Come Out Swinging (Reach for the Moon Book 2), Sam Hall [leveled readers .TXT] 📗

up to become alpha female, you’ll need to find a way to work with her while doing what you know is right.”

“I’ll never be alpha female,” I sulked, because she’d said something to that effect. Nance had critiqued my dress, my posture, my manners, the way I ate my food and drank soft drinks. Basically, everything was wrong with my behaviour, according to her.

“She’s hard on you because she sees herself as the caretaker of what it means to be a Spehr. After your mother died, that kinda fell to her, but with none of the actual power.” I looked up at him, soaking in that warm, calm gaze that seemed to see every little flaw in me and smile, deeming them good. “You’ll always have to deal with that, until you take your mother’s power. Then she’ll be forced to take a knee, just like anyone else.”

“Really!?”

“Really. When you’re a big girl and your poor old dad is just a doddering old fool…”

He dropped his bottom lip down and screwed up his face in a gross caricature of someone vastly older, edging towards me until the giggles that had been thrust deep came spilling out.

“That’s my girl.” I felt his arms sweep me up and hold me against his chest like it was yesterday. “Nance may have her ideas, but you’re the Spehr heir, not her.”

I blinked, hearing the slide of the back door as Lorcan re-entered the house, his face like thunder. He met my eyes and just nodded.

“You all need to come to the alpha residence for a while,” I said, surveying all my Meyer family. “Or go to the city. Zack’s got a place—”

“No, love,” Nan said, laying a hand on my arm, the rest of my relatives taking their cues from her, as per usual. “There’s a fight coming, and we stand together as a family.”

“Yeah…” My eyes went to the glass door, showcasing the kids screaming out in the backyard. “Problem is we fight as one too.”

Chapter 17

"Well, well, look who’s come crawling back. Mr Big Shot, the nix’s mate.”

If Gary Engels were human, he would have been the stereotypical potbellied, greasy haired douche you saw in movies, but as a rule, wolf shifters don’t breed ugly people. While he was tall and muscular, with some of Lorcan’s good looks, that was where the resemblance stopped. Those dark eyes were hungry for everything—details he could use, conflicts he could inflame, weaknesses he could exploit. But it didn’t matter what he actually looked like on the outside, he was ugly, as was the twist of that smile as we walked en masse towards the warehouse.

“Where’s my cousin?” I growled.

And there it was—the weakness he was looking for. He grinned, his teeth just a shade too sharp, as if he never quite left his beast’s form. He shoved the rolled sleeves of his flannel shirt up his forearms and crossed them, his stance widening, but no information came pouring out. My hands formed fists, and I stepped forward, putting all of it, my dominance, the parade of horrors my brain kept concocting, my need to see my cousin safe, into my voice.

“Where. Is. She?”

I watched Gary’s smug expression falter slightly, some of his men and his family clustering closer, but Lorcan let out a low growl of warning. Gary rallied quickly though, the smile dropping, but his determination didn’t.

“Which she are we talking about?”

“For fuck’s sake, don’t pull the cat and mouse shit,” Lorcan snapped. “Everyone here knows you sell yourself to the highest bidder, so what do you want?”

“Watch your mouth, Roth,” Gary snarled in response. “I don’t care who you’re fucking now, you show respect to family.”

“Give me one thing to respect, Gary, just one. We’re here because we tracked Bridget Spehr’s phone to here.” If you looked carefully, you could see the slight wince on the man’s face. “Yeah, nice bit of oversight by you again, not turning off the tracker on it. Or did Nancy just neglect to mention it? Maybe she figured a piece of shit Engel could take the fall for whatever she did to her own daughter? Give her to us, and no one has to get hurt.”

Gary’s face was still and quiet for a heartbeat before a bright smile spread across his face, startling in its brilliance. It should’ve prepared us for the harsh bark of laughter that came afterwards, but nope, we all jumped in response. That seemed to please him inordinately.

“Well, she’s not fucking here. You want the phone?” He nodded to someone over his shoulder, who turned and walked into the warehouse. “The phone that somehow ended up here was found on the street. You know how it is.” A man returned, slapping it down in his boss’ hand before he held it out to us. “There you go, take it. Now, if our business is concluded here?”

I tried a few passcodes, failing each time, before remembering her old computer password. “Look, if you read these numbers upside down, they say boobies!” a thirteen-year-old Bridget had told me, brandishing a calculator. My thumb moved across the screen, inputting the code, and sure enough, it worked. I clicked through to Bridge’s messages, seeing that she’d gotten one from her mother last, then turned the phone into speaker mode and played the message.

“Hello, darling. I need you to meet us at the Peters’ house. Selma’s got some big news to share!”

Gary didn’t look in any way surprised by the message, but he went still and quiet before saying, “You’ve got what you want.”

“No, we don’t. I want my cousin, and I don’t care who I have to go through…”

My voice trailed away as Lorcan whipped out a gun from god knows where, shoving it against the temple of his uncle. Gary’s men retrieved their own, but belatedly, obviously not expecting this move.

“What the hell are you—!” Gary’s voice stopped abruptly as Lorcan pulled the safety off. His hands went up shakily, but Lorcan hissed at him