Unexpected Mate

KAI

Kai looked down at the numerous lash marks crisscrossing Meadow’s back—some were very old, some more recent—and a fire flared in his gut, an anger so fierce he was afraid he would shift.

“These scars will never heal,” Doris said, shaking her head. “They…well…she hasn’t gotten her wolf yet.”

Trying to stay calm, he focused on holding Meadow in place while Doris cleaned her back. But as soon as Doris was done, he said, “I…I can’t be in here now, Doris. Can you finish alone?”

She looked at him with concern. “Yes, Alpha,” she said softly.

He went downstairs and straight to the bar, where he poured a shot of whiskey and downed it.

“You okay, Boss?” Jason asked.

Kai stared off into nothing. “First thing tomorrow, I want all my guys here. Beta, gamma, delta, and lead warrior.”

Jason nodded, then motioned upstairs. “She gonna be okay?”

“Yeah, Doc’s just cleaning her up. You can go. But send a text message to the guys. Have them be here at nine.”

“You don’t want me to walk Doris home?”

“No, I’m going to have her stay and keep an eye on the girl.” He followed Jason to the front door. “We’ll talk more tomorrow. Good night, Jason.”

MEADOW

The scent of coffee caused Meadow’s eyes to open. And when she looked around the room she was in, she saw a woman sitting comfortably in a chair close by.

“Good morning,” the woman said, setting her coffee cup down and smiling gently.

She was perhaps in her late twenties, early thirties. Caramel hair and green eyes. A peaceful aura.

“My name is Doris, and I’m the pack doctor. Alpha Kai called me in last night to stitch you up. You gave him quite a scare.”

Doris took out a thermometer and placed it under Meadow’s tongue, then picked up her wrist and checked her pulse.

“I’m ordering complete bed rest for a couple days at least. Alpha Kai will have nutritious food brought in for you so you can get your strength back. How old are you, sweetie?” Doris took the thermometer out of her mouth.

“I think seventeen.”

“What do you mean you think?” Doris looked shocked. “You don’t know?”

Meadow shook her head. “My father never celebrated my birthday. I started puberty around four years ago, so I figure I’m around seventeen. I haven’t shifted like other kids my age, so it’s hard to tell.”

“Well,” Doris said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Would you mind if I took some blood samples and ran some tests? Your DNA won’t tell me how old you are, but we can check on your wolf, maybe get an idea of your family line.”

Meadow shrugged. “If it helps. Do you think the alpha will let me stay for a while? Till I get a little stronger? I don’t want to be a bother, but I don’t want to go back to Red Dawn.” She shuddered at the thought.

“He’ll insist on it. In the meantime, you just rest, eat, and get your strength.”

There was a knock at the door, and the other man from the bar last night poked his head in. “I have oatmeal, toast, juice, and coffee for the young lady,” he said, smiling.

There was a small table with two chairs by the window, and the man set the tray down and pulled the curtains more tightly closed. They were sheer, milky curtains—they let light in, but you couldn’t see much through them.

Doris helped her sit up. “Careful. You don’t want your stitches to pull.”

Meadow held her side as she stood with Doris’s assistance, then slowly walked over to the table.

The man stepped back. “I’ll bring you soup and a sandwich for lunch.” His light brown eyes were very friendly. “I’m Jason, by the way.”

“Thank you, Jason.” Meadow sat down and picked up her spoon. “It’s nice to put a name with the face.”

KAI

Daylen, Kai’s beta, cleared his throat. “So, what’s the meeting about?”

The pack leaders were all seated at the round table in front of the big window, the one with Kai’s Bar painted across it.

Kai filled them in on what happened the night before and what he knew so far about Meadow, then told them that he’d already received a call from Cole this morning, demanding he be allowed to look for the girl on Silver Nights land.

“Why would he think we’d allow that just because he demanded it?” Stewart, his gamma, asked.

“Because he’s a self-entitled ass!” Kai said. “I told him I already had two Red Dawn pack members in custody, but that I’d be happy to take more if they came on my pack lands.

“I also told him I’d look into his missing packmate, but if I found the girl and she’d been harmed in any way, I’d be offering her asylum until the wolf council completed an investigation.”

His cousin had become enraged at those words, insisting the girl was his intended mate and had just gotten cold feet. He also said she was a liar, that he shouldn’t believe anything she said if he found her.

Kai looked each man in the eye. “She’s wolfless, not yet shifted, so she can’t recognize her Goddess-gifted mate. But he called her his ‘intended’ mate, so that tells me he knows they aren’t mates, he’s just laying claim to her.

“Doc would like to do more tests on her, but we’re nervous about moving her to the infirmary in case more Red Dawn have infiltrated the pack lands. So, for now, she’ll stay upstairs in Daylen’s old apartment.

“I’m getting a file started on the girl. As soon as I have all the particulars, I plan to submit it to the wolf council. In the meantime, I want security beefed up. I don’t want any unrecognized wolves to just wander our pack.

“Only Doris and you men in this room will know about the girl upstairs—and Jason, of course.”

“Why don’t we just tell Red Dawn the girl is dead?” Stewart asked him.

“They’d want a body.”

David, his lead warrior, rested his forearms on the table. “So let’s give them one. We brought in the body of a girl yesterday. Rogue, unrecognizable.”

“Hmm, that has possibilities,” Kai mused out loud, then mind-linked Doris.

“Yes, Alpha?” Doris answered back.

“Did you have a chance to examine the body of the rogue girl they brought in yesterday?”

“I did. Half her face was missing. Little thing, maybe fifteen or so, reddish-blonde hair. She was mauled by a bear. The real animal kind, not a shifter.”

“So…if we dressed this body in Meadow’s clothes to carry Meadow’s scent and said it was Meadow, could the body pass for her?”

“Ohhh,” Doris linked back. ~“I see where you’re going with this, Alpha. Yes, I believe it could—if the person identifying the body didn’t get too close.~

“I could smear some of the blood I’ve taken from Meadow on the body to mask the scent, use some peroxide on the girl’s hair to blonde it out a little more… I could even add a knife wound to her side.”

“Okay. Let’s do it.”

When Kai grinned, the four other men sitting at the table leaned in.

“What are you planning?” Daylen asked.

“Looks like I’ll be making a call to my crazy cousin about his missing girl. But in the meantime, I need someone trustworthy to infiltrate Red Dawn.

“I don’t want to declare war unless I have to, but there’s been a lot of rumors about that pack. Too many to ignore.” He eyed each man. “I want the council to sanction a takedown.”

***

The next morning, Kai picked up his phone and called his cousin.

“You find her?” Cole growled.

“We found someone,” he said stoically. “Young girl. Blonde. Fifteen to eighteen, Doc can’t tell for sure. Little thing, kinda bony, like she didn’t eat right.” He took a deep breath. “But she’s dead.”

“Dead! What did you do? Did you have her killed?”

“Of course not, you idiot. I don’t work that way. My warriors found her just outside of town, in the woods. From the smell, she was mauled by a bear. Didn’t stand a chance according to the doc.

“Someone stabbed her in the side and she was bleeding. Probably what caused the bear to track her. Anyway, you’re welcome to come try and identify her if you want confirmation.”

“I’ll be there in an hour.”