“Who’ll take over, now that Victor and his father are both gone?” she asked.
“If no one objects, Diego’s brother, Rudolfo, is next in line to be Alpha,” Brett said. “Do you know him?”
“Not really.” She had met Rudolfo once or twice while growing up. Rudolfo was five years younger than his brother. He had been away from home during the short time Kay had lived in the Rinaldi compound. She had no doubt that he would soon return home to avenge his brother and his nephew. For all she knew, he could be there now.
Brett and Greta exchanged glances, and then Brett asked the question on everyone’s mind. “Do you think you can take him?”
“I don’t know.” Rudolfo was taller than Diego, broad-shouldered, with a neck like a bull. He would be in his early forties now. Like vampires, werewolves grew stronger with age. She was deeply afraid that Rudolfo Rinaldi would not be as easy to defeat as Victor had been.
“Well,” Brett said, “tomorrow four of our men will take Rinaldi’s body home and explain what happened… .”
“I should go with them,” Kay said.
“No. They know you’re in mourning for your parents, and supposedly grieving for Victor, even though he died at your hand. Hopefully, they’ll respect that. It might buy us some time. Maybe enough time to cool any thoughts they have of revenge.”
Gideon pushed away from the hearth, his hands clenched at his sides. “And if it doesn’t?”
“Then she’ll have to fight,” Greta said quietly.
“No.” Gideon shook his head. “She’s not risking her life again.”
“I’m Alpha,” Kay said. “I knew what I was getting into when I killed Victor.”
“Dammit, Kay …” He raked a hand through his hair. She was right. He knew it. He admired her courage and the strength of her convictions. But he for damn sure didn’t have to like it.
Brett and Greta called it a night a short time later.
With a sigh, Kay stretched her arms over her head. She was weary in mind and body. Doubts about her ability to defeat Rudolfo and to take her father’s place as Alpha weighed heavily on her mind.
She closed her eyes as Gideon moved up behind her and began to massage her neck.
“That feels wonderful.” She smiled when he brushed a kiss across the top of her head.
“Tired?” he asked.
She nodded, her head lolling forward as his fingers worked their magic on the knots in her back and shoulders.
He massaged her for another twenty minutes, then scooped her into his arms and carried her swiftly up the stairs to her bedroom, where he undressed her, slipped a nightgown over her head, and tucked her into bed.
“Sleep tight, Lady Alpha,” he said, giving her hand a squeeze.
She clung to his hand. “Don’t you want to stay here, with me?”
“Of course I do, but with all that’s going on, I wasn’t sure how your pack would feel about that, you know? The whole werewolf–vampire thing.”
“You’re my husband. This is where you belong, unless …”
He covered her mouth with his hand, cutting off her next words. “Don’t go there, Wolfie. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be, and you know it.”
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she murmured, “I’ve missed you.”
“No more than I’ve missed you.”
She scooted over, tugging him down beside her. “Do you think we’ll ever have a life together when someone isn’t trying to kill one of us?”
“I sure as hell hope so.”
“Gideon …”
“It’s all right. Go to sleep, darlin’. You’ve earned it.”
“You’ll stay with me?”
He brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Until the sun comes up.”
“You won’t go far?”
“Not a chance.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
With a sigh, she snuggled up against him, her head pillowed on his shoulder, asleep between one breath and the next.
Gideon inhaled deeply, grateful to have a few hours to hold her close, to run his fingers through her hair, lightly stroke the softness of her skin. Lying there, he wondered what the future held for the two of them. He was a vampire, she was now the Alpha of her pack. He wasn’t entirely sure what that entailed, but one thing he did know was that her pack would expect her to live with them from now on, and he wasn’t certain how he felt about that. Since werewolves and vampires were natural enemies, there was little chance that her pack would accept him, and he couldn’t ask her to leave.
When she murmured his name in her sleep, he kissed her lightly, felt a rush of tenderness when she turned onto her side, her arm stealing around his waist.
“I thought you were out for the night,” he remarked.
“I can sleep tomorrow.” She looked up at him through heavy-lidded eyes. “Are you tired?”
“It’s two A.M., honey. For me, it’s the shank of the evening.”
He brushed a lock of hair from her forehead, laughed softly when she slipped her hand inside his jeans.
Gathering her into his arms, he murmured, “I think now you must be reading my mind.”
She woke to the sound of someone pounding on the bedroom door. Bleary-eyed, she pulled on her robe and shuffled to the door. “Brett! What are you doing here so early?”
“There’s a delegation downstairs from the Rinaldi compound.”
Kay glanced at the clock on her bedside table. Six A.M. She didn’t have to ask what the members of the Green Mountain Pack wanted, although she was a little surprised they had arrived at such an early hour. “How big a delegation?”
“There’s four of them, including Rudolfo.”
“Where are they now?”
“Waiting on the patio. I wasn’t sure if I should invite them in.”
“Tell them I’ll be down as soon as I’m dressed.”
“Right.”
“Call Tyler and ask him to round up one or two others. Tell him to keep out of sight, but to be ready, just in case the Rinaldi delegation has come to do more than talk.”
With a nod, Brett went to do as bidden.
Kay stared after him a moment; then, closing the door, she rested her forehead on the wood. It seemed odd to be giving orders. What had she gotten herself into?
Twenty minutes later, she took several deep breaths, then went downstairs. She paused at the back door.