Wren's Pack (Leader of the Pack Series Book 1) Read online

  “She’s not why we’re here,” Husk heard his brother’s thoughts. They had always had a special connection. Even when they weren’t in wolf form, he could hear his brother in his head. It was one of the reasons why sharing women worked so well for them. They both knew what the other was thinking and could stay one step ahead of the other. Women seemed to like that about the two of them.

  “I know that but try telling my wolf that,” Husk said to Nix. He hadn’t realized that he had said it out loud until Rios had him pinned up against the damn wall.

  “Your wolf better not be thinking about my sister, Husk,” Rios growled. He held up his hands as if in defense and nodded.

  “Got it, man. Your hot little sister is off-limits,” Husk said.

  “Wait, you think I’m hot?” Wren asked. Nix cleared his throat and Husk could hear his brother’s warning, “Don’t,” ring through his mind.

  Husk shrugged and smiled down at her and Nix groaned. He couldn’t help himself, “Sure, Honey,” he offered. “You do own a mirror, right?”

  “Fuck,” Nix groaned. He stepped between Rios and Husk as if he’d be able to stop either of Wren’s brothers from tearing him apart. He knew he was egging them on, but he didn’t give a fuck. Husk liked to see how far he could push things with people and Rios was someone he loved to fuck with. The guy rubbed him the wrong way—always so calm and in control. Husk couldn’t stand guys like that. He wanted to watch someone like Rios lose his shit every once in a while, even if it meant he’d take a beating from the guy to make it happen.

  “He’s an ass, Rios,” Nix said in way of explanation. “He’s trying to get a rise out of you and you’re playing right into his hands.” Husk thought about how he’d like to get his big hands on Wren and play with her and Nix moaned and shot him another look.

  “Can you please just cut it out? We need to tell them what Akin’s plan is and then, you need to take a cold shower,” Nix ordered.

  “Fine,” Husk begrudgingly conceded.

  “Thank you,” Nix said. He turned back to face Rios and Trace. “You mind if we sit? We’ve been in my truck all day and I could use a beer.”

  Rios made a grand sweeping gesture toward his bar, effectively blocking the path to Wren, not that he’d stop Husk from getting to her if he wanted to. Nix was right though—they needed to fill in both Rios brothers about his father’s plan and then he was going to try to convince sexy little Wren to come back to his hotel room with him and Nix. Husk didn’t give a fuck about her overbearing cavemen brothers or the fact that she looked as innocent as the pure driven snow—he wanted her and if his wolf had his way, he and Nix would be making Wren theirs tonight.

  They sat up at the bar and he noted the way Wren kept watching him and his brother. “So,” Trace barked. Rios handed him and Nix each a beer and he took a long draw, downing about half of it.

  “Dad’s been contacted by hunters—they want him to turn Kaiah,” Husk said, setting his bottle on the wooden bar.

  “But Kaiah’s already half shifter,” Rios challenged. Yeah, that part stumped him too.

  “We don’t know much more than that. Listen, the hunters have our father by the balls. They have enough on our old man to put him away for life. Add to that the fact that he looks like a traitor to the shifter cause, and they’ve got him coming and going. He has no choice in all this,” Nix grumbled.

  “There’s always a choice,” Wren whispered. “It’s called knowing right from wrong.”

  Nix laughed, “Sure, Sweetheart. No gray or in between?” he questioned.

  “Speaking of Gray,” Trace said. “He’ll rip your father apart if he lays one paw on Kaiah.”

  Husk chuckled, “Yeah—the old wolf staked his claim with her, didn’t he. They together now?” Husk remembered how Gray all but bit his head off when he flirted with Kaiah while they were staying at Akin’s compound. He got the message loud and clear—she belonged to Gray.

  “Yeah,” Rios said.

  “When is Akin going to be making his play for her?” Trace asked.

  Nix shrugged, “No clue. He left the compound about two days ago and we beat a path here to warn you all.”

  “How do we know that this isn’t all part of the plan?” Rios challenged. “You could be setting us all up again and we’d be playing right into your hands.”

  He was right, after that whole shit show with turning Ringer, they had no reason to trust him or Nix. Husk wasn’t a fool—he knew the score. “You don’t,” Husk said, finishing off his beer. “But what choice do you have? You can either believe me and Nix or let Akin do his worst—it’s up to you.”

  He turned to Wren, looking straight past the barrier of her two overprotective brothers. “And you having dinner with me, and Nix tonight is up to you, Honey. How about it?” Wren smiled at him and nodded and God, his heartfelt as though it did a damn flip-flop in his fucking chest.

  “Over my dead body, fucker,” Trace growled.

  “Shit,” Nix grumbled, reading his next thought. Yeah, he’d have some fun going through Trace to get to little Wren but if that’s what it took, he was game. “Seriously man, you’re going to be the death of me,” he mumbled. They both stood from their bar stools and squared off with the Rios brothers.

  “Doesn’t have to be this way, man,” Rios challenged.

  “No,” Wren said. “It doesn’t. I’m a grown woman and the sooner you two goons figure that out, the better we’ll get along. You’ve both been my brothers for all of two minutes. You don’t get to say who I have dinner with.” Wren stepped from between her brothers, pushing her way out from behind them.

  “But,” Trace started to protest, and she shot him a look back over her shoulder as if daring him to challenge her.

  She reached her hands out to Nix and Husk, “You boys ready,” she asked. They both took her offered hands and Husk didn’t bother to look back at her brothers. He was sure that if he did, he’d find two very pissed-off shifters. Yeah, he liked sexy little Wren Rios.

  Nix

  Nix and Husk sat with sexy little Wren between them, and he was sure that this whole thing was a colossally bad idea. She had picked a steakhouse that was new in town and the place was packed. Nix could smell the other shifters and he knew that his and Husk’s reputations were well known in these parts, judging by the way the locals stared them down.

  “I have a feeling that a lot of these guys are a part of your brother’s pack,” Husk said, picking up on the fact that they were getting the stink eye from the shifters around them.

  Wren looked around and nodded, “Yep,” she said. “I’m guessing that’s why you two are being mean mugged. What the hell did you do to my brothers?” she asked.

  The last thing that Nix wanted to talk about with Wren was how he, his brother, and father had turned Ringer and that most of the guys in his pack would want them to pay for what they did. Hell, most of them would want him and Husk dead, but he’d definitely keep that to himself.

  “We turned Ringer,” Husk said. Nix moaned and both his brother and Wren looked at him. Husk had no filter, and he wished his brother would just learn to keep his mouth shut.

  “Well, it’s not a secret,” Husk justified.

  “No, but you had to just blurt it out?” Nix questioned.

  “I don’t mind him ripping the band-aid off. I like that approach the best,” she said. “I’m a get right to the point kind of girl.” Nix wondered if she’d be that way in bed and hoped that she’d want to take her time with them both. Husk chuckled as if he was in Nix’s mind again and he just shook his head at his brother.

  “You really turned him?” Wren asked.

  “Yep,” Husk said. “It was a freelance job and well, my father loves those most of all. We’re kind of out of that line of work now, but we made some enemies—your brothers included.”

  “Well, I don’t even know you guys, so I’m not your enemy,” she assured.

  “Give it time, honey,” Husk teased. “I’m sure that my brother
and I will make an enemy of you yet.”

  “Now, I don’t know why you’d want to do that,” Wren teased.

  “We don’t want to,” Nix assured. “It just seems to happen.”

  “You two really can’t be that bad if you’re willing to help Kaiah and Gray. Do you really think that your father will try to turn her?” she asked. That was the million-dollar question, really. Their father seemed to be determined to carry out orders for whoever was paying him to turn Kaiah.

  “I think that’s his plan. Honestly, he told us about this job, and we tried to stop him, but when we realized that wasn’t going to be possible, we packed our bags and headed to Reckoning. We figured that we’d find Gray and Kaiah there.”

  “I’m not sure what I should or shouldn’t be telling either of you, but Kaiah and Gray have left town,” Wren said.

  “Where have they gone?” Husk asked. She looked at him as if she was trying to decide if she wanted to believe him or not.

  “Don’t pressure her,” Nix said.

  “It’s fine,” she assured. “Honestly, I don’t know where they live now. I’ve only met Kaiah a couple of times when she and Gray come for a visit. I’m kind of new here,” she said.

  “New,” Nix said. “I thought that you’re Rios and Trace’s little sister.”

  She giggled and Nix thought that it was the cutest damn thing he’d seen in a long time. “They are my brothers, but I didn’t know about them until a few months ago, and vice versa. We have the same father, and well, he cheated on their mom and had an affair with my mom. That’s where I come into the story and well, he kept it all a secret for twenty-two years. He had a good run, I guess, but then I guess his guilty conscious couldn’t take anymore and he told his sons and now ex-wife about me. He told my mother that he wanted to meet me, that he was done denying that he had a daughter.”

  “Wow,” Nix said. “Wren, that’s crazy.”

  “Tell me about it,” she breathed. “He turned all of our lives upside down with his lie and now, we’re the ones picking up the pieces while he recovers from heart surgery. We can’t upset him, so walking into his rehab and screaming at him about how unfairly he treated me isn’t an option. I’m sure that my new brothers would like the chance to tell him off, but until he’s fully recovered, that won’t happen, so we’re muddling through, trying to get to know each other the best we can,” Wren whispered that last part and it nearly tore his heart out.

  “That sucks,” Husk said. “I mean, our father doesn’t always make the best decisions, and sometimes, it was hard to save him from himself, but Nix and I are always free to speak our minds to him. We say what we want to say.”

  “And sometimes, we say more than we should,” Nix said, staring his brother down.

  “Yeah, sometimes, I say more than I should, but keeping my mouth shut isn’t a strong suit of mine,” Husk admitted.

  “You can say that again,” Nix said, making Wren giggle. He had to admit, he’d love to just sit around with her and say funny shit to make her laugh all day, but they were going to have to find Kaiah before their father did, and that meant cutting their time with pretty Wren short, sadly.

  “Just one night,” Husk begged, after reading his brother’s mind.

  “You know that we can’t risk hanging around town too long,” Nix reminded.

  “Okay, that’s getting to be annoying,” Wren said, slapping her hands down onto the table. “I’m guessing that you two can read each other’s minds, and that’s what this whole partial conversation thing is about.”

  “Yeah,” Nix said, shrugging like it wasn’t a big deal that she had picked up on them doing just that. “Most people don’t pay enough attention to us to even notice what we’re doing, and well, I guess we just got used to it. Sorry.”

  “Well, cut it out,” she said. “I don’t like not being in on the whole conversation.”

  “I’d be happy to clue you in, honey,” Husk offered.

  “Husk,” Nix growled. The very last fucking thing that they needed was Husk admitting to her that they wanted her. It wouldn’t be fair to play with Wren and then disappear to look for Kaiah and Gray. She seemed to be pretty damn innocent and he was betting that was why her older brothers were so protective of her, and rightly so.

  “My brother and I were just talking about how we’re going to have to leave town for a bit, to find Kaiah and Gray and try to stop our father from turning her. He said that we needed to cut this little date short, and I was begging him for just one night with you,” Husk admitted.

  “And that’s oversharing at its finest, Husk,” Nix accused.

  “One night,” she squeaked.

  “Yeah—one night, honey,” he said. “You, Nix, and me—what do you say?”

  “Wait—you and Nix?” she questioned.

  “Guess you should have led with the fact that we share women,” Husk teased.

  “You think?” Wren asked. “So, that whole act back at my brother’s bar, it wasn’t an act?”

  “No,” Husk said. “We both wanted you and I guess we just thought that you had caught on when we asked you to join us for dinner,” he said. “I might have a big mouth, but I suck at communication.”

  “He does,” Nix said. “I can vouch for that.”

  “Shut the fuck up, man,” Husk said. “Let’s at least have dinner. I mean, we’ve already ordered and I’m starving.”

  “You’re always hungry,” Nix accused. “But we do owe you a dinner, at the very least, Wren.”

  “True,” she said. He had changed the subject about them wanting her, and from the smirk on her face, she knew exactly what he was doing. “You do owe me dinner, at the very least. I think that you also owe me more of an explanation on what you thought was happening here, guys.”

  Husk smiled over at him, “I like her,” he said. “You really are a cut to the chase kind of girl, aren’t you, honey?” he asked, taking her hand into his own. His brother was always such a player, it was one of the things that most women that they hung out with liked about them. Husk would woo them and then, he’d convince them to come back to their place—we’ll, their hotel room, since bringing women back to their father’s home was a pain in the ass. He hated living with their old man, but Nix worried that if they left, Akin would find more trouble than he’d be able to handle.

  “Well, it doesn’t matter,” Nix said. “We have to find Kaiah.”

  Wren made a face when he mentioned finding Kaiah and he was sure that she knew more than she was letting on. “You’re not telling us something,” Nix accused.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she insisted.

  “Shit,” Husk growled. Nix followed his brother’s gaze to the front door of the restaurant to find what had him so upset. Rios and Trace had crowded into the place and from the angry scowls on their faces, they had spotted the three of them across the restaurant.

  “Shit,” Wren agreed with his brother. “What the hell are they doing here?”

  “You’d know better than us,” Husk said. “They are your brothers.”

  “Yeah, and they should be at home with their wives and kids, not following me around town,” she said.

  “Looks like they weren’t done talking when we cut out of Reckoning,” Nix said. He looked up to smile at Rios and Trace as they approached their table.

  “What the fuck is going on here?” Rios growled.

  Wren stood and squared off with her older brother. “I think that’s a question that I should ask you both,” she insisted. God, she was hot the way she took them both on as if she wasn’t afraid of anything. She was fierce. “Why are you both here?” she asked.

  “We’ve come to drag your ass out of here, Wren,” Trace said.

  “Good luck with that, Trace,” she said. “I’ve agreed to have dinner with both Nix and Husk and if you don’t like it, that’s too fucking bad. Hell, you’ve spent the past few weeks ignoring the fact that I even exist. I sat right in front of you, practically begging you
to notice me, and nothing. These two walk into your bar and you suddenly want to play the part of big brother? Well, you’re too late, Trace,” she said.

  “She’s the fiercest wolf shifter I’ve ever met,” Husk mumbled to his brother.

  “She’s not a wolf shifter,” Rios said.

  “In fact, our sisters never shifted,” Trace quickly added.

  “That’s not your story to tell,” she spat, “it was mine. You two need to leave.”

  “Actually, they are the ones who will be leaving. You two want to help Kaiah, well, she’s not here,” Rios said.

  “We know,” Nix said. “Your sister told us that she and Gray don’t live around here anymore. Care to tell us where we can find her?”

  “Not on your fucking life,” Trace growled. “How do we know that you really want to help her? For all we know, you’re here to do what your father sent you to do—turn Kaiah.”

  “We already told you that our father is the one who wants to turn her. We want to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Nix insisted. He was sure that he was wasting his breath though. Both guys looked like they didn’t believe a word that was coming out of his mouth. If they wouldn’t give up Kaiah’s location, that was going to make all of this so much harder and give his father the chance to get to her first.

  “Why would anyone want her changed in the first place?” Husk asked. “Isn’t she already a wolf shifter?”

  “Yes, and no,” Wren said. “She’s like me—her father is a shifter, but she’s never shifted.”

  “So, whoever hired our father thinks that if he turns her, she’ll finally shift. That sounds pretty insane to me,” he admitted.