Mack 'n' Me: The Wolves of Alpha 9 by C.M. Simpson (top ebook reader txt) 📕

He let me jerk my arm out of his hand, again, but he followed as I headed for my quarters. Fortunately, he didn’t follow me into the san, and I took the time alone to try and work out what had me so touchy. It wasn’t just Mack, or Tens, or jumping off a tall building—although that last thing had me curling up in a ball on the san unit floor and letting the water wash over me while I tried to shake the memory loose.

I guess I didn’t do such a good job, because Mack ended up coming in and hauling me out.

“Easy, girl,” he said, and I didn’t have the strength to tell him off—either the strength or the inclination.

I let him towel me dry, finding comfort in the circle of his arms and the gentle touch of his large, broad hands. When I was dry, and he’d wrapped the towel around me, he pulled me tight against his chest and let me lean into him. We were standing like that, when Doc pulled the door open to see if we were all right.

I turned my head so I could see who’d opened the door, and watched the Doc’s eyebrows hit his hairline as he took us in. His face colored, and he’d taken a step back, preparing to shut the door, when Mack spoke.

“You wanta keep that open for me, Doc?”

“Sure,” Doc replied, his voice gruff with embarrassment, and Mack tried to set him at his ease.

“It’s nothing like that,” he said. “I just don’t want to run her into the door on the way out.”

He what? But before I could process that any further, Mack had scooped me up into his arms and carried me out into my sleeping quarters.

Doc let the san unit door close behind us, and then pulled back the covers so Mack could slide me in.

“Sleep,” he said. “I’ll meet you in the caf for breakfast.”

And then he pulled the blankets up around my shoulders and left with Doc, and I didn’t know whether to be relieved or really, really disappointed. Goddammit, Mack!

“I hear you, girl,” he said, his voice rumbling through my implant. “Now, go to sleep. We have a mission to run.”

24—Volunteers

The next morning, I was up and heading out to the caf before anyone thought to page me, which meant I had no warning of what was waiting for me when I walked through the door. The first thing that hit me was the cacophony of smells. The second was the noise.

Voices were raised in three different versions of Gal, and I could hear the clicks, whistles and buzzes of vespis and weaver threaded through that. Add in the happy yaps and whines from the dozen cubs and their human companions, and the caf was not the place I was used to.

A shrill cry of “Cutter!” was followed a sharp whistle that cut through the cacophony and I froze. I almost walked right back out the door when I realized all eyes were turned toward me. Instead, I masked my sudden uncertainty, and looked for Mack.

It was no surprise to find he was the source of the whistle, or that he was watching me intently from the other side of the room. Typical. I had to face all my fears in order to reach him. And Tens was standing there at his side, the captain’s cub hanging off one hand, and the cub’s human ‘she’ hanging off the other. The other boy had a hold of Mack.

It was for the children more than anything else that I moved across the room, but it wasn’t as simple as that. Of course, it wasn’t. I was stopped by every single one of the newcomers as I reached them, and my head was buzzing with thank yous and appreciation by the time I came to a halt in front of him. When Mack offered me his arm so he could escort me into the captain’s mess, a small cheer rose from the caf behind me.

I waited until the door had firmly closed behind us, before I tried to speak.

“What,” I asked, shock tremoring through my voice, “was all that about?”

“I told them you were the only reason we picked them up,” Mack said, and I looked up at him.

“Truly?”

He rolled his shoulders in a shrug.

“Well,” he said. “It wasn’t like I could lie, not with the vespis out there.”

Which was true. The wasp-like shape shifters would have detected a lie straight off. It had something to do with a shift in the scent of our pheromones, which was something the damned insects were sensitive to. I drew a sharp breath as I remembered vespis were psi, and I registered what I’d thought. I hadn’t meant to offend anyone quite so soon.

Mack caught my dismay and laughed.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “After the last time, I’ve put in dampeners. You should be perfectly safe in here.”

He paused.

“But I’d watch my thoughts out there, if I were you. You’ve got two vespis, two weavers, and at least one of Odyssey’s psis, and no way to fend off any of ‘em.”

I opened the door and looked out at the creatures and other folk gathered in the small space. They turned and crowded forward, and I looked back at Mack.

“Why’d you let me anywhere near the place?” I wanted to know.

“Because you are the best P.R. the Marie could ever have. Now, every one of those psis in there knows you are the reason I pulled their fat out of the fire—and the sole reason at that. You hadn’t asked, and it wouldn’t have happened. I’d a just left them to rot.”

I stared at him, my heart sick with disbelief.

“But... why?”

“Because we don’t know what we’re heading back into. For all we know, the arach are already staging their little planetary take over, or the rebellion has started, or Odyssey have arrived and shot the shit out of the morally bankrupt assholes in