PackRescue (5 page)

“Take one too many grumpy pills today, Sheriff?” Officer
Suzanne Young’s annoyingly pert and saucy voice grated on Cutler…even more than
usual.

“I am down to one last nerve today, Young, and you’re on it,”
he growled in warning. His dispatcher took the hint.

“Report of an altercation at Townline Roadhouse. Otto called
it in himself. Said if you didn’t haul ass down there and give him some value
for his hard-earned tax dollars, he was going to break out the Woodinator and
take care of it himself.”

Otto was always too damn quick to pull out that monster baseball
bat of his whenever the customers got rowdy. “Any report of weapons?” Cutler
asked curtly. He crossed over to Fina, touched her cheek then left. Even before
his dispatcher had time to respond, he was halfway out of the house.

“He’ll be fine. He’s good at his job. Real good,” Nath
assured them. He grinned and, for the first time, Fina noticed how much he
looked like his brother.

“So is it just Nath or does it stretch on after that?” she
asked with a humor that felt a little awkward after two weeks of disuse. She
grabbed a sheet and started making Ryan’s bed.

“Nathaniel,” he answered with another grin. “You just gotta
accept the fact that if you give a boy a name with three syllables, the world
will be hell-bent on shortening it down to one for the length of his days.”

Fina laughed quietly and this time it didn’t feel as
awkward. Nath stood on the other side of the bed and helped her tuck the sheet
in. He had dimples on either side of his perpetually happy mouth and his eyes
were blue, not aqua. She remembered Cutler didn’t have dimples. The two really
cute features balanced each other, making both brothers equally, devastatingly
handsome.

“Do you work, Nath?”

“I do indeed, pretty lady,” he said then tapped Ryan on the
shoulder. He handed him a pillow and a pillowcase. “Pitch in here, big guy.”
Ryan put his game down without argument. “I’m the President and CEO of Green
Mountain Eco Tours.”

“Ecotourism is very hot these days.”

“Don’t I know it,” Nath agreed happily. “We operate mostly
in the summer months. When kids are out of school,” he added with a nod in Ryan’s
direction. “Actually, you’re lucky you caught me at home today. I just finished
taking a group of Japanese businessmen on an overnight hike and don’t go back
out until tomorrow morning.” He tucked in the top sheet then tossed a cotton
blanket and a thin quilt on top. “Ready to see the sights?” he offered with
expansive good humor and took the badly covered pillow out of Ryan’s hands. He
dropped it onto the bed. “You know the best way to see them?” he asked Ryan
with a fiendish twinkle in his eye. “Upside down.”

“
Nooo,
” Ryan squealed and giggled as he tried to
evade the Beta’s grasp. He spun away, grinned and swerved to the left.

Ryan’s small body telescoped his moves. So did the direction
of his laughing eyes.

Nath let him dodge away, twice, making a mock grasp at empty
air a second after Ryan moved. Then he scooped the six-year-old up, wrapped a
meaty hand around Ryan’s skinny ankles and held him upside down. He ran off
down the hall, bellowing like a banshee with Ryan screaming in delight.

Cutler was glad to see pieces of the steak on Fina’s plate
actually making it into her mouth. Nath had barbecued—something even Cutler
admitted his little brother did well—and they were sitting at the table on the
back porch. Ryan was sitting on the local phone book so he could see over his
plate and was shoveling forkfuls of baked potato, baby carrots, meat and salad
into his mouth faster than Fina could cut them for him.

“Slow down, buddy,” Cutler cautioned and handed him a
napkin. “There’s plenty more where that came from.” He refilled Ryan’s milk
glass and felt his mouth turn down into what his mother had always told him was
his serious line. He looked at Fina. “You had enough money to keep him fed on the
road?” he asked quietly. Ryan was too busy eating and looking at the cattle to
pay much attention to adult conversation.

Cutler was Alpha—he insisted on knowing his people were
provided for.

Fina exhaled deliberately and set her fork down. “Yes. I
think his body’s just gearing up for a growth spurt.” She hesitated. “Before I
answer that further, I need to know what your financial expectations will be if
I join your pack.”

In Cutler’s mind—and he could tell from the look on his
face, in Nath’s mind too—Fina was already a member of their pack. Ryan too.
Just like she was their mate and the boy their responsibility. Maybe even a
surrogate son. “Explain,” Cutler said in that no-nonsense, demanding tone of
his. He took a sip of the red wine his brother had served with dinner. It hadn’t
escaped his notice that Fina had chosen milk instead.

“I mean that my father was Alpha of our pack. The terms of
his will gave me sole control of the pack’s assets as surviving heir. His
personal ones too. I-I emptied the piggy bank before I left Tennessee. The
rogues may have rightful claim to our lands by pack law but that doesn’t
entitle them to the money,” she added with enough verve that one of Cutler’s
dark brows shot up. He and his brother exchanged a look.

“Accepted,” Cutler said curtly. He set his wine glass down. “You
had his will probated?”

“Yes.”

“Well, if human law says it’s your money and the bank
accepted that, that’s good enough. Pack law deals with land, inter-band
relations and turning of humans only. It leaves money in the hands of
individuals and the businesses they run.”

Fina nodded. “Thank you.” She started fidgeting with her
napkin. “A part of me worried I hadn’t been in the right by taking
all
of the pack’s assets. Ryan will have a number of financial needs before he
reaches adulthood,” Fina said, nodding in the boy’s direction. “His education,
mine too.”

“Yours?” Nath asked. He wiped the residue off his plate with
a slice of bread which he popped into his mouth. “I never asked how old you
were.”

“Twenty. I’m going to… I
was
going back to college in
the fall.” Something in Fina’s blue eyes dimmed and Cutler covered her hand
with his. Nath cupped her shoulder tenderly in his rough palm. She blinked
rapidly then looked up at the brothers. “My point is I have money but that
money is earmarked for his needs.”

“Yours too,” Nath added pointedly.

“Mine too,” Fina agreed with a thin smile. “If I join your
pack, will my assets become yours?”

Your physical ones? Definitely. The financial ones…?

“No,” Cutler answered firmly. “When you take a mate, it’s up
to you if you share your money with him. It’s up to him and the pack to provide
for your needs. Around here we accept that any children you have would have a
right to a claim in your estate but that’s too far down the road to think
about.” He popped a last piece of steak in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “Just
for argument’s sake, how much money are we talking here?” he asked after
swallowing.

“Approximately eight-point-six million.”

Cutler coughed violently. “So I don’t have to top up Ryan’s
college fund, huh?” he asked dryly after he’d recovered.

Fina grinned.

“Ever think about investing in ecotourism?” Nath asked
saucily, then picked up Fina’s hand and kissed her knuckles. She rolled her
eyes and pushed his face away playfully.

“You warm enough?”

Standing outside in the hallway, Nath Powell listened to his
future mate tuck Ryan into bed. He could hear his brother loading up the
dishwasher at the other end of the house.

“I’m good,” Ryan muttered. “Leave the door open.”

“I will. Good night, Ryan.”

“‘Night, Fina. Hey, Fina?”

“Hmm?”

“We gonna live here now?”

“For a while. Maybe. I haven’t decided yet.”

Nathaniel’s sharp wolf ears picked out the sounds of lips
brushing against a forehead and a hand smoothing hair back.

“Let me know. I wanna say goodbye to the cows if we go.”

“You like them, don’t you?”

“Sure,” Ryan answered with creeping drowsiness.

When the sound of Ryan’s breathing evened out, Nath stepped
away from the door and waited for Fina. She tiptoed out and started when she
saw him standing there. He held out his hand and, after a moment, she took it
warily.

Nath took a step toward her and laid his cheek against hers.
His wolf was clawing at his self-control, wanting his share of Fina’s presence,
his share of their mate—and the wolf repeated a single word over and over
inside Nath’s head.

Mine.

Nath didn’t say anything and, after a time, some of the
tension thrumming through Fina’s slender body eased. He breathed her in, tasted
her health, age, strength, fertility… Nathaniel’s eyes opened suddenly.

Wait.

Nath’s wolf retreated back into his head, curled around
itself and settled down with calm, almost smug satisfaction.

Nath lifted his head, offered Fina a smile and led her
toward the family room where he could already hear the sounds of a baseball
game coming through the flat screen TV.

Fina followed Nathaniel without protest. She settled herself
on the big sectional and Nath dropped a pillow on the floor at her feet, sat on
it and leaned his broad back into her shins. Pinned in place, she felt a moment
of panic. Being touched by a male—a monstrously huge male, no less—brought back
every repressed terror inside her.

Terrors Fina had tried so hard to repress. Breathing slowly
and evenly calmed her. He had the remote in his hand and split the image on the
screen so he could check the day’s scores. Nathaniel Powell was massive,
powerful and hadn’t even reached his prime yet. Just then, Nath chuckled. At
what Fina couldn’t guess but the laughter rumbling through his broad back and
into her knees comforted her. She reminded herself that he was gentle,
easygoing and had a smile that could charm the panties off a nun. His sense of
fun ran soul deep and he somehow felt younger than her, if that was possible.

Before the rogues Fina had been sheltered, even coddled. The
baby in the family, the daughter of an Alpha, she’d grown up privileged,
indulged, perhaps even smugly entitled. She’d had a place in her well-ordered
community—a place, a plan and a shining future with possibilities limited only
by her intelligence and courage.

After the rogues she’d…diminished. Feeling older than she
was and somehow fragile, she realized Fina Whitesage used to be more than she
was now.

Her eyes tracked Cutler as he wiped the counter. Focus,
power and confidence reflected in every sure, precise movement of his huge
body. Even something as mundane as cleaning up after dinner didn’t mute his
dominant presence. Nath was powerful but in a friendly, endearing way. Cutler
could be just as funny—well, almost—but there was an innate maturity and
reserve about him. This Alpha was responsible for so much and to so many. He
wore it like he wore his other strengths and they rested on his calm, wide
shoulders with deceptive ease.

Whenever the brothers looked at her, it was with veiled heat
and it terrified her.

It comforted her too. For whatever bizarre reason, they’d
taken her in, given her a home and a pack and hadn’t made a single sexual
advance. Fina exhaled deliberately. They still frightened her but not as much
as before and she wondered when she’d ever get over this shackling, groveling
fear of prime males. Her fear made her want to run away but her instincts and
common sense urged her to stay, for her sake and for the sake of the pup
sleeping down the hall.

Ryan was her responsibility. She had to be better than this
to raise him, and had to set an example of a loving, strong, intelligent
parental figure. The trouble was, she wasn’t that person anymore.

Again Fina’s eyes moved between Cutler and Nath. One
commanding, one gentle. One old soul and one young. She would stay with them,
for now. Perhaps the two of them could teach her the things that used to make
up Fina Whitesage. Things she’d so taken for granted she’d forgotten what they
were.

“Green Mountain Eco Tours. How may I help you?” Fina looked
away from her laptop screen and focused on the caller instead of the new
Whitesage Nursery website she’d commissioned. She and Ryan had been staying
with the brothers for ten days now and she’d tried to stay busy.

Cutler leaned on the doorway. He’d figured out thinking
distracted her from her pain. She laid her hand on the mouse of the office
computer and brought up Nath’s calendar. “We
do
have openings in August
for the Highland Trek package…oh you have? Let me check for you…”

He blew across the steaming mug of coffee in his hand and
watched Fina with quiet admiration. She looked up at him, grinned and mouthed
you’ll
be late for work
. Cutler just shrugged, returned her grin and kept
watching.

“Nathaniel Powell is available for only two nights in
August…”

Glancing out the window, Cutler watched Ryan playing in the
backyard. He and Nath had fenced in the entire area around the house, creating
a clearly defined space where Ryan was allowed to play without supervision. It
bordered on the south paddock, which suited Ryan just fine. So far he’d been
good about not ducking under the picket fence and going into the barn or
outbuildings on his own. Ryan was climbing on a big cedar play set with swings
and monkey bars. After work tonight, Cutler was going to finish assembling the
slide and raised fort sections.

“If you were willing to go with another guide I could offer
you that date but if you want Nathaniel to guide you… Yes he really is the best
chef in the bunch. Uh-huh. We also have a guide who’s Shoshone. Chris brings
his people’s knowledge to the trek and cooks with only local ingredients. But I
have to warn you he’s got a wicked sense of humor so unless you’re prepared to
do a few sit-ups to get your abs in shape before you head out, I can guarantee
you’ll have a sore belly by the end of day two. Oh you do? I’ll have to send
the Johnsons a note and thank them for their lovely recommendation. Yes.
Nathaniel’s chicken tetrazzini is to die for and I’m speaking from personal
experience here. It’s so good you’ll roll over on your back and beg to have
your stomach rubbed.”