Read Online Heir To The Pack (The Cursed Pack Book 1) by Laura Welling - Free Book Online

food, and she didn’t want to
interrupt, especially since his appetite had been so poor lately.
    “He’s a good kid,” Dash
said to her, between forking giant mouthfuls of beef into his mouth.
    “He is.” She sipped her
water.
    “You must be proud of him.”
    “Very.” Beginning to feel
guilty, her ice melted and she felt the urge to make polite conversation. “So
where is this Gathering?”
    The conversation lulled,
the two quiet cousins sitting silent, Daisy glancing up at her, while Elaine
watched Dash.
    He seemed unperturbed. “This
is only a city house, not enough room for visitors. This year’s Gathering will
be at the ranch. Plenty of room there for everyone.”
    Given the sprawling size
of this place, she could barely imagine how big the ranch must be, but she’d
find out soon enough. “You have a family ranch?”
    “That’s our business. Cattle,
mostly, in terms of the day-to-day work. We also have some resource holdings,
but those are leased to management companies.”
    “Resources? What do you
mean?”
    “Oil and gold.” He waved
his fork in the air. “We have a fair amount of forest land which could
theoretically be logged, but we prefer to preserve nature where possible,
especially given the environmental costs of the other parts of our business. Let’s
say we have a fondness for the woods.”
    Bill snickered, but in
mid-laugh, he jumped.
    Annie deduced that Novie
had kicked him under the table, but the woman kept her gaze trained on her
plate. Unconcerned, Bill put peas on his knife and licked them off, at which
point Annie looked away. He’d been raised by wolves, she supposed.
    Dash had made reference to
a family business when they'd first met, but had been vague about what exactly
that was. She'd assumed something less interesting. Cattle holdings, oil, and
gold told a different story from the one she'd envisioned. More money, more
glamor.
    “How far away is it?”
    “A few hours by car. We
were planning on leaving tomorrow. Things don’t really get started until the
day after that, but we’ll have time to get settled. It’s our usual routine. Bit
different this year as I sent most of ’em on ahead, didn’t want a thousand
people around with you here.”
    He relaxed when he talked
about this, his normal life, even though the Gathering sounded like a stressful
event. What kind of man wasn’t even a little bit nervous about being named as
the leader of his people? What would make him nervous?
    He caught her gaze and
raised an eyebrow. “What’s up?” His strong mouth widened in a smile. “Worried
about meeting all those people?”
    “A touch,” she said. “I’m
more worried about...the types of things we talked about earlier.”
    His smile flattened and
his eyes darkened. She knew he’d understood what she meant. Security. If those
attackers came from among the wolves, how on earth was he planning on keeping
all of them safe in a crowd of strangers?
    “I promise you,” he said,
his voice low and growling, “I will not allow anything to happen to any member
of our family.”
    Each person around the
table, even Jack, stopped at his words. Annie could see he meant it. He was
enough of a man’s man that she wasn’t going to call him on it. Undermining his
ego wouldn’t help anything. That didn’t stop the current of fear from flooding
through her body.
    “More milk, mama?” Jack’s
sweet tones broke the tension, and she got up to refill the sippy cup he
brandished at her, grateful for a break from the intense conversation.
    She walked through to the
kitchen, waving Elaine, who had risen to help, back into her seat. The huge,
stainless steel refrigerator had one entire shelf full of gallon after gallon
of milk.
    Annie mostly ate
vegetables these days, trying to keep herself healthy. Dash’s family clearly weren’t
followers of that type of diet. The fridge had fruit and vegetables in it,
sure, but it was dominated by steaks, ribs, legs of lamb, and the jugs and