The young shifter practically levitated out of his room. Cate wondered if his feet hit the ground more than twice on his way from the chair to the door. She looked at Dimitris. His lips were tight and his face was set in a scowl. She didn’t blame Ivan for rushing out as he had.
“I’ve been looking at the forum postings. The pack in question is from Nebraska — the White pack. Noah White is their alpha.”
Lukyan held out the laptop to Dimitris. He took the computer and tabbed through the many images that Lukyan had found on-line. “I know Noah. He was at the alpha poker tournament a few years ago, just after he made alpha. He struck me as being manipulative and reaching. I remember thinking that his second would have made a better pack leader than him.”
“I remember his second.” Alek pushed away from the wall and walked toward the group. “Jeremiah. Nice enough guy. He was worried his alpha would gamble away all the pack’s money.”
Lukyan turned back to Dimitris. “I doubt they will fly. If he comes, he will want the protection of his entire pack. It would take time to arrange that many flights. I suspect we will have a few days time to prepare for his arrival.”
“Then we have time to prepare for a battle. It’s been a few years since I’ve fought.” Cate watched as her mate stood and marched to the door. “Mylo, come with me, I need to spar. Alek and Lukyan, keep my mate and son safe!”
thirteen
Cate looked out the window onto the expansive lawn. Dimitris and Mylo were grappling in the grass, just as they had done for the past three days. Since Dimitris learned of the on-line threat, he had spent most of his time honing his fighting skills with the pack’s most talented warriors. Cate’s anxiousness was transferred to the kitchen. She had emptied the estate’s pantries twice cooking anything and everything she could think of. Luckily, she lived with four big shifter males who were blessed with endless appetites.
“I want to go wrestle with Dimitris. You said I could.” Peter stood next to her, nose pressed to the glass, watching one male place the other in a submission hold, only to stand up and start the process again.
“I know you do, buddy, but I think Dimitris and Mylo are working on something important. Perhaps when Connor gets home from school, you can wrestle with him.” Peter had not been to school yet this week. Dimitris had insisted that it was too dangerous for him to go. Normally Cate would have fought against his demands, but he was so on-edge that she couldn’t bring herself to defy him.
Peter’s nose remained pressed to the cold glass leaving little circles of fog in front of his face. “Can I at least go out and watch them? Maybe I can learn something important about how to choke somebody out.” Cate laughed. Peter’s current career goal was to be The Mighty Grape’s side kick. He was semi-obsessed with the cartoon grape that wrestled, kicked, and karate chopped his way through the evil Junk Food Gang. It was a nonsense kid’s show on educational TV that drove her insane, but her son loved it. After episodes of the show, she would endure long bouts of him beating the couch cushions until they surrendered.
“If you put on your coat, you can go.”
“But Dimitris and Mylo don’t even have on shoes or shirts.”
“Or, you can stay inside and work on your addition for another hour.” Peter’s scowl left his face immediately, just as she had known it would.
“I’ll get my jacket. I know exactly where it is!” Cate watched as his little legs carried him out of the room at a racing pace.
She turned back to the window. Straining her ears she could hear Mylo explain, once again, the best procedure for breaking a neck. This had been their topic of conversation for nearly an hour. The two would struggle in a mock battle, and one or the other would then mimic the process for ripping a head from the other’s body. It was disgusting. Cate hoped that sending Peter out would encourage them to talk about happier things like how to give a flying drop kick to a slice of pizza.
Her ears picked up the sound of Peter yelling to the men before she saw him running across the yard. Dimitris stopped and bent down, catching Peter in his arms and rolling backward with him in a pretend battle while Mylo yelled commands for Peter to dodge, duck, punch, and kick at the right times. Her child’s laughter filled the air.
Near the front of the house, she heard the door open and someone ask for Mylo. In the four days since her transition, she had gotten better about turning her super hearing on and off. She still couldn’t completely control it, especially during times when her emotions were high, but it was getting easier, and she thanked the Goddess for that. Some things should remain private, but when you could hear literally every single noise within a two-hundred foot radius, there was little that was secret.
Thanks to her hyper-sensitive ears, she knew far too much at this point about Alek’s proclivity to sleep with any woman that would let him. After what he had done with the female delivery truck driver yesterday afternoon, Cate could hardly bear to look him in the eye. But Alek’s bedroom prowess was not nearly as annoying as Lukyan’s ramblings. The man talked to himself about everything. She had quickly learned about his tendency to reason out every stock market possibility before he made an investment decision. It would take a special mate to get past his nerdy ways.
Lukyan also had the unfortunate habit of talking out all the various ways Dimitris might be thwarted by an opposing alpha. It was during these little self-chats that Cate most wanted to pull her ears from her head. Dimitris had remained rather tight-lipped about what he expected to occur when Noah White’s pack arrived, but thanks to Lukyan’s inability to reason in his head, she had been privy to all the terrible ways that things might go badly for Dimitris and her. It was for this reason only that she tolerated the pretend neck breaking and constant grappling. According to his ramblings, there were a lot of ways that Noah and his pack could hurt Dimitris, Cate, and even Peter. Cate wanted to just run from it all, but after listening intently to his logic, running away sounded like the worst possible option for everyone. Her wolf wolf growled her approval. Running was not an option.
She watched as someone crossed the lawn to the small group. She didn’t know his name, but recognized him as one of the shifters that had been at her mating ceremony. Like all the shifters she had met thus far, he was tall and broad shouldered. The man cut a hasty path directly to Mylo and took him aside. Cate strained to hear. “They’ve arrived. Some of the pack saw them in town.” Mylo looked up from the lawn and saw her at the window. He looked back to the man and answered something too low for Cate to understand.
“He did that on purpose,” she grumbled. Mylo watched the man leave before turning his eyes back to the window. He gave her a curt nod before going to speak to Dimitris. Cate rushed downstairs. Her wolf told her that her mate would want her close.
Dimitris hugged Cate to his body and took in a deep breath, flooding his senses with her cinnamon coffee scent. “I need you to stay in the house. Promise me.” He pulled back, using his hands to turn her face to his.
“Where are you going?”
“Right now, nowhere. I’m staying by your side. But I may need to leave later. I need you to promise me that you will stay here, safe.” She nodded At this moment she would grant him anything. The scent of his fear clung to him, a cloying perfume that turned her stomach.
He pulled her back into his body. “Cate, I will do everything in my power to keep you safe. You and Peter are the most important things in the world to me.” His arms squeezed her tightly, perhaps a bit too tightly, but she didn’t complain.
“Peter and I will be fine and long as you are with us. Please don’t do anything stupid.” Fear laced her voice. She had just found him. What if something happened? Could she survive it? Her wolf whimpered.
A knock sounded at the open door. “Dimitris, they’re here.” Alek stood in the hall, his hands braced on each side of the door frame. “What do you want us to do?”
Dimitris raised his head from Cate’s, never loosening his hold on his mate. “Tell Mylo to allow the alpha and his second in. No one else can enter the estate.” Alek nodded once before turning to walk away.
Dimitris watched his brother leave before turning his gaze back to hers. “With only two on the estate, you should be safe. I will talk to them on the front steps. I want you to stay in the house. Do not come out for any reason.”
