With the incessant frigid wind blowing, Hunter trudged through the snow back to the SUV with Leidolf at his side, carrying the axe while Hunter held the chainsaw Ashton had rescued from the demolished shed.
"You haven't turned the woman. Yet, I imagine as cozy as you are with her, she knows what we are by now," Leidolf finally said.
Hunter knew the red was interested in Tessa, and he couldn't help but be irked by it. Hell, he had enough problems already. "It's my business to take care of. Where are my people, exactly?"
Leidolf ignored his question. "She's a petite redhead. If she's turned, she'll be more like a red wolf than a gray."
"She'll be a gray. But what's your point?" Hunter was trying to keep his temper, but he knew exactly where this line of reasoning was going.
"Two bachelors in my pack are seeking mates."
Well, not exactly what he expected Leidolf to say. "And you're not?"
"I'm a royal. I already told you that. The woman wouldn't interest me."
Hunter knew better, just the way Leidolf observed Tessa when he thought Hunter wasn't looking, the way he pretended disinterest when he looked at her and knew Hunter was watching.
Leidolf swung the ax as if fighting an unseen enemy. "But since you're not interested in changing her and two of my men are, it seems we could come to some kind of agreement."
"When the weather breaks, I'll go to Portland, strictly to take my rowdy pack members off your hands, and speak with Tessa's brother in prison at Salem on the way up there. Tessa will stay with me for her own protection."
"So you haven't eliminated the stalker yet."
"You noticed Tessa's injuries? The stalker did that. Or one of his brothers."
Leidolf's expression turned stormy. "And they still live?"
"For now. As soon as the storm quits pounding the coast, we'll be up to your place. You might have noticed Tessa lost her shed, part of the shingles on her roof, a couple of trees came down on her property, one on Ashton's truck, and she has no electricity."
"No electricity in parts of Portland either. Our winds haven't reached the levels yours have, but we've suffered a lot of devastation from this system."
"So where are my people?"
"I've isolated them in one of my barns."
Hunter stiffened his spine and glared at Leidolf.
He cast him a smirk. "Teach them to run out on their pack leader. Give them worse conditions than they're used to and they'll beg to return. Although I'll admit, two escaped to Washington State."
"Have you ever had problems with your pack of this sort--that you would admit to?"
Leidolf grinned. "No, I've never had your kind of trouble. But then again, I'd been a loner for a number of years before I came here. Some in my pack believe I have special powers."
Hunter bit back a laugh and with the most serious face he could muster, asked, "Do you?"
"Some say I do."
"Doesn't seem like it to me." Hunter hoisted the chainsaw over the other shoulder.
"Maybe it's because we're both alphas and the magic only works on betas."
"Or maybe because we're both royals."
Leidolf stared at Hunter for a minute. "You're a royal, but would take a human mate?"
"I wouldn't have, had the circumstances been different. But not because I'm a royal."
"Ahh, so keeping the lines pure doesn't mean anything to you."
Hunter shook his head. "No, changing a human is the only thing that makes the difference, only now it seems I have no choice."
"We always have choices. You can give her to me."
Hunter laughed. "You, or the two males who want a mate?"
"To me, my pack, for one of the males who wants her. Don't you think three newly turned lupus garous in one pack will be a little much to handle?" Leidolf asked, avoiding the issue.
"You live in the city. How could you manage?"
"I'd keep her at my ranch in the country."
"Why don't you take Rourke or Ashton off my hands?"
Leidolf laughed. "I need females, not more males." He shook his head. Then he tilted his chin up with a gleam in his green eyes. "I contacted Devlyn Greystoke in Colorado to let him know about his distant cousin, as a courtesy."
Courtesy, my ass.
"As soon as the weather clears, he's flying out here. He wanted me to give you a message since I didn't have your phone number. Don't touch her."
Hunter attempted to shrug off the annoyance that another leader was dictating to him, even if he was distantly related to her. "And you still want Tessa?"
"Let's just say whatever happens before he arrives, happens. I wouldn't have a problem dealing with him. Not after he slipped Bella out from under my nose when she was living secretly in my territory and she's a red."
So that was why Leidolf told Devlyn about Tessa? Not out of some admiration for the gray who'd fought the murdering red alpha leader, or because he felt it was his duty. Hell no. Leidolf wanted to get back at Devlyn for stealing Bella, in the event Hunter took Tessa for his own.
Leidolf stopped dead and stared at the tree blocking the roadway around the bend. "You didn't tell me it was that big."
Chapter 14
"OUCH,"TESS A SAID AS A STAB OF PAIN SHOT THROUGH her ankle while Meara helped her settle on the couch in front of the fire.
"If Hunter changes you, it won't take as long for you to heal." Meara sat down on the chair opposite her.
"I thought you didn't care for me much." Although if Cara had spoken the truth, Meara admired Tessa somewhat and had given her stamp of approval behind her back.
"I really have no choice, do I?" Meara offered her a wicked smile.
Tessa couldn't tell if she was teasing or being truthful. Maybe a little of both.
"Hunter will be changing you. Then you'll be our pack leader's mate. So..." Meara shrugged. "I'll have to live with it, or give you a hard time. And believe me, I'm very capable of it. Just ask Hunter. Are you alpha enough to take it?"
"I'll have to be, won't I?"
"So you're going to be one of us?"
"I don't see that I have much choice." Yet if Tessa could have had a semi-normal life with Hunter, she would have jumped at the chance. Marriage meant getting along with the relatives though, but mixing it up with the personalities of a werewolf pack?
The doorbell rang and Tessa glanced back at the door. Please be Hunter and Leidolf.
"I'll see who it is," Meara said.
Tessa's heart sped up. "Wait, let me come with you." She tried to stand.
"No, you can't walk on that foot."
"You stay put, Tessa," Ashton said, hurrying into the living room, zipping up his jeans, his chest bare.
Meara crossed the floor and peeked out the security hole. "Oh, hell."
"Who is it?" Ashton asked.
"Uhm, three guys I know. If Hunter catches them here, they'll be dead meat." Meara opened the door. "Go home before my brother finds you here."
"Come on, Meara. We're planning on heading up to Idaho for a change of scenery. Come with us."
"Leave," Ashton said, joining Meara at the door, his voice as threatening as Tessa had ever heard it. "Now."
He might be a pushover when it came to Cara, which made her wonder if Bethany had had the same effect on him. But when it came to most men, except for Hunter, he could get pretty physical.
Tessa couldn't see the other guys, but she was dying to get a look.
"Are you going to make us? One lone male?"
"Two," Rourke said, looking pale still as he made his way to the front door, a little unsteady on his feet. "Oh hell, they're three of the ones Hunter and I smelled down by the beach. Why don't you leave before the two alpha pack leaders return and rip you guys to shreds?"