Chapter 8
Near the road that led into the compound, two of Modess’ wolves were engaged in battle with a white wolf he didn’t recognize. That alone pissed him off. Outsiders should know better, and if they didn’t, they would!
Beside him Bull shouted, “STOP!” He took off at a run, which had Modess staring at his Beta in confusion as he too raced toward the brawl.
Before Modess could intervene, Bull was already pulling the two gray wolves off the white. Behind him, Hillary cried out, “NOOOO!” He turned to find her racing toward them.
“Leave her alone!” Hillary shouted. When she tried to launch herself into the melee, Modess caught her around the waist and hauled her body back into his, protective instincts surging to the fore. Hillary struggled in his hold. The feel of her hot, lush body against his was torture, but her distress was about to have his wolf exploding from him.
Turning, he watched the white wolf shift. It was the blonde from Shadow Wolf. The one Bull had been interested in, Simone.
“Get the fuck back,” Bull shouted shoving Henry and the other wolf, Modess recognized as one of his enforcers, Able. The rest of his pack was beginning to gather, several already shifted and ready to battle.
Simone stayed on the ground, Bull standing in front of her, clearly prepared to defend her as she clamped a hand onto the vicious bite on her leg. She was bleeding in several places and as Hillary took in the sight of her, she whimpered. That was all it took.
Modess kept Hillary pinned tightly to him but let the heavy weight of his authority crack in his tone as he commanded, “Everyone leave!”
Instantly, his shifters and wolves melted back to wherever they’d come from. All of them except Bull who faced Modess, hands fisted, head lowered. His eyes locked on Modess as he snarled up at him in clear defiance.
Interesting.
“Simone?” Hillary’s plea had his eyes lowering back to Simone and the second he released Hillary, she ran to her friend.
Bull snarled at Hillary as she passed and that had Modess moving. One second he was watching Hillary’s hands rove her friend’s injuries and the next he had Bull’s shirt fisted in a white knuckled grip.
“Stand the fuck down, Bull!” He couldn’t explain his wolf’s visceral need to defend against Bull’s snarling at Hillary. By the look on Bull’s face he could tell his Beta was having the same issue with Simone. “No one’s going to hurt her.” His eyes sliced to where Hillary was accepting the shirt Wanda whipped over her head and handed her before she pressed it to Simone’s leg. Okay, no one’s going to hurt her more than they already have.
Releasing Bull, he turned to look down at Simone. “What are you doing here, Shadow Wolf?”
Lip trembling and hands shaking, Simone spoke without meeting his eyes. “I came to check on Hillary. She was sent away against her will. No one told me. I had to make sure she was okay.”
Hillary sobbed and threw her arms around Simone who hugged her back just as tightly.
“She’s hurt pretty bad,” Wanda spoke quietly from beside him. “We should…”
“I’m on it!” Without direction, Bull waited for Hillary to pull back from the hug before he bent and lifted Simone into his arms. He stalked back toward camp with Hillary fast on his heels.
Modess and Wanda watched. Leaning toward Modess, Wanda asked, “Is he acting…”
“Yeah,” Modess cut her off before snarling, “He is.” He followed Bull and Hillary toward the cabin of their Medicine Woman.
***
Hillary was so damn relived that Simone was okay. Most of her wounds had healed quickly except for that bad bite on her leg. It had gone to the bone and shifters didn’t heal quickly from wounds like that.
Modess was pissed that Henry and Able had attacked an approaching outsider without consulting him first. It was bad form, and apparently not the first time Henry had overstepped his bounds.
“She’s gonna be okay,” Wanda assured. She squeezed Hillary’s shoulder as they worked in the kitchen preparing lunch for the pack. Wanda and Hillary had become fast friends. Hillary had even been formally introduced to Wanda’s mate, Christian, who’d been the one to drive Hillary to Blood Lust. She’d also met Wanda and Christian’s son, Evan. He was eleven and just as rambunctious as the young male shifters back at Shadow Wolf. Hillary really liked Modess’ sister and was so grateful that Wanda had been just as welcoming to Simone, which only endeared Hillary to her further.
“I wish she could stay in the guest cabin with me.” Hillary had said the same thing to Wanda for the past two days since Simone had been at Blood Lust, but she knew it couldn’t happen.
“Me too,” Wanda looked down at her fingers and fidgeted with them almost nervously. “But there’s no bed in the guest cabin and Simone deserves to be comfortable right?”
Hillary’s response was immediate. “Yes.” Even now her lower back whined from the discomfort of her previous night’s sleep. The oversized chair where she slept was getting less and less comfortable with each passing night. Tonight, she’d try making a blanket bed on the floor or else she’d shift and sleep curled up in wolf form because her poor aching body couldn’t take many more nights of being scrunched up like she’d been. Her brow crinkled as her thoughts fled her own comfort to think on Simone’s. “You think Bull is bothered that she has to stay with him?”
Initially, Simone had stayed in the cabin of the Medicine Woman, Mary Alex, but when most of her injuries had healed, she’d been moved. Needing a place to stay, Modess had declared that Simone would stay in Bull’s guest room.
“He doesn’t mind, sweetie. Bull is a really good guy.”
“I just feel bad.” Hillary’s hands were covered in flour. She rolled out a thick sheet of dough that she would hand cut into rows of biscuits before baking to accompany the three huge pots of stew simmering on the stove. “She came here for me and she got hurt because of it. Now, she’s being guarded by the Beta while she heals and I just feel…”
“Hey,” Wanda bumped her shoulder. “Believe me, Bull is not guarding her. He really doesn’t mind her being at his place.” She waggled her eyebrows.
“Wait!” Hillary stopped rolling. “Does he like her?”
Wanda grinned, shrugging one shoulder up to her ear. “Maybe.”
The information was surprisingly comforting. Hillary hadn’t interacted much with Bull, but from what she’d seen, he was a patient and considerate man. Having him look out for Simone couldn’t be a bad thing, especially with Henry and Able having been punished for attacking Simone. Honestly, Hillary had been worried that they’d try to go after her again, but under the Beta’s watch, Simone was safe.
“Just something in the air!” Wanda smiled as she melted a bowl of butter in the microwave for slathering on the biscuits. “I love playing matchmaker and if everything goes right, everybody will be over the moon in love by fall. It’s so exciting!”
“Everybody?” Hillary asked. “Who else?”
“Oh!” Wanda’s eyes rounded. “Just…” She shook her head and waved the basting brush she held sending dots of butter everywhere. “Other…pack…members.”
Hillary grabbed a kitchen towel and tried to hold it under the basting brush Wanda still held in the air. “Okay. Well good luck with that. How about we set that brush on the counter?”
Looking at the brush in her hand as if just now realizing she was holding it, Wanda quickly lowered it to the counter. “Sorry,” she muttered. “I’ll help you clean the kitchen. I promise!”
They worked in silence for a while until finally curiosity got the best of Hillary. “So…are you trying to make a match for Modess? Is he one of the ones you were talking about?” Her cheeks singed when Wanda shot her a knowing look with a smirk on her lips.
“Why? You interested?”
“No!” she answered too quickly. “Was just…” She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. “Curious.”
Wanda’s smile dipped, her expression going serious. “My brother’s been alone for a long time. I’d give anything for him to find his mate, to be happy. He’s worked so hard to earn this pack and then to build it up to what it is now.”
“Earn the pack?”
Wanda stopped slathering butter on the uncooked biscuits with the brush she’d reclaimed. “Our parents died in battle. Our last Alpha was a tyrant, always trying to take territory, take females. Take, take, take. It cost me and Modess our mom and dad. Dad fell in a territory dispute and Mom was trying to get to him.” She swallowed hard. “Because we had no blood relatives left, we were placed at the bottom of the pack.” Her eyes glistened when she looked at Hillary. “We were just kids. I can’t tell you how much we struggled, how hurt we were. I was lost, aching all the way to my soul, but Modess had a plan. From the second we were alone, he worked to take care of me, to grow fierce and strong. Once I realized what he was doing, I ate only two meals a day so he could have my dinner.”
Hillary shook her head, not following.
“He had to become a beast. He tried to refuse, but I wouldn’t let him. We both knew that if we were going to survive, it was what we needed. He had to become the thing that twisted us.
The whole time our Alpha never stopped going to war. Our pack fought nearly every damn pack in the state and all the while, Modess grew and learned and waited. On his eighteenth birthday, he challenged for Alpha. It was unheard of.” She chuffed a watery laugh. “A teenager going after the Alpha.” Suddenly her tone was reverent as she looked directly at Hillary. “You should have seen him. He was vicious. He beat the Alpha in under a minute. Killed him,” she snapped her fingers, “Like that!” Her brows dipped in a scowl. “The Beta stepped up because there was no way he was going to answer to a teenage boy. Modess took him down too and after him, an enforcer. More stepped forward for challenge, but the pack refused to allow it. They wanted change. Modess was it, so they made all other challengers wait. For two weeks, Modess fought. Every single day he bled and battled. I was so damn scared that I’d lose him.”
Tears streaked down her cheeks. “But every time he ended up on bottom, he’d find me in the crowd and be renewed into the fight. He refused to give up. He didn’t do that for the title, Hillary. He didn’t care about being Alpha. He did it so that I wouldn’t be a bottom feeder. He didn’t want me used and treated like shit. He killed and clawed his way to Alpha to save me and there isn’t a damn thing I wouldn’t do for him.” Swiping her cheek on her shoulder, she sniffed. “You asked if I was looking to make a match for Modess. Fuck yeah, I’m looking. He deserves all the happiness in the world and it’d be my honor to help him find it. I pray every day for a woman, worthy enough of his love, to find her way to our pack.”
Hillary’s chest tightened and she wanted so damn badly to be that woman. Modess was, hands down, the sexiest man she’d ever seen, but to hear his story, to hear what he’d done to protect Wanda… Hillary wanted that kind of loyalty and love with a desperation that stole her breath. But she was a temporary fixture here at Blood Lust and besides, she knew she wasn’t Alpha mate material. She was plain old Hillary with wild hair and an excess twenty pounds. Alphas didn’t look for mates like her. No, they wanted power and sleek beauty, and while Hillary wasn’t submissive, she wasn’t overly aggressive either.
“I’m sorry about your parents, Wanda. And I’m glad you had Modess to protect you. He shouldn’t have had to go through all that just to keep you safe. I can tell the pack is better for it, and whether you realize it or not, he’s better for it. Doing something like that had to give him back power that was taken when your parents died and he was too young to be able to do anything about it.”
Wanda was staring at her intently and Hillary felt compelled to continue.
“He needed to be able to do that. Men like him aren’t scarred from the fires of those battles. They’re built from them. What happened created this beast Alpha, this Alpha that would do anything to protect innocents and to defend a code. I know I’ve only been here a short while, but I can tell he’s like that. Isn’t he?”
Wanda dipped her head in a nod.
“He’s a good man. Any woman would be lucky to have him and I hope you find him what he deserves because he really does deserve happiness. You both do.”
Wanda’s eyes filled with tears again as her trembling lips lifted into a smile.
Wanting to change the subject, Hillary asked, “How’s Christian? You happy with him? Is he a good mate?” She already knew the answer because she’d seen Wanda and Christian together. They couldn’t keep their hands off each other, but it wasn’t always sexual. No, there were frequent forehead kisses and tender hugs. They were always touching when they were near each other. Hillary longed for that type of affection.
“He’s the best,” Wanda beamed. “At first, Modess refused to let us be together, but when Christian challenged Modess for me, well that was it.”
Shock laced Hillary’s tone. “He challenged Modess?”
“Yeah,” Wanda beamed proudly. “They didn’t battle, didn’t need to. That one act earned him my brother’s respect. Modess wanted someone who was willing to fight for me like he was willing to fight for me.”
“Wow! That’s romantic.”
Wanda scrunched her nose. “I always thought so.”
The door to the kitchen banked open and startled both women who spun to find Modess’ large frame filling the doorway. His eyes shot straight to Hillary and held a moment.
“Brother? What’s…what’s up?”
Modess slid his eyes from Hillary to Wanda and just as quickly back. Wordlessly, he simply stood there and stared until Hillary felt her cheeks flame under the scrutiny. Her inner wolf sat up at full attention.
“Lunch,” he finally said, but it was nearly unrecognizable with the animal growl polluting his words. “When’s lunch?”
In her periphery, Hillary saw Wanda look from her brother to Hillary then back. For some reason, she couldn’t break his gaze though.
“Noonish,” Wanda supplied. “Same time as every day.”
Eyes still holding Hillary’s, Modess grunted and then turned just as abruptly as he’d arrived and disappeared out the door.
“What in the fuck was that?” Wanda asked.
Staring at the now vacant doorway, Hillary’s heart was racing a mile a minute. Her wolf was baying for her to follow the Alpha. Instead, she tore her eyes from the door and quickly looked down. “I-I have no idea.”