Reapers of the Dark (Cora Roberts #4)

Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

How do cats do it? Inquiring minds need to know.

I f I was being entirely honest, I could admit Hudson’s home was stunning. Sure, my plantation house was a piece of history, not all of it good. Where my home stood out on the Louisiana backdrop, his blended into the forest like nature had birthed it.

A predominantly wooden building with two stories and a large wrap-around porch, the pack house was the heart of shifter territory. Hudson based himself here, and like me, had his private areas. But it was also where he held the weekly meal for the bossy alphas who needed to get together to gossip and gripe. I mean, share prudent information and hold problem-solving sessions.

I glanced over the few dresses hanging in his closet. I needed a fraction of the space he did. An eighth of his wardrobe and two drawers was enough to set me up for a week’s stay. I opened one of his many lotions and sniffed. Hmm. Yummy. Damn cat had more potions and lotions than a witch on market day.

“What are you doing?” Hudson asked as he appeared from his bathroom surrounded by a billow of steam, wearing only a tiny white towel. Don’t be coy, Principal. Drop the towel like a good boy and remind me why I’m torturing myself with another weekly meal surrounded by arguing supernaturals. At least this was just one faction—child’s play compared to the other meetings dominating my time.

I twisted the unmarked glass jar and raised a brow. “What is it?”

“Body moisturizer.”

I blinked. “You suffer from dry skin?” Not anywhere I’d seen, felt, or licked.

A wide grin stretched across his face, and Lord have mercy, he dropped the towel onto the bed. Nope, scratch that, no Lord. Again, I didn’t want discussions on how I wasted precious prayer airtime on wishing for my mate to be naked.

“I do not, because I moisturize.” He shook his head, making cool water spin across the room. I spun and covered my face while he acted like an animal. The impromptu rainstorm stopped, and I dropped my hands and glared at him.

I pointed at my face. “You see this face?”

He smirked. “Yes.”

“This took Rebecca no less than ninety minutes. I don’t have ninety minutes to spare, so the fact I spent it on being pretty for the pack means you have to keep your fluids off my face until after the meeting.” He pressed his lips together as my brain caught up to the words. I’m an idiot.

“I can manage that until dinner’s over. After that, I make no promises about where my fluids end up.”

Ugh, he was impossible. I waved at the dresses hanging in the closet. “Which one?”

He pulled out the cobalt blue silk dress and slid it off the hanger. Right. Well, if we’re going with that one, then I guess I could wear the matching lingerie. God forgive me, I have actual matching underwear for dresses. Nope, scratch that, God. Ignore me.

I opened the drawer and pulled on the silk panties in the exact same shade, along with the matching bra. Two tiny scraps of fabric that hardly covered anything and were certainly made for show, not comfort or support. I spun to grab the dress from Hudson. He stood frozen, mouth agape, his heated gaze drifting over my body.

Ignoring the flush creeping up my chest, I snapped my fingers to get his attention. “The dress.”

“No.”

I huffed and put my hands on my hips. “Dress, now.”

He shook his head. “No.”

Wait. No dress, no meal. Ahh. Clever, Rebecca, very clever. The door below us creaked open and slammed closed as the pack arrived. I raised a brow. “Decide, Principal. No dress, no meal. Or, you pass me my clothing, and we go sit politely while your pack makes passive aggressive comments about me, just enough to needle but not offend.”

Joke’s on them; you have to care what someone thinks of you to get offended. I did not care. There were a few exceptions. Norbert, the chief medic, had my professional and personal admiration, given he’d patched me up a time or two.

The door opened again and snapped closed. Hudson stared at me, and I stared back. Tick, tock. Eventually, they would come looking for us.

He stepped toward me, but I held my ground. His body brushed against mine, and his eyes fluttered closed for a moment, before snapping open and leveling me with his molten stare. Flecks of gold danced in his hazel depths, ones normally preceding some naked time.

“You will not take this off.”

I smiled. “Ever?”

“No, Cora. I will take this off. I’m struggling with my control around you.”

He was breathing a little hard. Huh, he really was struggling. I wrapped my hands around his neck and tipped my head back to look at him. Our height difference made for some interesting things, but it did mean he had to bend to kiss me. He didn’t embrace me, though.

“How can I make it better?” I asked.

“A date would help.”

“We’re already living together. Dating seems a little redundant.”

“A date for the ceremony.”

Oh. “Right.”

His lips twitched. “I know deep down you aren’t going anywhere, that you are mine, but between the kidnapping, near death experience, danger, threats, and the damn vampire, my beast is pushing me to make things more solid.”

When he put it like that, I could understand on some level. “Okay.”

“Okay, what?”

“Okay, we shall set a date this week. Let me?—”

He dropped the dress, wrapped his arms under my thighs, and lifted me up against the wall before pushing his lips against mine. I squirmed as need blasted through my body—again. This feeling had to reduce sometime, right? How did people get anything done if this was what it was like to be in love?

I pulled away, panting. “Decide. Meal, or me. I can’t do both.” Because where this was heading, it wouldn’t be over in five minutes.

He growled deep and low before rolling his forehead against my shoulder. “For the record, I am not picking them over you.”

I sagged a little in disappointment, even though I knew the answer. “I know.”

“If we declare the ceremony tonight, hopefully this will be the fastest pack meal on record. Then I’m going to spend the night showing you how a cat does it.”

I blinked. He didn’t mean furry, right?

He chuckled as his teeth grazed my collarbone. “No, Cora, nothing quite as weird as that.”

“But then?—”

He stamped another kiss on my lips, shutting down my questions. “Not now.” His gaze softened. “You feel it too, right? Even though you aren’t a shifter? You feel the heat, the mating call, the need?”

I nodded. “Does it ever end?”

“Eventually.” He dropped my feet to the floor with a sigh. “After the first decade or so.”

Oh boy.

My hair had survived a tumble with The Principal, so I was looking very well put together when I waltzed from the kitchen into the formal dining room full of Chatty Cathys who were waiting to see what I, their leader’s mate, had cooked for them. The answer, of course, was nothing. I did not, and could not, cook. I reserved my knife skills for autopsies. However, I had a gourmet chef aunt in my pocket who had been cooking up a feast for this meeting.

Aunt Liz winked at me as I left with the roast chicken. Well, the first roast chicken. She cooked four of them. Shifters had enormous appetites.

Despite Dave inviting her to take a seat at the dining table, she had refused, both last week and today. It seemed he was ready to announce another one of the pack had fallen for a Roberts woman, but she was not. I didn’t blame her; the politics were a nightmare I wanted to avoid, but couldn’t.

I left her finishing the chocolate torte and honeycomb ice cream and delivered the final chicken to the table before sliding into my chair next to Hudson on the left. Opposite me sat Norbert, who made it a point to get here before Mercy.

The leggy blonde bombshell still held futile hope that Hudson would come to his senses, kick me out, and welcome her into his bed. She was an alpha, albeit not the alpha of one of the pack groups. She held her own mini pack of fourteen lions. But in the grand scheme of things, she was a small fry.

Her bosses were Benedict and Keira, a mated pair who ruled over the cat packs as a whole. Not Hudson, but everyone else. Keira didn’t like me. She was another female who held the elitist view shifters should only mate with shifters, and Hudson was committing a great crime with me. They believed if they waved Mercy in front of him long enough, he would tire of me and fall between her legs.

I disliked the pair of them for this, but I felt sorry for Mercy, as I didn’t doubt she had feelings for Hudson, and there was nothing worse than unrequited love.

Mercy’s tactics, however, were so desperate and obvious that the others around the table started ignoring her. Each week, she tested my knowledge of shifter etiquette by trying to commit some kind of pass at Hudson, which, if I allowed, would declare me at best, clueless, and at worst, weak. It wasn’t like Hudson could step in for me; I had to stand on my own two feet, or I would spend every day battling pack females for the right to be with the man I love.

Norbert grinned at me. “This looks marvelous, Cora. Bravo.”

“Thanks. I had help.”

Dave snorted from his position next to me. They’d taken to sandwiching me between the more sympathetic members of the pack. Not that I expected anyone to stab me, but the meal was tense enough, and at least this way, I could monitor Mercy and her disappearing clothing. It was a miracle she didn’t show up naked. Maybe next week. I’d make sure to serve piping hot soup. I’m such a klutz. It really was just a slip, Your Honor.

Everyone was busy filling their plates with meat, potatoes, and vegetables when Hudson stood and raised his wineglass. Everyone paused. Oh wow, he was going for it already. I thought for sure we would get to dessert before announcing the nuptials, but I guess he really wanted me naked in his bed. I should wear sexy lingerie every day.

“Cora and I have an announcement,” he started.

Keira tipped her nose in the air and sniffed. “Not pregnant,” she declared. Rude. Mercy smirked. It was out of choice, you idiot woman. But at least I had the choice. She was too busy sniffing up my mate’s ass to notice she wasn’t getting any.

“Are you moving here full time?” Jessy asked, the alpha of everything with wings. That branch of shifters weirded me out, although I didn’t know why. Beady eyes, maybe? Luckily, there were no arachnid shifters. You wouldn’t catch me anywhere near here if there were.

“No,” Dave rumbled. “Just let the man speak.”

Hudson grinned, and I took a sip of wine to avoid my smirk being seen. “Our mating ceremony will be this quarter.”

I choked on the wine. Sorry, what? That’s not what we discussed. The alphas burst into a million questions. The males got up and embraced Hudson in some kind of manly hug with the heavy back pat. Mercy rose from her chair, and I lasered her with my gaze. Fucking try it. Her top was nothing more than a twisted piece of thin purple silk crossing over her breasts. That was it. It was January, and that was what she deemed appropriate. Now, I can’t make her wear normal clothing, but I could stop her from rubbing her hard nipples all over my mate.

“Sit down before I make you my snack,” Indigo rumbled in my mind as a warning to her. Mercy froze, as did everyone else. Indigo regularly snarled something in my head when Mercy was around. They couldn’t hear her, but on some deep animal level, they knew something bigger was prowling in my psyche, and they weren’t sure what to make of it.

“Last chance, cat. Take one step toward my mate, and it will be the last thing you do before I bury my claws in your chest and tear your heart out. I don’t even think I’ll take your soul. Something tells me you’d leave a funny aftertaste, like kale.”

Mercy’s ass bumped back down onto her chair.

“Kale? When did you have kale?” She went silent, ignoring me, but kept her focus on Mercy.

Hudson cast me a quick glance before taking his seat. His hand snaked around mine, and he squeezed it before linking our fingers together. The shifters got distracted with food, and resumed filling their plates.

I tried to pull my hand away. “I kind of need that to eat,” I muttered, giving it a harder tug.

He shook his head. “I’ll feed you.”

“We are not that couple.”

“Your choice, but I’m not letting you go.”

Oh, he was worried about Indigo. The crazy bitch preened at his attention. Save me now.

The rest of the meal was general chit-chat about mating ceremonies, some pack drama, and a situation with a new housing estate that needed Hudson to visit in the morning, which probably meant I had to go. I was curious about what they were building.

I stood once everyone had cleared their plates and began picking them up. Hudson shadowed me around the table, collecting the empty serving dishes and probably making sure I didn’t accidentally suck out Mercy’s soul when she blatantly pushed her chest out as he passed her. His gaze, however, was all for me. He had a knowing smile, one that said he knew what I was wearing, had plotted how it was going to come off, and I was about to get schooled in how cats did it. I couldn’t wait.

His heat rolled down my spine as he followed me to the kitchen, where Aunt Liz was slicing up the torte onto plates. Dangerous Dave blinked at us as we sauntered in. There was a little chocolate on the side of his lip, and my aunt had a matching smudge. Aww, they were so cute.

The house phone hanging on the wall beside us rang. I was a little weirded out that Hudson still had one. When I asked, he told me shifters constantly lost their cell phones in the forest, and that ninety percent of the time, someone was available at the pack house to answer the phone. So rather than calling around all the alphas until one picked up, they used this landline, knowing it would get through.

Hudson picked it up. “Yes?” The heat in his gaze faded as a frown formed. That wasn’t a good sign. He nodded and snapped his fingers at Dave, who opened a drawer and retrieved a pen and pad of paper. Old school, indeed. Hudson scribbled on the paper and showed it to Dave, whose shoulders tensed. I shared a look with my aunt, who shrugged. After a few more snarled questions, Hudson hung up the phone.

He swiped a hand through his hair and caught my gaze. “There’s been a fire near Huntsville, Alabama.”

“Is everyone okay?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No.”

“I’ll grab my bag.”

He squeezed his eyes closed and sighed. “There’s nothing you can do for them, Cora. They aren’t injured. They’re dead.”

Oh. “Tell me how I can help.”

Dave turned and whispered something to Liz, who nodded her head. He kissed her and swept out of the room.

“Stay here with Dave, comfort the pack, be a liaison. I’ll update you when I can and you pass it on to them, saving me time having to call ten different people.”

I blew out a breath. Okay, I could do that. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. They just need a little comfort from me and their alpha.”

That made sense. He released me and strode into the dining room as Dave finished relaying details to the alphas. Mercy was out of her chair again. What did she think she was doing?

“I’ll update Cora when I can,” Hudson declared. “Mercy, with me.”

She shot me a triumphant look. Oh, she’s the alpha. Wait. She wouldn’t orchestrate that just to get him alone, right? Right? Their retreating forms glided out of the house, and a knot formed in my throat as the sound of car doors slamming and tires squealing reached me.

“She touches him, she dies,” Indigo snapped.

Agreed.