her facial lines indicated she did more frowning than smiling. I wanted to grab them by the scruff of their necks and toss them out the window. Or better yet, shift and tear them to pieces.
Jada poked me in the ribs, sensing my rising anger. “Cool it, little bro,” she whispered. “Just think how I feel.”
Irritated, I reached into her thoughts, packmate to packmate. What do you mean, how you feel? I’m trying to save the ranch for you.
She flashed me a sharp look. Think about it, you stupid lunkhead.
It took me a moment until it dawned on me, and I instantly felt like a jackass.
Our father’s will had completely skipped the fact that Jada was his first-born.
An intelligent, competent daughter who was already mated.
To a great guy. Jada had been capably running our family’s dude ranch for several years now.
She was the one who had made it successful and profitable, something our father had never been able to achieve.
Under her watch, the place had become extremely popular with the supernatural creatures who vacationed on the island.
A number of magazines and travel blogs had written about Darkaway Ranch.
Nestled like a “gem” at the base of Mystic Mountain, it “promised an authentic cowboy experience for monsters of all types.” It had even made the cover of Paranormal Paradise.
The keyword being she was his daughter...not his son.
“Heaven’s Moon,” I muttered. “Sorry, Jada.”
If the will was legit and legal, which it appeared to be, my sister would lose everything she’d worked tirelessly for.
I, on the other hand, would simply fly my private plane back to Vancouver to the set of Secret Shadows and be just fine.
I never wanted to be Alpha anyway. Jada was the real loser in all of this.
All because I wasn’t mated—and our father’s ridiculous, archaic demands, of course.
Now that I thought about it from her point of view, how could she remain so calm? I flexed my fists under this big-ass table, wanting to punch something.
“And what if that son is illegitimate?” I spat to the lawyer with as much contempt as possible. “What does pack law say about that?”
Not that I didn’t believe our father had cheated on our mother when they were married—he’d done that a lot, which was one of the reasons I hated him—I just didn’t know he had an entire second family holed up on the mainland, complete with a trophy wife, two kids and a minivan.
That explained the missed birthdays, the unexpected business trips, the sudden absences.
I was glad Mom told him to go fuck himself last year.
Not in those exact terms—she didn’t use words like that—but she was very active in the senior dating scene now and was currently visiting her new gentleman-friend on the East Coast, a retired college administrator.
“All that matters is blood, Travis,” Merrick’s wife said with a syrupy smile. “Surely, you know that.”
Merrick shot his wife a dark glance but said nothing. Except for a few grunts here and there, the dude literally had not said one word. Maybe he was mute.
When Jada and I left the office a short time later, we took the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator with my Neanderthal half-brother and his wife. What able-bodied wolf takes an elevator in a two-story building anyway?
Once outside, the warm ocean breeze ruffled my hair as I slipped on my sunglasses.
Sure, the weather here was great, but that didn’t make me any less angry.
We were two blocks from the beach, and everyone you saw was either going to the beach or coming from it.
They all looked happy as fuck. Which made me even madder. I couldn’t wait to leave.
My sister hooked her arm in mine. “Want to grab a coffee?”
Not waiting for an answer, she started to pull me in the direction of Unholy Grounds, a popular coffee shop on the island owned by two nuns.
Honestly, how could she be so chipper at a time like this while all I wanted was to shift and attack someone? Unfortunately, I was about to find out.
“I’d rather have a beer,” I told her. “Ten of them.”
“No problem,” she said, her wolf-green eyes sparkling.
We turned and headed in the opposite direction down Nightshade Avenue.
Dazed and numb, I wasn’t sure I was fully comprehending the ramifications my father’s will would have on our family.
Except for my sister Ruby, who lived on the mainland, Jada, Rhylan and Reece all lived here and worked on the ranch.
Where would they go if we lost it? What would they do? Nothing about this was fair or right.
My jaw clenched so tight it ached, and a low growl threatened in the back of my throat. Just thinking about it made me hate our father even more, which was really saying something.
After signing autographs for an exuberant group of teenage fox-shifters who’d changed into their human forms as soon as they recognized me, Jada and I turned onto Hemlock Street.
The neon sign for the Oasis blinked cheerfully up ahead.
The dive bar had a wide variety of local beers on tap and played live music on Friday and Saturday nights.
I wondered if they still hosted a not-quite-legal fight club in the basement.
I was going to walk right past the place—Jada didn’t do crusty dive bars—but, to my surprise, she opened the door and pulled me inside.
The smell of spilled beer and grilled onions assailed my nostrils.
I tried prodding her thoughts to get a sense of what she was up to, but she wouldn’t let me in.
Glaring at her back, I followed her to a quiet booth.
One thing was certain. My sister was up to no good. And I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like it.
In true Jada fashion, she pulled a wet wipe from her purse and proceeded to sanitize the table, including the edges and both vinyl bench seats. Then the bartender came over, and we placed our order.
“Okay, what’s going on?” I asked her, my BS meter on full throttle.
“What are you talking about?” She looked at me all innocent-like, but I wasn’t born yesterday.
It ticked me off I couldn’t read her as well as she could read me. I should’ve suggested a run in the woods rather than coming here. As packmates in our wolf forms, she’d have had a much harder time shielding her thoughts from me.
“Stop messing around,” I snapped. “You’ve either done something I’m not going to like, or you’re planning to do something I’m not going to like. Which is it?”
She rolled her eyes. “So negative. What happened to my adventurous little brother? The guy who will try anything?”
That was so unfair.
“Gee, I’ve never lost my family home before,” I said in a mocking tone, twisting a finger into one of my dimples. “I wonder how new and adventurous that will feel.”
She flicked a hand at me dismissively. “Don’t be a grumpy asshole, Travis.”
The bartender returned with our drinks, trying to cover up a smile and pretend he didn’t just hear that.
I rubbed my temples, feeling the start of a headache forming. “I can’t believe you’re not as concerned about losing the ranch as I am.”
“Nothing happens until the White Wolf Moon,” she reminded me, taking a sip of her mineral water, “so calm down.”
“Calm down?” It was never a good idea to tell an upset person to calm down. They were likely to fly into a rage. Or in my case, rip out a few throats. “Do I need to remind you that the next White Wolf Moon isn’t far away?”
“Three full moons from now.” She sounded entirely too chipper.
I took a long pull of my beer and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “Like I said, not far away.”
Jada reached across the table and patted my forearm as if I were a small child. “But you’ve forgotten the most important part of the will.”
I pulled away and folded my arms, not liking where this conversation was heading. I knew exactly what she was getting at. “The part about me being mated?”
She nodded, and I bit back a curse. Jada hated when I swore. Her husband’s family was churchy, and some of that had rubbed off on her.
“You seriously think I’ll be mated by then?” Had my sister taken crazy pills and fallen off the deep end?
“Matthew and I fell in love on our first date and knew we were destined to be together. So yes, it’s totally possible.”
If I didn’t know better, I’d think she believed in the whole werewolf/fated mates nonsense.
I grabbed a napkin and proceeded to shred it.
So, my sister was banking our family’s entire future on me finding someone at the drop of a hat and falling instantly in love just because she had? I’d say those were pretty crappy odds.
I guzzled the rest of my beer and motioned for the bartender to bring over another.
“Let me remind you that I’ve dated a lot of women and haven’t run into ‘the one’ yet.
Don’t you read the supernatural tabloids?
” Being in this business made me pretty jaded when it came to love.
So many people weren’t into me for me—they liked the bright lights and celebrity status of being with me.
“Oh, Travis,” she said with a hint of a smile. “Sometimes the broken-hearted just need a little help in the love department.”
She clearly had been reading the tabloids.
The engagement and break-up between me and my sexy co-star Pamela Pinkly had been completely fabricated by the network.
Fans ate it up, they said, claiming an off-screen romance validated the on-screen one.
Unbeknownst to fans, however, was that Pamela was already in a very serious relationship. With a woman.
Just once, I’d like to date someone who didn’t want something from me.
My inner wolf simmered just beneath the surface. “What makes you think I’ll be mated by the next White Wolf Moon? In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not currently going out with anyone, and I prefer it that way.”
“If you’ll shut that pie hole of yours long enough to listen, I’ll tell you.”
By the time our one-sided conversation came to an end, I’d finished my burger, downed two more beers, shredded a few more napkins, and added another person to the list of people I wanted to kill.
My sister.