Alpha's Rescue (Shifter Ops 5)

“So it’s fine,” Canyon argues. “It’s just a little ole town meeting. There’ll be barely anyone there. We’ll be with her. She’ll be perfectly safe.”

“Now is the safest time for her to go,” Hutch adds. “Her brother still hasn't realized that she's alive.”

I realize I’m toying with the neck of my newly altered shirt and drop my hand. “What do you think Bentley'll do when he finds out I'm not dead?”

“Doesn’t matter. We'll take care of it,” he says.

“Which reminds me about one of my ideas to raise money for the mountain. Lana, I didn’t tell you about this earlier because I figured it would be classified, but now you’re part of the family.” Canyon waits until he has everyone’s attention, and announces, “Picture this: werebear assassins.”

“Hell, yeah.” Bern thumps the table.

“Rock on,” Axel mumbles around a mouthful of food. Everest cracks his knuckles again.

“No,” Teddy and Matthias say in unison. “Absolutely not,”

“Aw, come on,” the three triplets groan. “It'll be so cool. We can work on our fight skills.”

“Bern can get better at flying the helicopter,” Hutch says. Bern nods his head so hard, his hair flops back into his face.

“Think about it,” Canyon urges.

“I don't have to think about it,” Teddy said. “If I let you guys do wet work, Ma would kill me.”

Canyon drops back in his seat. “Ma’s hibernating. She doesn't have to know.”

I bite my lip to keep from smiling.

“Let’s clean up.” Teddy swirls his finger over the remains of dinner. His own sandwich has disappeared. “We gotta get to the meeting.”

“So wait.” Canyon springs out his chair again. “We're just going to leave Lana behind?”

Teddy hesitates. “I’ll stay with her.”

“When I talked to Daisy it seemed like the town was pretty split over this decision to go with Darius’s plan,” Matthias says. “About half and half. It'll probably come down to a few votes to decide which way we go.”

“Every vote counts,” Hutch says. “We all gotta go. It’s our last chance to save the mountain.”

I push out my lower lip in a pout. “Please?”

Teddy rubs his forehead.

I swallow. “Nevermind. It’s okay.” I grab an empty bread basket and hustle to the cabin.

“Lana…Lana, wait.” He catches up right before I scramble inside, blocking the door. The rest of his brothers stream past us, cleaning up dinner. I keep my head down to hide my tears.

“Here.” Teddy leads me off to the side of the cabin, where we can have some privacy. “I need to keep you safe.”

“I’d be safe. I’d be with all of you. Will I really be safer alone in the cabin? And don’t say you’ll leave someone to watch me. You all need to be at the meeting.”

Teddy growls. “This fucking meeting–”

“Is important. It’s important to you. I know I’m a burden–”

“Fuck, Lana, you’re not a burden. I didn’t mean to imply that.”

“I know. I know it’s not ideal. I just wanted to h-help.” My voice hitches.

“Come here.” He takes the bread basket I’m still holding, tosses it away and wraps me in his arms.

I press into him, grateful for his hug. “You guys have helped me so much, and now I can support you. This is important to you, and I want to be a part of it. It’s nice to be a part of something.”

Teddy grips me tight, muttering a curse.

“You guys are a family. It’s awesome. Just what a family should be. At least, what I think a family should be. Mine was never like that, no matter how much I wanted it.”

“Baby. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not.” He releases me to cup my face. “You’re little miss sunshine, and you haven’t been treated the way you should be. I’m sorry your parents died, and your brother’s competing for murderous asshole of the century.”

“Thank you.”

“You deserve the family of your dreams.”

“I think I found it,” I whisper against his lips, and he tilts his head to kiss me. His big hands slide around to cup my ass. I find myself suspended off the ground, straddling Teddy’s thigh. I wrap my legs around his hips and let him plunder my mouth.

My nipples get hot and tingly where they press up against his chest.

“You sure about that?” he asks when we come up for air. He lets me down, and I push my braids back. “You’re okay with putting up with my brothers, if it means you can be with me?”

“I like your brothers.”

“That makes one of us.” Teddy sees my face and adds, “I’m kidding. I like my brothers. Especially Everest. He doesn’t talk my ear off. I just don’t know, out of all the places on the mountain, why he’d built his beehives over by mine.”

“I expect it’s the same reason Axel keeps his sausage in your fridge, and the Terrible Threes keep bugging you about bagpipe practice. They like you. They’re your family. They want to be close to you. That’s what families do.” Crap, I’m going to cry again. All at once, I feel moved by the thought of being one of them and sad because no matter how hard I tried, Bentley and even my parents, never wanted anything to do with me. I blink rapidly.