Kitty Rocks the House

Chapter 15

SATURDAY MORNING, back at the condo, we called everyone. It was an attempt at an end run. Darren had convinced Becky that she could be alpha, that they could be the alpha pair together. But I had a feeling he was working top down. Becky was the strongest, most eligible woman in the pack, and she’d been perfectly willing to be wooed—this was the only way she could move up in the pack, and her wolf must have thought that was a good idea. Darren thought Becky was all he needed to convince everyone else. But if we had a chance to warn people, they’d never stand with him. Becky had to know this.

Never mind what Rick would think of a takeover of the Denver pack. I liked to think he’d side with us and help us keep it from happening, if it weren’t for the fact that he was a bit preoccupied at the moment. Darren had never even talked to Rick, as far as I knew. Either way, I couldn’t count on Rick or his Family to pull us out of this fire. We could do that on our own. And if we couldn’t, we didn’t much deserve to lead the Denver pack, did we?

Darren worked top down. I worked from the bottom up, just like I always had. I called my pack members, told them what was happening, asked them to stand with me. Every single one of them said yes.

Shaun did more than that. “I should have seen this coming. The way he latched onto Becky—”

“I’m not entirely sure what to do about her,” I said. She had been with us since the beginning—she was the second wolf after Shaun to leave the old alphas and follow me.

“She wouldn’t turn on us, not her.” His very decisiveness hinted at his uncertainty.

“I’ll find out, one way or another.”

“I can take on Darren. Track him down in some dark alley. The problem will just go away.” I imagined him making a gesture in the air, a flick of his fingers.

“I appreciate that. But I want to do this in the open, so there isn’t any question. I’m trying to build a reputation here.”

“You face him down, maybe some of these foreign vampires will take you seriously?”

“I’m that transparent, huh? Darren’s a friend of Nasser’s. This’ll get back to him.”

“Whatever you decide to do, I’ll back you.”

“Good,” I said. This was my pack, not Darren’s, and I’d just proven it.

The hardest call to make was to Trey. All the help I hadn’t been giving him, and now here I was, asking for backup. The nerve of me. I thought about not calling him at all—he didn’t need to be worrying about me. But he was pack, and leaving him out would be the worst thing I’d done yet.

“Kitty?” he said, answering his phone.

“Hey, Trey? Couple of things. First off, you’re right, I haven’t been around like I should be, and I’m sorry. You needed help and I wasn’t there. I’m going to do better. I’d like to have lunch sometime and talk about Sam, but I’m in the middle of a crisis right now. That’s the second thing.”

“Kitty,” he said. “You’re always in the middle of a crisis. But it’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

“I really haven’t forgotten about you, honest.”

“I know. But seriously, it’s taken care of. Everything’s good.”

I furrowed my brow, bemused. “It is? Well, that’s great. I guess.”

“More than great. Sam … she said yes. We’re engaged.” He sounded astonished and giddy.

“Oh my gosh, that’s great. See, you don’t need my help at all.” I might have felt a tiny bit conflicted about that.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. You know what turned her around?”

“What?” Maybe I could take notes for the next time this came up. God, I hope this never came up again, not like this. But please let him not say talking to Darren is what helped him.

Trey said, “I gave her a copy of your book. The one about being a werewolf.”

My first book, a memoir called Underneath the Skin, had done pretty well for itself. This was a use for it I hadn’t considered. I hesitated, astonished. “Wow. That’s … that’s kind of crazy. But I’m glad.”

“She said it helped her see my side of it, and helped her explain to me what was bothering her. We must have talked about it all day.” He went on like that, waxing poetic about Sam and how amazing she was, his voice going all dreamy. I heartily approved. I almost forgot about the main reason I’d called.

“She wants to meet you,” he said, proudly.

“And I want to meet her, definitely. But I’ve got another problem right now—Becky and Darren are challenging for leadership of the pack.”

He paused a beat. “What?”

Yeah, exactly. I explained, and he said, simply, “I’ll kill him. Just point me at him.”

That’s my pack … “I’m hoping that won’t be necessary. We’ve got a plan brewing.”

Trey promised to side with me when the time came. We could do this, we really could.

The last person I called was Becky.

Her phone shunted me to voice mail, which I expected. I couldn’t imagine what she thought when my name came up on her caller ID. “Hi, Becky,” I said in a suitably cheerful voice that probably came out sounding saccharine and evil from her perspective. “This is Kitty. Of course it is. I’d really like to talk to you. You know how it is with me and the talking. No pressure, no strings attached, just talking in a well-lit public place. I’ll keep calling until you feel compelled to pick up the phone. Just to warn you.”

I called again ten minutes later. Then ten minutes after that. On the sixth call, she answered.

“What?” she’d said, sounding like a kid who’d gotten caught stealing gum.

“Not over the phone. I want you to look me in the eye when you explain to me why you think screwing me over is a good idea.”

“I don’t have to do that,” she said sharply.

“Nope, you sure don’t. I just want you to ask yourself how Darren’s little coup is likely to succeed when it’s you two standing on one side of the fight and me and the rest of the pack standing on the other.”

She only hesitated a beat. “He says the others will follow him. When they see how much stronger he is, how much more experienced. Kitty, you know you aren’t cut out for this, you never were, and with all the traveling and all this stupid vampire politics—”

“Becky. You know this pack. Who are they really going to listen to, him or me?” She didn’t seem to notice that I hadn’t actually said Darren was wrong on anything he’d said about me. He may have been right. But he’d severely misjudged my response to the situation. He assumed I’d fold. Because I wasn’t a “born alpha.” To hell with that.

Her voice cracked a little. “If there really is going to be trouble with the vampires, we’ll need someone strong, like him.”

“And you?”

“I’m strong enough.”

“Yes, I know,” I said. “Which is why we’re going to talk about this.”

“Talking isn’t going to help—”

“Says you.”

“Kitty—”

“Now you’re going to tell me I’m being naïve, unrealistic, that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, and I’m setting myself up for failure.”

She didn’t say anything to that. Score a point for me.

“The diner on Sheridan. Can you meet me there in a couple of hours?”

“I’m not sure—”

“Come on, yes or no. You want to come talk to me, or are you chicken?” I didn’t think that would actually work, but it couldn’t hurt.

“Fine. I’ll be there.” Still sounding like a pouting kid. Which meant I was still alpha, at least for now.

I donned the insufferable perkiness of a morning talk show host. “Great! Looking forward to it! I’ll see you there!” I clicked off the phone before she could respond.

Ben was watching me from the other end of the sofa. “You got her, but will she listen to you?”

“That, I don’t know. I hope so.”

“Yeah,” he said, unconvinced.

Because if we couldn’t talk her out of the coup, we’d have to drive her out of Denver. At the very least.

BECKY WAS already at the diner when Ben and I got there. An attempt to gain the high ground. She occupied a booth and sat facing the door, so she’d see us as soon as we entered. And we’d see her.

Ben and I made our plan before arriving. I went to Becky’s booth, and Ben waited by the door, arms crossed, staring at her. She couldn’t leave without getting past him. She’d have to sit and talk until I said she could go.

I approached, and she stood. Again, to claim high ground, to avoid having to crane her neck back and look up at me from a weak position. All I had to do was stand and glare. To her credit, she matched my gaze, didn’t look away. She really was strong enough to lead the pack, I believed that. I just couldn’t let her do it while I was around. I wasn’t going to let anyone drive me out of the city again.

“You’re not going to change my mind,” she said in a rush, another attempt to one-up me by getting in the first word.

I stayed calm. I had all afternoon for this. “Have a seat,” I said, nodding at the booth. To press the point, I sat first. Conceding the ground because it didn’t matter to me—I was stronger, and I didn’t have to prove it.

She sank into the seat opposite me. Looking deeply uncomfortable on the hard plastic, she perched on the very edge, hands folded on the table in front of her, shoulders bunched to her neck, jaw hard and her eyes like ice. Good. This wasn’t supposed to be comfortable. Though with both of us sitting like that, staring at each other like we were getting ready to arm wrestle in what was supposed to be a hip happy fun-time coffee joint, we were really out of place. Let people wonder.

“Why are we here?” Becky said, her voice low.

“I want to talk.”

“No, I mean why are we here?” She gestured at the setting. “Why not New Moon? That’s where you usually do your talking.”

I had a moment of doubt. Becky had been a werewolf longer than I had; she’d been part of this pack longer than I had. Where did I get off thinking I could boss her around? But I knew the answer to that: she didn’t look at the big picture. She wasn’t in charge—couldn’t be in charge—because she didn’t care. She didn’t think ahead. Otherwise she would have known the answer to her question.

“Because that’s my territory and I wanted to meet on neutral ground,” I said. “No, scratch that. Forget about the pack. I want us to have a normal conversation. Two people having coffee. Change of context. Got it?” She didn’t let her expression flicker, not a millimeter. I tried again. “I want to hash this out as people. Human beings. Without all the claws and blood.”

“If you want to avoid that, you can just leave town. You and Ben both. Nobody has to get hurt.”

Oh, she was trying so hard to be brave. Offering me the same deal I’d—me and T. J.—had tried to get from Carl, once upon a time. It hadn’t worked then. Didn’t Becky remember?

I said, “What do you want, Becky?”

“You know what I want,” she said, dodging.

“You think you want to be alpha, right? With Darren? You don’t even know him.”

“Neither do you.”

“I’m not the one sleeping with him.”

Her gaze dropped, only for a second before zeroing in on me again. A flash of weakness that made her blush. Wolves didn’t blush, that was the human side coming through. “He’s right, Kitty. You shouldn’t be alpha if you can’t even be here to lead.”

They were going to keep beating me up with that, just like Cheryl did. But only if I let them, ha. “That’s a different issue entirely. One we can deal with separately. Right now I’m talking about you.”

“I’m strong enough to be the alpha. Darren and me both.”

“I never said you weren’t.” My smile felt absolutely rigid. Titanium hard. “I just want you to understand something. If we can’t work this out here, we have to fight. You and me, Darren and Ben. Same shitty cycle over again. I’m not going to leave, and it sounds like you’re not going to leave. If we can’t decide not to fight, then we’ll fight. But let me warn you: if I have to fight, I will win, because I’m fighting for me, Ben, my job, my family, my home. My whole philosophy and outlook on life. I’m fighting for everything I believe in—everything I’ve fought for up to this point. And what will you be fighting for? A guy you met a month ago? He’s cute, he’s got charm, and maybe he’s a great lay—and what else? Who do you think’s going to win that fight, Becky?”

When she looked away, turning her gaze to the tabletop, I knew I’d won. Without lifting a claw. I didn’t say anything, didn’t gloat. Just waited for her to answer my question, to tell me what she wanted to do next, so we could finish our coffee and move on.

Her head bowed, her hair fell across her cheeks, and her now-slouching shoulders began to tremble. She made a sharp noise, half-gasp, half-whine.

I leaned forward. “Wait—are you laughing or crying?”

When she looked up, her cheeks shone with the stripes of tears, but she was smiling. Both, then.

“I’m trying to imagine having a talk like this with Meg.” The laughter won out, and she wiped her eyes. “I’m just not seeing it. She would never have done anything like this.”

“That’s kind of the point,” I said. I traced the ring of moisture my cup left on the table. “I still have nightmares about her sometimes. Both of them. You know their old place is for sale?”

She went wide-eyed. “You’re not thinking of—”

“God no,” I said. “Never. Getting a place in the woods is one thing, but their place? No.” I shook my head to emphasize the point, then drank a long sip of now-lukewarm coffee. Didn’t matter, the stuff had only been a prop anyway.

Becky took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

If I’d asked her for what, I’m not sure she would have said the thing I thought she should be sorry for. For her ambition? For the near-betrayal? For her infatuation with Darren? All of the above? It didn’t matter, none of it did. Just as long as we could walk out of here on speaking terms and not on the verge of war. So I didn’t ask. Just accepted and moved on.

“Don’t let it happen again.”

“There’s something else,” she said, and I raised an interested brow. “I don’t think he came here for any job, like he told you. I don’t think there’s even a cousin.”

“Really?” I said flatly, wheels in my mind turning.

“The apartment he got is really posh, and he never actually seems to go to work. At least, he’s always right there when I call him. I think he might have come to Denver just to check out the pack.”

“Well, then,” I said. “I’m going to have to think about that.”

“Yeah,” she answered, sounding tired.

Ben took the opportunity to saunter over, slouching into the booth beside me in a mostly unassuming manner. He directed his gaze toward Becky instead of at her.

“We good here?” he said.

“Are you two going to pay a little more attention to the pack? If you don’t want guys like Darren waltzing in here and playing games, you have to actually be here.”

“Yeah. We’ll talk.”

We flagged the server for another round of coffee. And we talked.