“What do you mean you’re coming now?” Clark Thomas exclaimed into the phone. His daughter Rachel was unbelievable. She hadn’t called or written him the whole first semester of school, and now, out of the blue, she was asking him to come and pick her up from the train station.
“The train’s arriving in fifteen minutes!” Rachel whined. “And Carmen really doesn’t want to use the bathroom here, it’s gross. We need a ride!”
“Carmen! Who’s Carmen?” Clark exclaimed.
“Just my best friend! We met in Anthropology,” Rachel stated. “She’s going to spend summer vacation with us.”
“Jesus Christ,” Clark growled. “I don’t get a say in who stays in my house now?”
Rachel grew immediately quiet. She knew that when the wolf came out of her father, she had to tread carefully. But Clark clamped his mouth shut. Although he enjoyed his time to himself, the truth was, he had missed his daughter fiercely. He was a loyal, protective father, even if he was considered the biggest hardass of them all by the rest of the pack. And if his daughter wanted to bring a friend home from school, then goddamn it, she would bring her friend home. At least he’d get to see her before she graduated.
“Are you coming or should I call a cab?” Rachel finally squeaked. Clark sighed.
“I’ll be there, but you might have to wait about five minutes. I’m kind of in the middle of something.”
“Great!” Rachel said brightly. She hung up before Clark could say anything else, probably because she was afraid he would change his mind.
“Your daughter?” Alexander asked, disapproval dripping in his voice. His pale, gaunt face seemed capable of no emotion but disdain. Clark had been tempted to deck him in it quite a few times (just since their meeting that morning, he’d been tempted to strike him hundreds of times if you really wanted to be thorough), but it didn’t seem worth the hassle he’d have with the counsel. Someone needed to be able to deal civilly with these assholes. It was for the good of the pack.
“My daughter,” Clark confirmed, fixing a stern look on him. Alexander scoffed, but he said nothing else. “I have to go pick her up from the train station. But don’t think this is over.”
Clark grabbed his brown leather jacket off the backrest of his chair and stormed out of the office. Everything had been going wrong ever since the pack had welcomed in the newcomers from out of town. Ancient bloodlines of shifters had coexisted peacefully in Stonebrooke for decades until now. But somehow, the second those good for nothing bastards from out of town had naively been allowed into the community by the counsel, they had managed to get their filthy hands all over everything that made the town great. They were making the place inhospitable.
Clark climbed into his truck and turned the engine over, allowing it to sputter as it tended to do until it finally ignited. They thought they could bully him out of his property? Out of his job? Somebody was going to get it if he didn’t watch himself, and he had a strong feeling it would be worth the punishment.
He fumed darkly as he sped through the town roads, not giving a second thought to the speed limits. Nobody obeyed them much anyway; his pack usually stuck to motorcycles and had excellent command of their vehicles. But since he had been tuning up his bike when Alexander had given him the call about his deed, all the pent-up rage went to his head and he had immediately hopped in the truck to take care of things instead of taking his bike off the stand. Good thing too, because apparently, Rachel had brought home a friend. Three couldn’t fit very comfortably on a motorcycle.
Clark growled quietly to himself as he pulled into the train station, a bad habit he had gotten into since the newcomers had come in and shat all over the town like the cockroaches that they were.
“Get the hell away from me!”
Clark’s stomach dropped when he heard his daughter’s voice shouting from deep within the parking lot of the train station.
“Rachel,” he said to himself. He sped through the parking lot, not bothering to heed for the slow people walking idly past. They dodged out of the way and Clark whipped the truck around just in time to see a group of three men standing between him and his daughter.
“Get the fuck out of here before I tear you shitwads apart,” Clark barked.
The men turned to face him, surprised by the intervention. Rachel grabbed her friend’s hand and tugged her around the group of men. Clark’s eyes followed the girl, presumably Carmen, as he got his first good look at her. Although they were clearly being harassed, Carmen’s face was composed, her full, perfect lips revealing nothing of the way she was feeling. She had long, blonde hair that fell lightly over her shoulders as Rachel pulled her along, and suddenly, his eyes were met by the most shocking green he had ever seen.
He was caught off guard by Carmen’s gaze, and was surprised when his thoughts were broken by the voice of one of the pathetic sacks of shit that had been harassing his daughter.
“What are you going to do about it, old man?”
“Old?” Clark asked, raising his eyebrow.
“Uh oh,” Rachel said, tugging Carmen behind her father.
Clark was a lot of things. Rugged, for example. He also happened to be strong, experienced, and wise. But old was not among the adjectives he would choose to describe himself with. In fact, he had been told, time and again, by more women than he was proud to admit to, that he looked a little too good for a man heading into his late forties.
A yelp of pain rang out into the air. Clark had barely registered the beginning of the fight. It started with “old” and ended with three punk ass kids writhing on the ground.
“Mind your fuckin’ manners next time!” Clark barked at them. “That’s my daughter! These are women!”
Clark glanced behind him, and his heart jolted when Carmen’s beautiful face spread into an easy smile. Women? What the hell was he talking about? These were kids. Women were in their thirties and upward. Carmen couldn’t be more than twenty. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to teach a couple of worthless assholes a thing or two.
“If I catch you disrespecting anybody else’s daughters, you’re mine. You got that?” Clark said, starting toward them menacingly.
They flinched, burying their faces into the ground and nodding.
“Come on, girls,” Clark said, shaking his head.
“Daddy!” Rachel exclaimed, running toward Clark with her arms out.
“Hi, honey,” Clark said with a sigh.
“Daddy, this is Carmen. Carmen, this is daddy.”
“Hi, daddy,” Carmen said, taking her hand into his and shaking it with a playful, sexy smile on her face. Fire rushed to Clark’s loins. God help him.
“Do you have any luggage?” he asked, clearing his throat and tearing his gaze away from the dimple on Carmen’s left cheek. Shaken, he turned his attention somewhere safe, back to Rachel. What the hell was wrong with him?
“Not much,” Rachel said brightly. “The rest is over here.”
‘Not much’ turned out to be a hell of a lot, and Clark followed his daughter, already exhausted by the pressure of having women in the house again. It was going to be a long summer.