4: Jack - In The Pack Read online

  He didn’t even blink. He shrugged as if it didn’t matter at all. C’est la vie. That’s life as he knew it. It was all hell to him.

  But then, Hood’s a lone wolf. Oh, he plays at ‘pack’, but the man needs to settle down, find a match that works for him. Maybe that’s the problem. With all the genetic info in front of him, he can’t bring himself to settle for anything less than perfection. I feel sorry for him.

  I knew, at that moment, that I could never settle for what he had. Oh, he had all the money in the world. Or, at least, enough to burn. And plenty of females within reach. And with his arsenal of medications, and the facility he had at hand, he could fuck his brains out.

  Except, from what I heard out of the mouths of bitches, he was stingy with his personal favors. Had had them all once, then discarded them. Let me restate that. He took them all often in the habitat, but it wasn’t ‘in his bed’. Only Giselle had held his interest there for very long. And she’d disappeared.

  They got downright bitchy when I asked about it. I don’t really care about her. Just natural curiosity. And, I think she’s a key to something, a lock I haven’t found yet. Hell, I’m not even sure what they’re locking up.

  Well, I know some of what they’re locking up.

  So, Hood says to me, “Hell would have been letting you out to work through this on your own.”

  “So you say.”

  “You don’t seem to care if you ever leave here. I can’t help but wonder if it’s an act.”

  I shrugged. Leaning back, nonchalantly--I hope, I said, “I figure my family thinks I’m dead by now. I’m sure my lawyer saw to those details, good man that he is.”

  Hood tipped his head. I knew I wasn’t off on that mark.

  “So, here I have food, females, a roof over my head.”

  I have to admit, the feel of the outdoors that they’d simulated had more and more appeal to me. I’d always been an outdoors type of guy. And I think that’s part of why I was selected for the program. Funny, huh? I was a natural choice...to be unnatural.

  I asked, “What more can a man want? I don’t have to worry about death or taxes any more.” I grinned. “Death would be a favor--something I don’t fear any more. And taxes? I’m off the hook on that.”

  He chuckled. “I freed you from both worries.”

  I offered him a mock bow. “And you sent me room service...numerous times.”

  “Gestures of friendship, that’s all.”

  “How can I ever replay the overtures you’ve made to make my life better?” I was joking, of course.

  But Hood’s eyes grew serious. I felt, more than saw, a change in him. An alertness. He asked, “You think you would like to try?”

  I leaned forward, instantly wary. “What did you have in mind?”

  Oh, I knew it had to do with the genetics research. I knew he had found some matches for me. The bitches continuously talked about the extraction of semen that they had to submit themselves to--after I’d been with them. They didn’t like that.

  But, I didn’t realize this until later, they were all human-born garou, chosen for variety’s sake, to appeal to my natural man. Actually getting pregnant by me wouldn’t have been a positive in the werewolf book of generations. I explained that, didn’t I?

  I think that was the first time I ever saw indecision in Hood. Oh, I think it killed him to do what he did. I think it went against all his own morals. But it proved, more than anything, how much he believed in what he was doing.

  In short, he sacrificed the one thing precious to him. I have no doubt that he felt like he’d put his most beloved on the chopping block, and held her head down for the axe to fall.

  Not Giselle. He didn’t have half the affection for her. I’ve already said that. At least--he never showed it if he did. Though, now that I think about it...maybe by lining me up with Giselle in the first place, Hood showed that nothing he cared about, or no one, would get in the way of his ultimate purpose.

  I think I told you that Hood has never fallen in love, as far as I know. Right? I’m rethinking that. I mean, that doesn’t mean Hood doesn’t love anything.

  He beat around the bush. Wringing his hands a little, he said, “You’re one good-looking son of a bitch, you know that?”

  I laughed. “Trying to butter me up?” I held my hands in the air. “Sorry, you had your chance. You’re not gonna find me butt up, with you on my back ever again. At least, not without a fight.”

  That made him laugh. We both looked away, blushing. It was funny as shit.

  He said, “Yeah, well...we do what we have to do.” The air between us changed--just for a second--remembering back made us tense. But, we both knew that, and on dwelling on it, wasn’t what we were sitting there for. His words echoed in my head. “We do what we have to do.”

  He was right. I could tell that was why he was talking to me like he was. He felt that it was time to move on. He was doing what he had to do.

  And, by God, I was ready, too.

  “Just lay it out there. All I can do is say sure, or kill me now. Right?”

  Hood smiled at me. I felt genuine affection. Perhaps it was the fact that his DNA, in some degree, ran through my veins.

  He rubbed his face a few times, then finally said, “You were selected for breeding purposes. You know that.”

  I chuckled. “Well, I would have had to be dumb fucking blind not to see that.” After all, I’d been fucking from the moment I walked into Lobos. Except for those blank days. And I’d just come off some of those. Woke up rested, hungry--for more than food.

  “I’ve run the database and found a list of matches.”

  “Something about the list bothers you?”

  Did I mention that he’d already told me that he wanted me to mate up, and get a female pregnant? He’d mentioned that more than once. The bitches had told me that was the plan. And Giselle had been damn near wistfully sad over the fact that she wasn’t lined up for that job.

  Hood skewered me with his gaze then, and said quietly, “I want you to take my sister.” He didn’t blink. He didn’t move. He just waited for my reaction.

  I wanted to laugh it off with, “You really want me to be part of the family?”

  But I sensed that an attempt at levity, or anything flip, could make him strike me down--he was that edgy.

  I weighed my options. Okay. I could turn him down. He would either kill me on the spot, or offer me another bitch. Either way, I wouldn’t be on the top of his pal list.

  I could take his sister, see how it went. But I knew if it didn’t go well, I’d be the one put down. There wouldn’t be any walking away.

  That would buy me time, if nothing else. I said, “Why don’t you tell me about her?”

  Chapter Five

  “As you know,” Hood said, “we want to see what happens when you breed with a lupus-born female.”

  I didn’t say, that seems unnatural to me. I knew it set unnaturally with him, too. We were of one accord on that. But Hood’s work, all he wanted to prove and disprove, hinged on that one experiment. The fact that he put his sister on the line absolutely astounded me.

  Here’s a kicker. He said she was lupus-born. She believed she was. But now...I question all genetics. Call me a cynic. Nothing at Lobos is as it first seems. I mean, think about it...why would the pure-born want to breed with the freaks of their existence? Something isn’t quite right about that. Call me wary.

  Telling me to fuck his sister, that was definitely screwed up. Especially when I heard on one hand that he was a fucking supremacist, and knew on the other hand that he was biting humans and creating unnaturals himself. It didn’t jive.

  “Why your sister instead of one of the others?”

  That was the crux of the discomfort between us, I knew.

  He picked his words carefully, chopping up his answer between working his jaw. “Well, first of all, she’s about to come into her first change.”

  That surprised me. “She’s young?” It never occurred to
me that she was a teenager, but I had to wonder...how old?

  His eyes flashed. He said, “You’re not old.”

  Early twenties. Almost over my Olympian prime. Kind’ve funny that I was almost a has-been and I wasn’t much over twenty. Stupid.

  Hood was a good-looking man. Not that I was looking, but I suddenly had an interest in his genetics. Maybe I should have before, after I found out what his bite had done. And before you go and get all weird on me and say that this smacks of incest all of a sudden, let me explain what I learned about the DNA dump that bite caused.

  There is a basic lupine DNA that all wolves have. A bite drops that plus a hormone enhancing combination of other secretions. Male stuff, since I was bit by a male. Thank God I wasn’t bit by a female. I might have found myself exhibiting more feminine traits. That would have been a much harder adjustment.

  So, there was nothing in his bite or the change in my system that would connect genetically like a brother to sister breeding. That part of the DNA was not transferred.

  Yeah, I was catching up on Genetics 101. You should, too.

  I’ve wondered, since then, if he selected several specimens, put them through the paces, and I graduated top of the class...which seems more likely than me being the only one. Maybe the others had been assigned to other females. I’m not privy to that info.

  He explained, “I think you’ll like her.” Quickly, he added, “She’s nothing like the women here.”

  “What makes her different?”

  He had a hard time putting her into words. That, more than what he said, conveyed how hard it was for him to offer her to me.

  “What’s her name?”

  “She lives in a place called Pack City.”

  I’d heard about the place already. Wolf preserve. Acres and acres, miles of natural habitat, protected by the government. I let him tell me about it.

  “I go there sometimes to think, and clear my head.” He got more comfortable, offered me a drink, took one for himself. The fact that he prolonged telling me her name said volumes about his reticence--like he was still thinking of retracting the offer, if I gave the wrong answers during that last interview.

  I tried not to let it bother me. I work well under pressure. “Nice scenery, eh?”

  This knowledge, how special his sister was to him, dawned on me, and I knew he handed me power--although I couldn’t quite grasp what that meant at the time.

  He smiled. “No smog.”

  Now, I knew there were plenty of places where there was no smog. I also knew that there was a ‘no holds barred’ thing going on at Pack City, too. Just like Lobos.

  Taking a sip of his drink, he said, “Miles to run. You’d like it there.”

  “Probably would.”

  “Look. When she goes crinos for the first time, she’s gonna go nuts. I don’t want any shit for brains taking advantage of her.”

  “No brother would.”

  “You don’t understand. She’s not...not just any bitch.”

  “Of course not, she’s your sister.” I tried to understand what he was trying to convey to me.

  He shook his head. “No. She really is the top.”

  I tried to work through what I knew about pack behavior. I asked, “So, if she’s the top female in her pack...or capable of getting there once she gets older--if she lives that long--” Hood stretched his neck at the honesty I was laying out, but he didn’t interrupt me. “Then why isn’t the alpha male at Pack City sniffing her up?”

  God knew I’d sniffed everything I could get near. I knew an alpha male running a pack would. Yeah, I was already thinking toward that whole deal. Breaking up the packs I’d heard of--in my mind. There were plenty of cities like this Pack City, dotted all over the global map. Which brings me back to Giselle...and her sudden disappearance. Nobody talked about it, but I knew Hood was as tense as ever.

  But this discussion about Pack City, that came easy to him. He smiled a little when he said, “Leer and I go way back.”

  “Leer?”

  He nodded, downed better than half of his drink, swished some around his mouth before letting it ride down his throat. “Yeah. He just took a mate not too long ago. She’s a breeder. Anybody explained that to you?”

  “Kin? Related genetically, but not a manifesting werewolf until...after late puberty. Right?”

  “Something like that.”

  “I heard that was something to catch.”

  We shared wolfish grins and nodded into our cups, both thinking about chasing that kind of tail. You know, the almost impossible.

  He said, “It’s hard to come by. The bitches usually track them down before we get a whiff. Very few ever reach puberty. We’re looking at chipping them at birth, and maybe putting them in safe places.”

  That didn’t surprise me. Was there anything they weren’t thinking of doing? I pretended that his comment hadn’t sunk in. I could mull it over later. I said, “I don’t quite get the difference between them and the ones that are born human in the pack.”

  “Most kin don’t shift. They just put out damn fine offspring.”

  “Some do? Morph, that is?”

  He shrugged. “Very few. Kayty does. Genetic throwback.”

  “Kayty?”

  “Leer’s wife.”

  “Oh.”

  “You’d like her. Took to the pack without a look back. You may find some common ground there.”

  I chuckled. “You trying to get me killed--before I ever meet your sister?” I knew damn well that sniffing up an alpha’s mate would bring on a fight. I wasn’t quite ready for something like that. I liked to pick my battles, remember? And now that the shake was out of my system and the collar off my neck, I was thinking a little straighter.

  “She and Kayty are friends.”

  “Your sister smoothed her way?”

  “Not on purpose, I don’t think, but yeah. Kayty realizes it. But--my sister doesn’t.”

  I noticed again that he wasn’t telling me her name. I wondered why that was? Protecting her from me, in case I got loose, if I didn’t answer his questions right? Probably.

  “They sort of back each other up.” That apparently rubbed Hood wrong, or something. He said, “I want you to break them up.”

  I ignored that. At the time, anyway. “So, what does she look like?”

  “Who? Kayty?”

  I meant his sister, but I let him describe Kayty. He was dancing all around his sister. The more he two-stepped, the more I realized the import of what I was going to do for him.

  It didn’t matter to me that he admired Kayty’s looks, and waxed on about her better features. He did say that she’d written out the story of how she managed to survive her change, and her introduction to pack life--called it Pack Takeover. From what I got out of it, it was a tribute to Leer. I didn’t think I had any reason to read up on what an apparent sex god he was. Legendary, from what Hood said.

  Did I mention that I’d had plenty of time and opportunity to read through the interactive screens and database there at Lobos? Committed as much as possible to memory. That transcript had been in there, but I’d skirted it when I read the short synopsis. But Hood seemed to think it would give me insights that might help me understand...things. So, I’m going to read that first chance I get.