LOBOS: Big Bend Wolves, page 1
The Three Rivers Pack has been deeply embedded in Kerrville commerce and society for generations. They own businesses and hold government offices, including that of sheriff. But the influx of retirees and well-to-do building second homes in the Hill Country has squeezed the shifters for room to run.
The only answer is relocation to a less populated locale and that will require making a deal with the pack that holds that territory. The alliance struck by the two alphas is blood seal, a political mating between the Lobos alpha's daughter and the Three Rivers alpha's son. It's the perfect solution that benefits both tribes.
Except nobody asked Fleet Ryder and Dani Alvarez if they were willing. And they aren't.
LOBOS
Big Bend Wolves
Victoria Danann
Teresa Gabelman
Copyright 2018 Victoria Danann
Published by 7th House Publishing
Imprint of Andromeda LLC
Read more at VictoriaDanann.com and TeresaGabelman.com
PROLOGUE
John Ryder Three Rivers Pack Alpha
At fifty he was old for a pack alpha. He felt it in his bones, but less so when he was in wolf form. That was why he stayed that way as much as he could. But somebody had to run the construction company. In human form. What irony that was. He’d made a living for his family and the pack putting up new construction, the very thing that was driving them away from their home.
When the first rays of light reached the eastern horizon that morning in early December, John Ryder was sitting on haunches, paws stretched out in front of him like The Great Sphinx. It was winter in the Hill Country. The predawn temperature was forty-five degrees, not entirely unpleasant for an outing in a fur coat.
At that place, in that moment, it would be easy to pretend that he was master of all he surveyed. He could see for miles in every direction. Cedars covered rock hills that descended into canyons where tributaries of the Guadalupe River branched off and formed ideal natural venues for summer camps. For that reason, summer was his least favorite time of year. Carloads of families from Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas descended on Kerrville like they were hosting the second coming. Parents dropped their kids off, spent money in town, and left for two to six weeks.
Gray wolves had roamed the territory for seventy thousand years. Their ancestors, the Beringeans, had migrated from the European forests and Russian steppes. As he watched the sky near the horizon turn more lavender and less purple, he mused that a wolf might have sat in that same place watching the sunrise seven millennia before. But John Ryder wasn’t a wolf. Nor was he a man. He was a supernatural creature perfectly designed to be unrecognizable as such by the human population.
He knew he was tempting fate, being out in wolf form at dawn with goat ranchers all around. He wasn’t out for goat that morning. He was thinking more along the lines of chicken fried steak and French fries smothered in cream gravy over at the café. By the time he rose, stretched, and began trotting back to the rock house where he’d lived most of his life and raised a family, he’d come to a decision. The Three Rivers Pack needed to find a new home.
Between the people who were rich enough to afford second and third homes and the retirees, the Hill Country had rapidly become too populated for shifters. It felt like it had happened overnight. They were being pushed out, just like the other wildlife.
Sure. They lived among humans and got along with them fine as long as they were in two-legged form. The problem was they had to have room to run. As wolves. It wasn’t a diversion or a hobby. It was a necessity. If shifters didn’t shift and let their wolves be wolves from time to time, they would begin to deteriorate mentally. And mental decline couldn’t be tolerated in a species who’d survived by hiding in plain sight. The ‘cure’ was euthanasia, a word that defines euphemism.
The light was on in the kitchen, which meant Marva was up. When he stepped through the kitchen door not wearing a stitch of clothing, she looked him up and down with a half-smirk and the same lusty interest she’d shown as a teenager. John Ryder thought of himself as being a lucky man to have a mate who loved and craved his body like they were newlyweds, after thirty years together. He returned her smirk with a knowing smile, pulled her in close and kissed her long and deep. When he pulled back, she sighed. He loved that sigh.
“I know that look,” she said.
He kept her tight against his naked body, but pulled his head back to make eye contact. “What look is that?”
“The one that says you’ve made up your mind about something important.”
He broke away and grabbed the clothes he’d left on the bench by the back door.
As he began dressing, he said, “Yeah.”
The pensive tone told her everything she needed to know. “And you’re not happy about it.”
She waited patiently while he finished dressing. She’d been with him long enough to know the difference between John, her mate, and John, the alpha.
At the moment he was seeing the world through the filter of pack alpha. He’d speak when he was ready and wouldn’t be rushed.
“Can I have some of that coffee?” he said.
She turned, poured and handed him a mug. “You want breakfast here or are you gonna eat at the café?”
“Café.” He leaned back against the kitchen counter and took a sip before saying,
“We have to go.”
“Go?” Marva stopped what she was doing and turned with a question firmly registered in the crease between her brows. “Go where?”
When his pale gray eyes met hers, she recognized the gravity of the moment.
“I mean we have to move,” he said quietly.
Marva sat down heavily at the kitchen table trying to keep her shock from adding to the burden her mate was clearly carrying with stoic pride. “You mean the whole pack.” It wasn’t a question, but a verbal clarification.
Nodding, feeling much older than his years, he simply said, “Yeah.”
It might have come as a surprise to Marva. It would be a surprise to everybody in the pack. And not the good kind. But truthfully, John had been mulling over the problem for years. As alpha, survival of the pack was his responsibility. With an eye on the encroaching population, he knew there was only one way it could end. Move. Or be exposed as shifters with the vast shit chasm that promised.
Since the latter was just not an option, they were going to have to prepare for a whole-pack migration. Several lucrative business enterprises and a lot of real estate was about to go up on the market in Kerrville. But first, pack members had to be told. And he wasn’t expecting even the most adventurous of them to be happy about it. The final decision was his and making it meant that he owned the outcome as well.
The pack was gathered in the barn on the Ryder property. Everybody had brought pot luck. They’d tried to enjoy the food and the company, but there was an undercurrent of anxiety because every adult pack member could read the mood of the alpha well enough to know something was up.
When the alpha finally stood and announced his intention to move them, the responding silence was suffocating. No one wanted to argue, but no one wanted to agree either.
At length, one of the elders cleared his throat and said, “Where are we going,
John?”
“I can’t say for certain yet, Emmett. But I’ve been considering options for a long time. The biggest issue is that there’s no such thing as a desirable place that isn’t already occupied by a pack.” There were murmurs as people whispered to each other their fears about what that might mean. John held up his hand. “I know. We’ve had a good stay here. Most of us are connected to families who’ve been here since before Texas was a Republic. Most of us have never lived any place else.
“So I’m not saying it’s going to be easy.” It hadn’t escaped the pack’s notice that he hadn’t answered the question. “But I’m thinking Big Bend. Out around Alpine.”
The emotional current that ran through the pack was mixed. Some were fearful about the prospect of packing up and leaving everything for parts unknown. But mixed with that was an undercurrent of excitement.
When things settled down, John went on. “Alpine is a small town, I grant you, but there are opportunities there just like there are opportunities everywhere. We’ll make it work just like we always have.” With a small smile he shook his head just a little. “It’s wild out there. You’ll be free in ways you’ve never been free here.”
“Doesn’t that territory belong to the Lobos Pack?” Beverly Mossgreen spoke up.
John’s head swiveled toward her and he stared for a couple of seconds. It wasn’t an official correction, but it was enough unwanted attention from the alpha to make her uncomfortable.
“Yes. Lobos. But I have a plan.” John noticed that both his betas, who happened to be cousins of his, stood opposite each other, off to the sides, leaning against the walls with muscled arms crossed in front of chests. The pose looked casual, leisurely, but would be read by the pack as absolute support for whatever the alpha had to say. “A peaceful transition.”
“What is it?” A female elder sounded anxious and he couldn’t blame her.
A move like the one he was proposing would be hard on any of them, but especially so on those who were older. His face softened for a second as he regarded her. “Don’t worry, Evelyn. Everything will turn out fine.”
He looked over the pack. “In the old days, we would have had to kill the alpha and any loyalists who resisted a takeover. But that was the old days. We’ve made a lot of changes. James owns the auto parts store. Raleigh is a real estate broker. My own mate bakes fucking cookies!”
“I do not bake fucking cookies!” Marva spoke up. “I run a bakery.”
The laughter that rippled through the room helped to ease some of the tension.
“Right.” John smiled her way. “Right,” he repeated. “I bet people in Alpine like cookies just as much as people in Kerrville.”
“I don’t just bake cookies,” she grumbled.
He gave her a look that said, ‘First, I’m teasing you. Second, right now I’m speaking as the alpha. Not as your mate. Take it up with me later. In bed.’
She got the message and ducked her chin slightly in deference. He continued.
“Point is I think it’s time for the old ways to move aside for better ideas. We’re going to try for a bloodless coup.” He glanced at his betas. “Rake, James, and I are going to head on out there and have a talk with the Lobos alpha and his top people. We’ll offer a
‘buy in’ for a piece of their territory around Alpine. I don’t know much about their finances, but I’m guessing that these days it’s hard for even shifters to turn down cash.
“That’s the first part of our offer. Folding money appeals to the two-legged half of our nature. The second part is a little trickier because cash is useless in wolf form. That’s why we need a deal sealed with blood.” He cleared his throat. “The Lobos alpha has a daughter. Mating age. We’re going to arrange an alliance.”
The alpha paused and looked over the gathering, faces almost as familiar as his own in the mirror. He spotted his son in his usual spot, in a far back corner with his friends. The gathering followed John’s line of sight and turned to look at Fleet at the back of the room.
Fleet had been softly chuckling at a joke, only half listening to his dad, when he realized that everyone in the pack had turned to look at him. His world turned serious in a heartbeat and he stood taller, pale gray eyes identical to his father’s, going straight to lock the alpha’s gaze.
“Our son, Fleet.” John nodded toward Marva even though everyone there knew full well that she was Fleet’s mother. “And Lobos’ daughter.”
A range of emotion flashed across Fleet’s features. Confusion. Shock. Anger. And again, confusion, finally resolving in disbelief. He couldn’t possibly have heard right. Could he?
If he was human, he’d tell his father to fuck off. But Fleet Ryder wasn’t human. He was a wolf shifter with two choices; obey the alpha or leave the pack. Since the latter wasn’t really a choice, that left one course of action. He couldn’t disobey. He couldn’t challenge openly. He couldn’t object in any overt way.
So he did the next best thing. He threw his father a hateful look, turned and left. Four young shifter males filed out behind him, partly because they were compelled on a subliminal level. Fleet was oozing alpha traits and the next generation was already paying homage to that.
To say that the Lobos were surprised would be an understatement. The visit from three ranking members of the Three Rivers Pack would have been unusual enough, but the offer compounded the surprise exponentially. In fact, the Lobos were completely unprepared to negotiate. The idea of shifters negotiating for territory or monetary consideration was so unique that it rendered Lobos temporarily speechless.
It took three days just to structure rules for a sit down and get to the talking stage.
Meanwhile, the three Hill Country shifters stayed at a remote rock house and fell in love with Big Bend. There were places where they could run for miles without seeing any sign of humans. The sky was black as velvet, the stars big and bright as diamonds, looking close enough to reach up and touch. In wolf form they were occasionally excited by prints in the red dirt that still carried a faint whiff of cougar or javelina.
They were told by Lobos that big horn sheep were common in the mountains and that black bear frequently wandered through the area.
John, Rake, and James hadn’t realized that their wolves were becoming too civilized until they felt their partially dormant wilder natures began to surface. And they loved it. They felt more alive than they ever had. Their senses were becoming more pronounced and the ancient urge to lay claim to territory was rising and becoming insistent, like it or not. Privately in their hearts, each of the three shifters vowed not to leave without a deal.
Fortunately, as predicted, the Lobos liked the idea of sharing territory for cash. There were some additional stipulations about hunting restrictions. Three Rivers wolves would settle in and around Alpine, would have the run of Big Bend on either side of the river, but there would be strict hunting restrictions to insure that wildlife flourished. In the interest of seeing to it that game remained plentiful and, even more important, that wolves were not hunted, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Rangers patrolling the area were members of the pack. It had taken a chunk out of pack revenue to accomplish that, but Lobos gave it a priority.
The final agreement stipulated that Lobos would have wild game hunting privileges while the Three Rivers pack could hunt by invitation only. Anything outside of that would be considered poaching.
“You’ll have to get your meat chopped up and stocked in a refrigerated case with the red dye and the cling wrap.” One of the Lobos betas laughed. “But it will still be an improvement over living elbow to elbow with humans.” At that he spat on the ground.
Surprisingly, it was easier to get the alpha to agree to pledge his daughter. Perhaps on some level he recognized that it was time for the introduction of new genes.
John Ryder was glad to have a deal and the look of relief on his betas reassured him that he was making a good decision for the pack. He knew that Rake and James weren’t ecstatic about the no-hunting concession.
“Once we get moved,” he told them as they drove away, “we’ll start looking for ways to amend the agreement.”
Rake grinned. “And that right there is why you’re boss.”
On the way back the three talked about how to accomplish the monumental task of migrating an entire pack with deep roots in the community. Homes and businesses would be put up for sale. At the same time scouts would be sent to Alpine to survey local commerce and determine how they could fit in without creating too much animosity from competition. Maybe some local business owners might be ready to sell and retire. That would certainly be a best-case scenario.
Rake declared his intention to run for Sheriff the next time there was an election. It was no joke. Shifters make excellent law enforcement officers so long as they’re the ones giving the orders.
Raleigh and two of his people would make a comprehensive list of all the property for sale in and around town. Some of the pack were more amenable to living in close proximity to humans. Others, like John Ryder, had a strong preference for a little distance between himself and the nearest human neighbor.
Though the move would still be underway, the two contingents agreed that a mating ceremony would bind the packs together at Yule. There’d be a big celebration, paid for by the Three Rivers Pack, followed by a moonlight run so the new arrivals could get a firsthand look at the terrain.
As John Ryder drove east with two betas who were practically vibrating visibly with excitement, he was thinking that he’d feel the same way. If it wasn’t for the fact that his son was in a snit. Fleet hadn’t refused, not that refusal was an option. But the fact that his son hadn’t either spoken or looked him in the face since the night of the announcement caused John more discomfort than he would have liked to admit.
The boy had a duty to his pack and there was no question that he’d do it. John reasoned that mating with a female Fleet had never seen couldn’t be that bad. He sighed and looked out at the passing scenery wondering who he was kidding. He’d had the luxury of making a match with the perfect mate.
ONE
Fleet
“Maybe she won’t be half bad.”
He gave Boone the withering look he deserved for that comment. He’d been Fleet’s friend since they were toddlers and normally, Boone’s easygoing upbeat style was welcome. But not right now. Fleet wasn’t in the mood for a game of ‘it could be worse’.
