Page 7 of Lica

“Yes. Lincoln Bates asked us to be the alphas of the pack.” She didn’t deny it even though the words had never been spoken between them, but he knew if he didn’t take it now, that Lincoln and his entire family would be dead before the next moon change. As well as most of the pack. That’s not to say that he and his family, including Brandy, wouldn’t be harmed either. There would be so many deaths if someone came like David James were to come around and challenge Lincoln that they would be finding bodies for decades after the massacre.

“Well, congratulations to the both of you.” He was waiting for Brandy to deny it, but she simply walked away. All he did was give a look to his brother Edmond, and he followed her. She was like a fragile flower right now and he didn’t care for it. “What are your plans for the pack, Lica? I’m assuming that the two of you will be moving into the alpha’s house. It’ll be much nicer than the one here with it just being built and all.”

“We’ve not talked about it much. I’ve only just found Brandy today, and this is something that we have to discuss.” He told him congratulations on that as well, and Lica thanked him. “We have a lot of things to talk about. She’s human right now, so I’m making sure that she’s getting around well. If you’ll excuse me.”

He found her in the living room. Grannie was there on the couch, and he saw her shake her head slightly before pointing at Brandy. Since he’d been keeping her calm and talking to her most of the evening, he didn’t know what his grannie was doing. As soon as he was within a foot of Brandy, she slapped him twice on his face.

“Since I don’t want to lose my hand by pissing you off—” The third time she hit him, he staggered back from it. The punch to his chest hurt him badly enough that he was caught without breath and had to hold onto the wall before approaching her again. “What the hell was that for?”

“You fucker. You act like this is no big deal that I’ve wounded a person that was…if you have my back like I heard you’re supposed to do, being the almighty Lica mate to me, then why the fuck did you allow me to cut that man’s hand off?” Lica asked her what he was supposed to do. “You should have told me to let him go. You should have done something rather than just stand there while I…I cut his hand off. Like it was nothing.”

“It was more than nothing. It was everything. What do you think would have happened had you blown him off and not done as you threatened? Do you think that he would have said that’s fine, I’m going to leave now, it’s been fun? No, he wouldn’t have. And as for the threat, it was the best one you could have come up with. Cutting his hand, removing it like you did, with promises of retaliations if he didn’t heed your warning, is now out there for everyone to see that you’re not one to fuck with.” He looked as his grannie left them in the room. “What do you think he would have done to you had you not done as you promised, Brandy? I know he would have killed you. Right where you stood, he would have pulled out his gun and blown your head off. Then he would have had to kill each and every member of my family because they would have come to your defense. Then he would have gone on a shooting spree that—”

“That’s enough, Lica. I think you’ve made your point.” His anger was making him dizzy, and he growled at his brother, Devlin, when he told him to back off. “You hurt her, and I’m going to die trying to kill you. Back off. Now.”

He let his beast take him and he ran out of the house by jumping through the window that was over the couch in the living room. Not slowing, he ran as hard as he could through the trees, jumping over anything that dared to get in his way. Without slowing, he hit the waterway that ran through their property and out the other side without a single thought to what he was doing. Running. Not away, but he told himself that he was letting off steam, that was all.

It was dark when he finally stopped. He didn’t have any idea where he was, but he knew that he was still on their land. He could smell his brothers and himself, knowing that they’d been out here recently enough cutting wood for the winter that their scent was still fresh. Lying down on the soft grass, he was keen enough to keep an eye out for humans and other creatures while he waited for his heart to slow down enough that he could go home. The scent of Brandy startled him.

“If you shift into a human will—wait, you hate humans. If you shift to your other self, will you be naked?” He told her through their link that since he’d found his mate, he didn’t know. “All right. Then I’d like for you to stay the way you are. I have some things to say to you, and I’d very much like it if you let me say it. First of all, I told Lincoln that we would, and the two of us would take over the pack. He said that at some point, when you agree, too, that, we’ll get some magic. I don’t know what that entails, but that’s what he told me.”

“We’ll be more. I’m not sure what that means about you, but I want you to know that I don’t hate all humans. Just most of them.” She looked away, but not before he saw the pain he’d caused her. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry for being honest with me. It might hurt me but that’s none of your concern. All right, so you’re not sure of what might happen, but I was told that we’d have to have sex and exchange blood while climaxing for us to be mates. Is that right?” Lica told her that he didn’t know for sure, but his Grannie would know. “She’s not speaking to me right now. I think that I hurt her feelings when I asked her how to get out of being your mate. I guess that it’s a done deal unless one of us dies. I’m not ready to die just yet, so I guess we’re going to be stuck with each other.”

That hurt. He didn’t have any idea why it felt like his heart was broken into pieces, but it hurt him to his core. When he asked her what she was thinking, she looked at him for a long time, so long that he didn’t think that she was going to answer him.

“I don’t like you. I know that it doesn’t matter to you one way or the other, but I don’t believe that I’ll ever want to either. You’re a mean person, especially to me when I had nothing to do with what has happened between us. That being said, I’ll have sex with you—but absolutely no kissing. We’re not in love, nor will we be, and kissing seems so intimate to me, and we’re never going to be that way. But with sex? It’ll be just the one time to bond or whatever it’s called, but I don’t want you to come near me again.” Again, his heart hurt and he put his paw over the pain to see if his heart was beating still. “There is something else that you should know. I have money. A great deal of it. And as of an hour ago, your name is on all my accounts. Also, I have a couple dozen houses all over the world that also you own with me.” He started to speak, but she cut him off. “Don’t tell me that you don’t want any of it. Because if you don’t have all that I have, I won’t help your brothers either. And I like them a great deal more than you. So, do I call my attorney or not to change it from our name to just mine.”

“No.” She told him he was a smart person. He wasn’t nearly as pissed off at her than he thought he should have been. “And I agree with you. Absolutely no, not ever kissing. Not even for show. No kissing. As for money? We have very little money. Not even enough that we could live off of for the rest of the month. There is pack money, too, as well as money that will be paid to us monthly. But I don’t know how much or how much we’re to get paid when it’s time.”

“All right. You’ve made your point about kissing. Money? You don’t need it. We don’t need it, I mean.” He asked her how much money she was talking about if they didn’t need the monthly to pay them for being pack alpha’s. “Billions of dollars. Not including houses, stocks, bonds, businesses and anything else that you can think of. And I own the Rodeo Burger company. There are five thousand restaurants across the United States You do as well. So, do you want to have sex out here or in a bed someplace? As I said, I have a house, it’s close to here.”

He got up and shifted. Lica was glad that he was clothed, but he wasn’t thrilled about the callus way she was treating him about sex. Walking by her, he made his way back to the house, and he knew when she turned and followed him. He could feel her pain, her heart hurting, but he couldn’t do anything about it. His own was shattered as well. The thing was, he didn’t understand why. She’d been right on all the stuff that she’d said. They didn’t even like one another, didn’t get together, but because they’d been fated. But her talking about sex like it was a duty—he caught himself when he thought that. Because that’s exactly what she was saying, too. It was a duty for them to have sex. So that he could take over the pack and be able to run it safely. Christ, he wished he’d never met her. Sort of.

She was treating him the same way that he’d been treating her. Cold indifference. He no more wanted her than she did him, apparently. When he was ready to go into the house, he turned to her and asked her if she wanted to sleep here or someplace else. She didn’t say a word but went into the house and into the living room. When she got onto the couch, a lumpy piece of shit that had come with the home, he sat on the other couch. After she pulled the blanket that had seen better days off the back and laid down. He supposed he deserved whatever he got from her.

Reaching out to Lincoln, he told him that he’d take the pack. As soon as he laid down, he felt the magic roll painfully over him. He would have gone to Brandy, too, he didn’t know, to help her when she started screaming, but it was too late for both of them. They were getting the magic that came with his new position as the new pack alphas.

Chapter 4

Alan watched his daughter as she sat at her desk, making decisions right and left like she had met her mate every day, and it was no big deal. He knew a bit more about being a mate to a wolf than he had a few weeks ago. He had several shifters working for him, and they’d been very helpful in giving him information, more than his daughter would have if he were to question her about it. His employees were very forthcoming too about the information about her being mated to an alpha than he bet Lica knew. The way the two of them went about, he would wonder if the rumor was true, that the two of them would be powerful alphas. For the most part, the two of them ignored each other more than anything.

Alan wanted it to work for them both. He enjoyed Lica’s company, and he so wanted his daughter’s happiness. Brandy finally looked up at him. Her eyes looked glazed over just a little, but then she smiled at him.

“How long have you been here, Dad? Did I miss a meeting with you?” He said that he’d not been here long, only a few minutes, when he knew it was closer to an hour. “What’s up? I’m trying to catch up on the things I missed while I was resting.” So that’s what she was calling it when she and Lica had been knocked cold while getting the magic? Resting.

“Yes, you were resting for a few days. It worried your mother and me a bit, but we were assured that the two of you were just fine.” It had taken him an entire day to get over the fact that his daughter was now going to be magical. Then he’d gone to his closet and— “Did I tell you that I can change my clothing with a thought? Scared me a little bit, I’ll have to admit but your mom loves it. She said she’s never going to have to go shopping for evening gowns again.”

Brandy laughed with him, but she was distracted. He could see that, so he tried tripping her up so that he could get to the bottom of whatever was bothering her. He asked her if she had picked out the raccoons for the backyard display. He was sure that her distraction had to do with Lica and her being mated to him, but he liked the young man. As well as all of his family.

“The raccoons come around on their own, thank you very much. I’m paying attention, Dad. I just have a lot to—I took Ayden’s advice on the local Rodeo. I got rid of everyone who worked there and denied them unemployment. Which I can do because they were a public hazard—Dad, everyone was in on that entire gross food catastrophe so I closed the place down. It was torn down yesterday, and I’ve put the land up for sale. Ayden suggested that if it doesn’t sell, put something else there that has nothing to do with food.” Alan loved that idea and told her so. “I’ll wait a few years and then open something else around here. I’ve had offers on the land, but I’m holding out until the place is cleaned up. People might not like that it was such a terrible place to…well, eat. Since it’s in a good location, I think it will be worth more after a couple of years anyway.”

“You made us rich by having wonderful ideas like that one. What are you going to do with Ayden? I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that he’s going to be working for you soon.” She told him that she hired him a few days ago, and he was going to be an undercover shopper for her. “If you don’t just mean him going to Rodeo’s, that’s a lot of traveling, but I think that he’ll enjoy it.”

“He was so excited to get his passport that I thought he was going to dance around the room to celebrate. The officers certainly found it to be funny. He’s supposed to be picking out him a smallish building to work from here as a base operation, or he can work from home. I suggested that he find himself a place from home so he can have a down time place to go.” After she told him about hiring the other brothers for different projects she had going, neither of them mentioning Lica, he asked her about the cattle ranch. “I don’t have anything to do with that. Since Lica and I don’t talk all that much, he doesn’t bring me in on any decisions that he makes on that side. I’m all right with that. I know about as much as he does in having a corporate meeting with the few shareholders we have. It’s working out for us for now.”

It wasn’t, and he knew it. His little girl was sad, not always, but most of the time. He talked to her about the two ventures that they were both in on, and she seemed to have a handle on those as well. The only thing was her personal life, and it was in the shitter, as Brogan was fond of saying.

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