I can do badass, so I spin in a circle again and he nods approvingly at my black leather pants, tight vest top, and biker boots. Sadly, I have to ruin the look by adding a coat. It’s bloody freezing.
“Let’s go,” I say, taking his hand and Astralling us to Lincoln’s house in L.A that currently houses his Pack.
Err, our Pack.
They sense his presence as soon as our feet hit the ground in the foyer and they all come out and surround us, looking pretty hostile.
“So, you’re back,” Chrissie, the instigator of my potential overthrowing snarls at me. She’s a gutsy lass, I’ll give her that. Not only am I her Alpha, but her Queen. She must be pretty well pissed off to be doing this.
I have to wonder why Lincoln never told them about my coma. Surely it would help explain my absence.
“They would see it as a weakness and the same would have happened, only sooner,” Lincoln says in my head and I get it.
“Yes,” I say shortly. I don’t have to explain myself to her. Not that I have an explanation to give anyway.
“You have some nerve,” she says, stepping forward with her arms crossed. The others let her, and I see her as the strongest of the Pack. “It’s bad enough that you live halfway across the world, but you disrespect our Alpha by deserting him and us. You don’t deserve him,” she sneers at me. “You don’t deserve to call yourself our Alpha.”
Interesting, how she said I don’t deserve him. She just showed her hand, and now she can see mine. Lincoln wanted me in fighting gear, because I am going to have to fight for my place here. That is why he left it until I was better. I have to prove to them that I am the strongest. I don’t give her, or anyone else for that matter, a chance to say anything as I step forward and accept her challenge. She drops her arms and I hold mine out and she goes flying across the room without me even having to touch her. She lands in a heap and the rest of the Pack sidles back out of my angry reach. I sense Lincoln’s approval, as he too stands to the side and lets me get on with it. I march over to her and pick her up in one hand, the other one striking her. It would be unfair to beat her arse into the ground using only magick. She rallies quickly and lashes out, but I am quicker, ducking and I grab her wrist, twisting it behind her back and forcing her to her knees.
“Do you concede?” I growl at her, as I hear her bone snap. I could keep going at this, but I have roughed her up a bit with only a couple of shots. She grunts but says nothing, so I pull her head back and say again, “Do you concede? You won’t beat me, you know that, they know that, and Lincoln knows that. I am his Alpha, he chose me. We can fight over it some more, but you will never win.” I let her go with a rough shove and she falls forward on her unbroken arm. She stands stiffly and looks to her second, Cindy, for support. Cindy, the clever girl, drops her eyes and steps back.
Chrissie lets out a howl of rage as she attacks me. It catches me off guard as I thought she would back down. Stubborn fool. She gets one punch in and it revitalizes her quest. Sadly, for her though, I’ve had enough, and I blast her with Faerie magick, which knocks her unconscious before she hits the middle of the stairs with a sickening crunch. I look at each and every one of the Pack in turn, but all of them have their eyes lowered. “Anyone else think I’m not good enough?” I ask archly.
A chorus of “No, ma’am,” is muttered and I nod briskly. I join Lincoln at his side, and he is trying not to beam proudly at me. This is a serious business and it could have gone a lot differently if I was challenged without my Powers and full strength. No wonder he was so fretful over it. I think these types of situations usually go on for longer as everyone just stands around not knowing what to do next. They must have expected more of a fight than that. Oh, well, let this be a lesson: Don’t mess with the Queen. I am badass, if I say so myself.
“That’s enough,” Lincoln says mildly in my head. “You are supposed to be gracious in victory.”
Inside, I am laughing my head off at him, as he is with me, but outwardly I remain completely calm and in control.
“Someone, please help her to her room,” I say, indicating Chrissie. “Make sure she is comfortable while she heals.”
I get shocked stares back and Lincoln gives me a tight squeeze.
“Do as your Queen says,” he demands, although I have a feeling, I am missing something. Pack life is a mystery to me. As I am not really one of them, I fail to understand their customs and Lincoln only really tells me what I need to know. Apparently, he fills me in now, I was supposed to excommunicate her from the Pack.
“Nice heads-up, Wolf-boy, guess you forgot to mention that a bit earlier,” I say to him telepathically as he is still laughing at me.
“She has shown mercy to her challenger, and we will respect that,” he adds forcefully as no one has moved a muscle yet. With that said, they all spring into action, eager now to do my bidding and get back on my good side.
“I suppose we should stick around for a bit?” I ask him.
“It would be advisable,” he says with a smile.
“Okay, but not too long. You still owe me a date,” I say as I pull him closer to me by his t-shirt. “I am collecting.”
“Oh, God,” he groans. “You have no idea how long I have waited to hear you say that. A couple of hours and then we’ll go.”
“And what can we do in this couple of hours?” I ask seductively. He doesn’t answer me, just kisses me urgently, walking us back to his office. We don’t even get through the door before he is tugging his t-shirt off and undoing his pants. He picks me up and pushes me against the door and I get rid of the pants. He growls as he can now feel my bare skin and despite our very public spot, he slams into me with not a second to waste. I am so ready for him; he slides in easily and rubs my g-spot with the first stroke. He muffles my cries with his mouth, our impatience evident. I sense we are being watched, but that only fuels my excitement. He senses it too and turns the handle of his office door and we fall back inside, laughing as he bangs it closed. “Not sharing you, even indirectly,” he says as he speeds up. I come soon after that, as does he. We lie half clothed in each other’s arms on the sofa where we fell and he says, “So where do you want to go?”
I am surprised by his choice of topic. I thought we would talk about what just happened in the foyer. He seems to have forgotten all about it in the face of our pending date. I ponder it for a moment. I am feeling a little bit like I could eat proper food. I graze occasionally with bits of fruit or something light, but never because I need to. This is different. I want FOOD!
“Dinner,” I say, sitting up. “There is a lovely restaurant not far from the house that we could go to.”
“A restaurant?” he asks. “You want to sit there and watch me eat?” He laughs.
“While I do so adore your healthy appetite, my love, I am thinking about my own at the moment,” I say.
“I beg your pardon?” he asks. “You want food? You aren’t turning into Xerxei are you?” He peers at me closely but relaxes when I don’t Shift.