"Shoot! No please don't call him." Maggie begged. The girl looked harmless enough if she could overlook the huge frown on her face. "Look, I don't want to be here. Just show me the way, I need to get out of here as soon as I can."
The girl cocked her head to the side, her mouth moved as if she was chewing a gum. She seemed to be considering Maggie's words then suddenly threw her head back and yelled. "Asher! She's awake!"
"I'll pay you!" Maggie cried desperately.
"What?" There was interest in her voice now as the greedy glint came into her eyes.
Just then Asher appeared at the doorway.
"Whoopies, sorry," the girl said not sounding sorry at all. "Here comes Asher now." She gave Asher the stink eye as she stepped back for him to come through. "A second late and I would have sold my dignity."
He laughed at that. "Tried to bribe you?"
"Not that I'm complaining."
"Thanks." The girl shrugged her shoulders and left.
Maggie had her hands on her waist as she glared at him. "If I had my way you will be in jail right now. What you did was unnecessary. I was fine on my own."
He walked into the room making sure to remain in front of the door in case she got it into her head to bolt. He was huge, a solid wall of pure muscle that was visible even under the fray grey hoodie but Maggie stared him down with her most venomous glare yet.
"I saved your life, gave you a place to stay and clothes so - you're welcome."
"How much do you want? Name your price. If you have a car I can borrow I'll take that and pay for it too."
He watched amused as she spoke. "Unfortunately I do not have a car and even if I did I won't be giving it to you unless I know what you need it for."
"What do you have then? A motorcycle?"
"I can give you a lift to town..."
"I'll buy it off you. How much?"
"It's not for sale."
"Everything is for sale, everything has a price. Name your price. I have the money I am wealthy enough to buy you and everyone else who lives in this shabby town."
"I wouldn't doubt that if I hadn't caught you taking a nap in the woods. I'm guessing luxurious hotels were all booked out then?"
Her eyes flashed. "Are you mocking me?"
He crossed his arms across his chest with an easy smile. "On the contrary, just matching your energy."
"What's that supposed to mean?" She demanded.
"You're the one who woke up in a strange bed with the realization that you have been helped by the stranger you met in the woods. I expect that you would at least show some decency by expressing gratitude yet all you care about is buying me, my pack, my motorcycle, and bribing Ginny." He clicked his tongue. "I'm sorry if I can't find any redeeming qualities to mock."
She pinched the bridge of her nose and muttered a curse under her breath. He was right but her pride was butchered and she wasn't ready to apologize just yet.
"Fine, I'll take the bike and be out of your hair and you can't forget about me and my lack of redeeming qualities."
Asher couldn't help the smile tugging at the side of his mouth. She was rude and way past redemption but he had to give her credit. When he first met her in the woods he had attributed her sour mood to her condition but he could see that she wore her attitude as a second skin. Well, he didn't know her, she wasn't one of his pack members so he was just as eager to get her out of his hair.
But...
"I can't sell my bike to you..."
"Find someone who can..."
"Because there's only two for everyone around here to share. But I can give you a ride to town and drop you off."
"Two!" She was aghast as if the idea of a whole community of wolves sharing two motorcycles was a strange phenomenon to understand. "Jesus! Fine if that's the only way I can get out of here then by all means give me a ride out of here."
Why was she so impatient? Not that he cared but he couldn't imagine why she was so eager to get going. In his experience, someone as wounded and weak as she was when he stumbled on her in the woods should be asleep for weeks especially if the scent of her wolf was so faint. She was frail but she had the eyes and stance of a strong woman ready to tear him in bits with all her strength. Not that he would let her. He was Ptakallis, she was probably Ptakkagaris, her kind was the weaker counterpart of his.
"Well?"
He snapped back to reality. "Well, what?"
"Get on with it."
Her commanding tone annoyed him and suddenly found himself regretting his actions. He should have left her there at the mercy of whatever wild thing was prowling out there to kill her. Scratching his head at a loss of what to do he left her there and went outside to the shed a few feet away from the settlement. One of the bikes was missing. Jax must have taken it out to town to get supplies.
He found two helmets and had just started dusting the thin film of dirt off them with a rag when Ginny entered the shed with her brow raised and a suspiciously innocent look on her face.
"That one is a piece of work, isn't she?"
"You were listening to our conversation." It wasn't a question.
"The walls are thin. And here I thought I was rude."
"I'm not going to gossip about a stranger with you if that's what you're trying to do, Ginny."
"Fine, I'll gossip and you listen. Why did you bring her here?"
"She needed help."
"She is Ptakkagaris."
"I know that."
"I'm not sure you do." She came to stand in front of him and crossed her arms with a huge scowl on her face. "Our kind and theirs don't mix. She wants to go and I think that's a good idea."
"I didn't say I wasn't going to let her go I'm just worried because she's still weak." He returned her frown. "What's it to you anyway?"
"The boys are talking."
"Not to me."
"They'll come soon and what will you tell them?"
"None of your business. Ginny, I don't answer to you. Don't you have something better to do like stalk Leo or something?"
Her face reddened but didn't back off. "You're alpha, you don't answer to a pup like me but I hope you know what to say when Jax and the others come pounding your doors down," she warned before storming out of the shed.
Asher hooked one helmet over the hand grip of his motorcycle and rolled it out of the shed. He didn't want to think about what the others would say. Alpha or not, there were rules and he just broke the second most important rule. It just sucked that the girl he stuck his neck out for her was nothing but a sore pain in the ass.
In a few minutes, the pain in his ass was walking out in one of Ginny’s leather jackets, jeans and boots. He had had to bribe her for them. He couldn’t help but notice how well they encased her shapely legs, fitting her like a second skin. No doubt someone like her was used to having better clothes than Ginny’s coarse ripped jeans but for once Princess High and Mighty was not complaining. He could tell something else occupied her mind as she walked briskly toward him as he stood by the bike waiting.Maggie collected the helmet he held out to her, her eyes sweeping the small ‘town’ that held only a few houses, maybe 8 or 10, in a regular square pattern. Right now it was just her and Asher. While she changed her clothes, the rest of the pack had gone out one after the other and the only few remaining had gone behind closed doors. She could tell she wasn’t welcome. That was no problem. She was glad to be out of their hair.“Ready?” Asher asked.She nodded and hoisted herself on the back
The Dark Storm Board of Directors was made of leaders from the different subunits that made up the Dark Storm pack. While Ezra Storm was the backbone behind the success of the business, employed pack members managed individual sections. Since the conglomeration of the different sectors of Dark Storm Enterprises was the source of livelihood for all the park members, a board was created to unite each section leader for efficiency. Ordinarily, Ezra Storm, as founder and Alpha sat at the head of the table and his vote held the most power. In his absence Maggie’s vote was final. But now without Maggie or Ezra, they needed a new leader. With Ezra out of the way, the snakes could now meet out in the spacious conference room to discuss the future of the pack. The pack’s first Beta, Ezekiel, cousin to Ezra Storm took his usual seat, second to the head. 2 other Beta took their places on the table, and the remaining 2 occupants of the room were the pack warriors, Noah and Caleb. They were assig
“What do you mean she’s still alive? I gave you a simple instruction. Kill her!”Ezekiel watched Vivian march the length of the warehouse. It was one of the empty ones belonging to the pack. It was the one place Vivian always chose to meet him since it was so far out of town and away from the others.As soon as Noah and Caleb kicked him unceremoniously out of the building, he had gotten into his car, drove off, and called her on the way. He had reserved his information telling her instead that he had a matter of great urgency he had to discuss and she had chosen the warehouse. She was a beautiful woman but her heart was colder than ice. He had known her as the young girl growing up with his little niece. They were best friends. Or so he thought. Until Lance.“Didn’t Lance tell you? He killed her himself. I held her down and so did Axel and the rest of us.”She spun on her red-heeled shoes. “You all are wretched incompetent men! All of you are useless as hell!” she suddenly stopped pac
“Am I even doing the right thing?”Maggie stood in front of the mirror at her reflection. She was dressed in a sexy red dress which she had chosen for the night. After spending the whole day at the office with Caleb ready to tackle anyone who came to challenge her authority she was quite disappointed when no one came. But she wasn’t done. She knew they knew about her presence in the city. Surely Ezekiel must have told everyone she was alive. So why did no one come?Caleb had the answer.They knew she was expecting them and would be prepared. They wanted to spring a surprise on her. She had laughed when he said that. She would be the one surprising them. That was why she had gone shopping for the red dress. Her dark coils were washed and conditioned so that they fell freely around her face. Her lips were a dark red, she had gold hoops in her ear and a gold chain that fell between her breasts.It had seemed like a good idea when she thought about it but now that she was dressed up she w
Vivian was scolding him for staying away from the office all day. He had been drinking but no amount of whiskey or wine would make him as drunk as he wanted to be.“I need time to process everything that happened,” he drawled. If there was one thing the alcohol in his system was doing right it was the blurring of his vision. Her face swam in his sight.“I understand, honey,” she smiled sweetly. “But you might want to process a lot faster. You may need to kill her again.”He blinked and regretfully her face became clearer. He couldn’t bare to look into her cold eyes. But it wasn’t only her eyes that bothered him now, it was her words. “What did you just say?”She dropped her hand from his neck to his chin. Now the sharp edge of her sweet smile was clearer. “Margaret Storm is alive to take everything we have worked so hard to take.”He couldn’t breathe as her words began to make meaning in his alcohol-infused brain. “She’s alive? S-She’s…She can’t be.”The slightest pressure of her fing
He slowed down as they got near the clearing. The settlement was still far off into the woods. He was Alpha, he could do whatever he wanted but not to the detriment of his pack. He needed to know he wasn’t endangering them by bringing her in. But Maggie was harmless…wasn’t she?After tonight you still think so? He thought to himself. Those men who pursued her, he recognized them from the Red Light district, they were Ezra Storm’s bouncers. Now the real question was why were they after her?He brought the motorcycle to a stop and shifted so that he could see her under the dim light of the night sky.“Before I risk my neck for you, I need to know what got you in trouble now.”She had stopped trembling but she wouldn’t let him go. When she looked up at him he saw her eyes were puffed and red-rimmed and more tears brimmed in them.“I’m such an idiot.”That makes two of us, he thought to himself.She sniffed and finally let him before sliding off the seat to land softly on the ground. “Tha
But when she woke up after a fitful night the next morning there was no smiling. The first thing she noticed was the shouting and it was coming from right outside of Asher’s apartment.“Sheriff Boston was here this morning wanting a search of the place, do you know why? Because some people were looking for the girl and they are not our kind. If Chase had not put him off what do you think would have happened?!”“If you insist on shouting down my throat I don’t think you’ll be getting any answers from me!”She recognized Asher’s voice. Even though his voice was low and measured, there was a strain to it. She couldn’t tell the number of people who were outside talking to him but she had to assume it was the whole pack. She wasn’t wanted. That wasn’t news to her anymore. She had no pack and no place to call home. Asher was nice to her but even she knew the rules and bonds between pack members. She had to leave.Thankfully the pack members were outside the house and the back door Asher had
“Asher, what are you doing? You will tear down one of your own!” Chase’s veins popped as he struggled against Asher’s wolf. He turned his head to find Ginny hiding behind his sister. “Get out of here!”She didn’t need a reminder to join the others who left earlier. Chase and Carl held Asher down while he trashed about and all the while Maggie stood with her hands to her mouth watching them struggle with the huge black wolf. Carl’s fist suddenly struck Asher’s jaw and a whimper later he stopped struggling and calmed down only slightly. The silence that fell over them was heavy. A few seconds later Asher’s wolf began to transform, forelimbs became hands, hind limbs straightened into legs and the fur on his body faded. He slapped Carl and Chase’s hands away and stood up. His hair was disheveled and a huge frown marred his brow.“You would kill your own kind for a stranger, Ash?” the brown-haired woman clicked her tongue.“Asher…” Maggie tried again. “Let me go. I swear I’ll never cause y