Filed to story: Luna Lovette and Alpha Kodak Story
When a soaking-wet Dominic appeared at Shaya’s side, fidgeting with a weird grimace on his face, she looked at him questioningly.
He wiped a hand over his brow. “Is it hot in here, or is it just you?” Naturally, Nick’s fist went flying at his jaw. Laughing, Dominic barely dodged it. He had to be suicidal.W hile the males loaded the vehicles early the next morning, Shaya pulled Lovette aside in the front yard and told her all about Nick’s cognitive functions degenerating. She’d wanted to do this since last night but hadn’t been able to get her alone while the house was so crowded.
“Jesus.” Wide-eyed? Lovette blew out a long breath. “Well, that sure explains a hell of a lot. And now I certainly no longer feel like strapping him to a bed and smashing his ankles with a sledgehammer like Kathy Bates in
Misery.” She sighed, her expression sympathetic. “You want to know if I can heal him.”
“Yes. Amber’s powerful, but so are you.” Seeing reluctance on Lovette’s face, Shaya quickly added, “All I’m asking is that you try.”
Lovette dragged a hand through her hair. “It’s not that I don’t want to heal him-it’s that I’ll hate myself if it doesn’t work and I’ve let you down this badly.”
Shaya hugged her reassuringly. “I would never see it as you letting me down.” She pulled back and held her best friend’s gaze. “Not ever, I promise. Will you please try?”
Exhaling heavily, Lovette nodded. “Let’s get back home first. Then I’ll try, okay?”
“Thank you.” Seeing that Nick was approaching wearing an exasperated expression, Shaya smiled. Her wolf practically melted-she was so pathetic. Once he was up close, he pulled her against him. “You look totally pissed off.”
“Of course I’m pissed off.” He gestured to the vehicle behind him. “My motor home is full of a number of wolves, and I’ll have to deal with them for the next five hours.” Dominic, Greta, Kathy, Amber, Kent, Jesse, Bracken, and Zander had all decided they would prefer to travel in the luxury of the motor home rather than any of the other vehicles. “Thank God I’ll have you to keep me calm. You have to sit up front with me or I’ll lose it.”
“How did you cope with being an Alpha for so long when you don’t like having lots of people around you?” asked Lovette, genuinely flabbergasted.
“Like I told Shaya, I’d killed the pack’s old Alpha, and no one wanted the position. I did what was fair to them.” He looked at Shaya then. “And now that I’ve finally got free of that life, I have Derren doing his best to make me form a pack. Oh, don’t think I hadn’t noticed what he’s been doing by deferring to me and involving Jesse, Bracken, and Zander more.”
Shaya gently ran her nails down his chest, trying unsuccessfully to stifle a smile. “In Derren’s defense, those guys follow you like you’re a guiding light anyway.”
At Lovette’s chuckle, he growled. “I’m glad you find this so amusing.”
A passing Greta, who had clearly picked up on Nick’s frustration with Lovette, patted his arm consolingly. “Don’t pay any attention to Tiny Tim.” She tossed Lovette a scowl and then carried on walking.
Lovette snorted, trailing after the woman. “At least I’m not so old that my birth certificate has expired.”
A laugh burst out of Shaya, making Nick’s own burst free. When her laugh abruptly died and her smile faded, Nick followed her gaze to find Amber staring at her from across the yard. The female flashed him a smile, but not before he’d seen the contempt for Shaya in her eyes. It made his wolf snarl.
Dismissing Amber with a look, Nick cupped Shaya’s chin. “Whatever she said to upset you, ignore it.” He’d offer to deal with Amber for her, but he had come to learn that-dominant or submissive, human or shifter-females liked to deal with shit that involved other females.
“Did you know that dominant/submissive pairs have difficulties with fully bonding?”
Nick released a heavy breath. “Yes. But we won’t have that difficulty.”
To her surprise, he looked and sounded absolutely positive. “What makes you so sure?”
He dropped his forehead to hers and swept the pad of his thumb over his claiming mark, liking her answering shudder. “If we can get past our other issues, we can get past this too.”
She supposed he had a good point, but she wasn’t sure if that made him right. “And we’ll get past this other business too. We will get you healed.”
“You’re not healed?” asked Roni, having overheard.
Turning to face his sister and seeing the panic in her expression, Nick inwardly groaned. Respecting her too much to blow her off, he told her about the headaches and the memory lapse. “Like Shaya said, this is something we’ll get past.”
Roni put a hand to her forehead, her eyes sad and anxious. “God, this is horrible.”
With cautious steps, Kathy suddenly approached, obviously worried about Roni’s panicky state. “What’s wrong, honey?” She ran a hand over Roni’s hair. “You look pale. Is everything all right?”
“You have to tell her,” Roni told Nick. “She deserves to know.”
“Know what?” asked Amber.
Great, thought Nick. Taking a preparatory breath, he once again explained the situation.
“You’re not healed?” echoed Amber, stunned and panicked. “That can’t be possible. I healed you. I healed you; I did.”
“It hasn’t worked,” Shaya told her gently. It was hard not to be gentle when Amber looked genuinely distraught. “His cognitive functions are degenerating again.”
Amber shook her head in denial. “No, I healed him.”
“You tried, but it hasn’t worked.”
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?