“Don’t allow her to move from the bed, Meara.”

“The one guy had a walking cast on,” Tessa said, as Hunter was about to leave the room.

“Yeah, I saw. He had a broken leg.”

“I thought you healed up quickly.”

“Instead of six to eight weeks, it would be more like a week. Rest. I’ll return soon.” He winked and left.

Meara pulled a chair up to the bed and sat down. Tessa opened her mouth to speak, but Meara raised her finger to her own lips and raised her brows.

In the living room, Hunter said, “Come on, Leidolf. Let’s get a workout on that downed tree. Watch the others, Ashton.”

“Yeah, you can count on me.”

The front door slammed closed.

Meara took a breath. “I hope Hunter doesn’t get into a fight with Leidolf over you.”

“You can’t be serious.” Unable to quit shivering, Tessa pulled the covers to her chin.

“Two alpha males interested in the same woman? Hell, you saw what happens when one beta wants you. You better believe now that you have to be turned; Leidolf’s interested, and there will be trouble between him and my brother. Not only that, but this business with Devlyn Greystoke is bound to cause problems. Hunter told me Devlyn lost all his family in a fire. Any family connection, no matter how slight, would most likely interest him. Which leads to the real problem.”

Tessa tensed, not liking the warning in Meara’s voice.

“Because of the shortage of females in a given pack, a leader who can entice a female to join his pack— particularly if it’s his relation—can offer her to another member, strengthening his bonds with his pack.”

Finally finding her voice, Tessa said, “That sounds like some medieval barbaric ruling. The king decides which of his wards weds and whom. Why didn’t Hunter already tell me this?”

Meara shrugged, but Tessa could tell she wasn’t saying all there was about the subject. “All right, so what about Leidolf? He doesn’t know anything about me.”

“Right. But for lupus garou, pheromones have a lot to do with the selection process. We’re attracted to someone’s looks, but also to the sexual scent each of us gives off. It’s subtle, not noticeable to the human population. Since the lupus garou males outnumber the females, males are always on the lookout for a female. But what entices one male might not another. It’s like having a craving for chocolate and entering a shop full of spicy pickles. Kills the desire. Walk into the store next door where a pot of hot chocolate is brewing, the male is in love.”

“Pickles and hot chocolate?”

Meara chuckled. “Okay, maybe peppermint and hot chocolate?”

Ashton poked his head in. “Interesting discussion. Fire’s going good. Did you want to move in there? This room is awfully cold.”

“Sparks will fly if she’s moved in there by the fire and Leidolf gets close to her when he and Hunter return,” Meara warned.

Ashton gave her a devious smile. “No television, radio, nothing else better for entertainment. Besides, it’s freezing in here and Tessa’s shivering.”

“Tessa?”

“It is awfully chilly in here. With the ice pack on my ankle, it’s making me even colder.”

Although she intended to walk with Ashton’s help, he lifted her from the bed. “Can you bring the comforter, Meara?” Ashton asked. “Unfortunately, all the blankets are either in my truck or your SUV.”

“Oh, well, hell, I never thought of it,” Meara said. “At least when the guys come back, we’ll have some of the blankets. Is Cara warm enough?”

“After we get Tessa situated on the couch, I’ll check on Cara.”

“You can stay with her. I’ll be the guard for a while.”

Ashton lay Tessa on the couch. “Hunter will be pissed if I’m not guarding.”

“I’ll take care of him.” Meara waved her hand and then covered Tessa with the cover. “Go. Keep Cara warm.”

When Ashton retired from the room, Tessa asked, “He really won’t be mad at him, will he?”

“Probably. But, we can come up with a good story.”

Right. As if Tessa could bluff her way through anything where Hunter was concerned.

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.