Forbidden Nights with a Vampire(98)

 

"You're not helping them. You're enabling them."

 

"What?" She poured the eggs into the frying pan. "I gave them a home."

 

"They're doing nothing, Bryn. They should be finishing school, getting jobs."

 

"The only jobs around here are on ranches that are either owned by Dad or someone he controls. The boys are stuck."

 

"As long as they're here, yes. They need to leave."

 

Bryn gasped. "You would kick them out?"

 

"No." He drank some coffee. "I'll think of something."

 

"Like being their pack master?" She gave him a hopeful look. "They need a father figure. They need you."

 

He began to pace. The last thing he wanted was to act like a father.

 

He had wanted to go away to college, but his father hadn't seen any point in a higher education. Dad had every detail of his life already mapped out—the ranches he would run, the female werewolf he would marry, and his eventual ascension to the role of Supreme Pack Master in about three hundred years. All the wealth and power would be his, if he could just behave himself and do as his father said for a few centuries.

 

Maybe it was time for a change. Roman Draganesti had revolutionized the Vampire World when he'd invented synthetic blood. Modern Vamps, no longer shackled with the need to feed every night, were now engaging in careers in science, business, entertainment, whatever they wanted.

 

Maybe it was time for a similar revolution in the Lycan World. He'd broken free from the pack and all the old traditions and restraints. Maybe these boys could do it, too.

 

Phil spent the day preparing for the battle that night. He borrowed Brynley's car and drove to the nearest town, where he purchased more clothes and bottled blood for Vanda and more ammo for himself. It occurred to him that she might need more than a whip for protection, so he bought her a handgun plus a hunting knife with a sheath she could strap to her calf. And if anything happened to him, and she ended up on her own, she would need a cell phone to help her teleport.

 

On the drive back to the cabin, he charged his cell phone and Vanda's new one. Then, at the cabin, he downloaded all the contact numbers from his phone onto hers.

 

He heard the boys outside and peered out the window. They'd divided into two teams and were playing touch football in the meadow.

 

He stepped onto the porch.

 

Brynley was sitting in the rocking chair, creaking it slowly back and forth. "So are you really going to fight in that battle tonight?"

 

"Yes. I'm leaving Vanda here. I'd appreciate your help in keeping her safe."

 

Bryn nodded. "I can do that."

 

Phil leaned against a post. "How long can you stay? Don't you have a teaching job you need to get back to?"

 

She frowned. "Dad didn't want me to work. He thought it was beneath me."

 

Phil shook his head. "I know a school that would love to hire you. The boys could go there, too, and live on campus."

 

Her eyes widened. "Where?"

 

"The location is kept a secret 'cause the students are…different. Some are mortal children who know too much, some are half-vampire children with special powers, and others are were-panthers. I think these boys would fit right in."

 

She frowned. "I don't know. It sounds so far removed from the Lycan World."

 

"They can't have a life in the Lycan World, Bryn. They were banished. There's no going back."

 

"Hey, Mr. Jones." The youngest boy jogged up to the porch. "You want to play?"

 

"Sorry, Gavin. I need to conserve my energy."

 

"I told you he wouldn't," Davy grumbled. "He doesn't want anything to do with us."

 

Phil frowned. "That's not true."

 

"You refused to be our master!" Davy shouted.

 

Phil shot his sister an annoyed look.

 

She shrugged. "They wanted to know. What else could I tell them?"

 

"I said I would help them." Phil turned to the boys, who were clumped together in the pasture, watching him with injured expressions. "Okay, listen up. You were all banished because you challenged the authority of your masters, right?"

 

Davy lifted his chin. "So? You got a problem with that?"

 

"We wouldn't challenge you," Gavin insisted, his eyes pleading. "We think you're totally awesome."

 

The boys all murmured in agreement.

 

"Is it true you went Alpha without a pack?" a redheaded boy named Griffin asked.

 

"Yes." Phil held up his hands to quiet the boys, who were growing too excited. "Look. There's a good reason why you challenged your masters. It's because you all have natural leadership abilities. Each one of you has the strength, courage, and intelligence it takes to be a pack master, and your masters knew it. You're their worst nightmare—young Alphas in the making. The only way they could keep control was to get rid of you."