“James LeVeau was mated to Leda.” He shook his head. “It’s always a mistake for a man to love a woman that much.”
Alex’s heart constricted at his stark words, but she said nothing. Joshua was still talking so she forced herself to listen.
“It makes a man weak.” He shot a quick glance her way. “Our women have had a hard time producing babies for the past hundred years or so. Whether it’s some naturally occurring phenomena, something we did to ourselves, or a reaction to environmental changes, no one knows for sure. Not that it really matters. The result is the same. That, coupled with the pack wars and the attacks by bounty hunters, has seriously declined our population.”
“You come from a fairly large family,” she pointed out.
He nodded. “My mother was an exception, but even she lost one of her children, the only female in the bunch, to hunters. I think that, coupled with the death of my father a few years ago, was what finally killed her. She just didn’t seem to have the will to go on after that.”
Alex kept her thoughts to herself. While she couldn’t pretend to understand the devastation that the loss of a child and a husband would bring, the woman still had other children. It was obvious that his mother’s death had been hard on Joshua.
“My father,” she prompted, hoping to lead him away from the grim thoughts of his family.
“Leda was pregnant and they were both so happy. She’d already had two miscarriages.” Joshua glanced over at her before turning back to the road. “Both had happened early in the pregnancies. This time, she was healthy the entire time. I’d never seen two people look so damn happy as Leda neared her due date. I was only a young man, but even I noticed their joy. It was almost a living thing and affected everyone around them.”
Alex twisted her fingers around her seatbelt. It was hard to imagine her father happily married, or mated, to someone else. Did werewolves even have marriage ceremonies? Another question she’d need the answer to eventually. “Things went wrong,” she prompted.
“Yes.” Joshua’s voice was dull and flat. “Leda died after about thirty-six hours of hard labor and James went berserk. It was a horrible thing to see such a great man brought so low by love.”
Alex bit her lip to keep from crying out her denial. No wonder Joshua didn’t think a strong man should fall in love. He’d seen so much tragedy and focused so much on the negative aspects that he’d completely blocked out all the positive things love brought to a person’s life.
“It took about six men to pull him away from her body so that she could be cremated. He injured some of them quite seriously. In the end, his wife was cremated, her ashes scattered and James disappeared. At first everyone thought he’d gone to grieve. Then his brother showed up telling everyone that James had sent him.”
“Why didn’t his brother already live there?”
“Families are scattered all across pack land in sort of a loose community. They all fall under the dominion of the larger Wolf Creek pack, but they have a certain amount of autonomy. Ian LeVeau moved back to the main compound, the heart of the pack, and assumed leadership. No one had the heart to fight him for it at the time because everyone was so disheartened at being abandoned by James. Plus, my father threw his support behind Ian, so that was that.”
“So Ian is still running the pack?” It was strange to try to understand the way werewolf society worked, but Alex knew she had to learn if she was going to become a part of it.
“Yes. But everyone knows he no longer wants it and it’s only a matter of time until he either steps down or is challenged.”
“So, what happens if he steps down? Who will assume leadership?”
Joshua scanned the road and began to ease up on the gas. Up ahead, Alex could see a small building. That should be the truck stop. Her stomach growled in anticipation.
“Any man who wants to be leader steps forward. They all fight and whoever emerges the victor is the new leader.”
The coffee was momentarily forgotten. “But that’s barbaric.”
“Get down on the floor, Alex.” He waited until she’d undone her seatbelt and was settled on the floor before continuing. “It’s the way things are among our kind. Only the strongest can lead. No one will follow a weak leader.”
He pulled into the parking lot and brought the truck to a stop. Putting the gear in park, he undid his seatbelt and sat back. “We are your people now, Alex. There are many things you’ll find not to your liking, but you will have to accept them if you are to survive.” He picked up the gun and handed it to her before scanning the parking lot. She assumed everything looked fine because he opened the door and slid out of the seat. “Do you want anything else besides coffee?”
“Food. I don’t care what it is.”
Joshua nodded and shut the door. She noticed he’d kept the vehicle running just in case they needed to make a quick getaway. She gripped the handle of the gun securely as she pondered his words. The metal was warm against her palm. “Who says I need to accept anything?” she muttered aloud. “Maybe it’s the pack that needs to do some changing. If things were so fine and dandy then they wouldn’t have so many problems, now would they?”
Alex freely admitted that werewolf society wasn’t much different from human when it came down to it. Fighting for the leadership of the pack was not that different from the many gangs that fought for territory in the city. Even supposedly civilized men fought for high positions in government, but their fights tended to be verbal, not physical. Still, that didn’t make it right.
Sighing, she leaned her head against the seat. She expected there were a lot of things she was going to have to either accept or at least learn to live with. Joshua was who he was and he wasn’t going to change any time soon. She would have enough of a fight on her hands getting him to claim her and admit that he loved her. Maybe she was making a huge mistake. What if all the feelings were one sided and all he was feeling was physical attraction? If that were the case then she was setting herself up for a world of hurt and disappointment.
The door to the truck opened and she jerked both her head and the gun toward it. Joshua nodded his approval as he climbed back onto the seat. He set a large sack on the seat and handed her a large cup of coffee. “Don’t get up until I tell you it’s safe.”
As she tucked her weapon safely away and took her first sip of coffee, she watched Joshua maneuver the truck out of the parking lot and back onto the road. The cup was warm in her hands. Joshua had to feel something for her. He showed it in all the little things he did for her almost without thought. Last night it had been the T-shirt and the lotion; this morning the coffee. There really had been no need for them to stop other than the fact that she’d wanted a cup of coffee.
She took a sip of the hot, steaming liquid, warmed by more than just the heat from the coffee. He had to care. She didn’t think she was imagining the depth of feeling that flowed between them. There was no way she could turn away from their relationship now. She was determined to do whatever it took to make him see he cared for her and it was okay for him to do so. She knew she might have a battle on her hands, but that was okay. She was tough. She was James Riley’s daughter.
Alex sighed with relief when Joshua eased the truck into another parking lot and pulled around to the back of the building. She peeked over the dashboard and gave a prayer of thanks when she saw the restroom doors.
“Give me a second to get the key.”
She nodded, but Joshua was already gone.
James pulled off the asphalt and onto the dirt parking lot that surrounded a small, run-down diner. He’d been on the road for hours and was starving. He parked his car off to the side, backing into the space. It always paid to be prepared to leave in a hurry. Taking his time, he surveyed all the vehicles parked around him and was satisfied by what he saw. His was the only car in the lot. There were a few pickups and several eighteen-wheelers.