The Bucklin Wolves Next Generation: Return Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Read More Jessica Ryan

  About This Series

  A Note from Jessica

  THE BUCKLIN WOLVES NEXT GENERATION: RETURN

  By Jessica Ryan

  Copyright © 2015 Jessica Ryan

  All Rights Reserved.

  Published by Jessica Ryan Books

  Cover Art by Yoly Cortez of Cormar Covers

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  CONTENT WARNING: This short story contains adult material with explicit sexual situations and language. All sexually active characters in this work are 19 years of age or older.

  PLEASE NOTE: This book is for sale to ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It contains sexually explicit scenes, graphic language and may be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

  Chapter 1

  Seth was finding himself zoning out more often than he should have during a meeting with such importance, but the subject matter wasn’t exactly the most exciting for a young wolf with a short attention span.

  Lester was standing in front of a white screen, droning on as his dry PowerPoint presentation flickered by. How could someone make a presentation about filming a movie in Bucklin this boring? The subject matter was more exciting than the presentation, but he was horribly underselling it. What wasn’t there to like? A movie about a biker gang, with a leader possessed by a demon, attacking a town full of werewolves. Fun, right? It would be fun if Seth and everyone else hadn’t lived through it. This idea was dead before it began and the presentation wasn’t exactly doing it any favors.

  “Seth,” an older gentleman whispered. “Are you even paying attention?”

  Seth looked up at the man who had helped raise him. To the uninitiated he looked like an old man who had taken care of himself throughout the years, but to those in the know he was the patriarch of a pack that no longer existed. His silvery hair was slicked back, but it still hung to his broad, powerful shoulders. He looked nothing like his son, who had died during the Satan’s Angels invasion of Bucklin.

  “I’m paying attention, William,” he shot back. “But I can’t get behind this idea.”

  “Why not?” William asked.

  “Because…” Seth trailed off as he realized everyone in the room was looking at him. There were eight men in the room including Seth, all strong and powerful men who had spent their lives supporting an alpha while dreaming of ascending to that position one day. But they weren’t alphas; only Seth was. The packs were gone in Bucklin. Packs were a relic from the past, gone with the wolves who had abandoned the town two years ago.

  “Do you have a decision, Mr. Mayor?” a faceless councilman asked. The wolf speaking to him might have been a distant cousin of former alpha Forrest—Seth wasn’t really sure. Seth wondered if he needed to keep an eye on this guy. Forrest and the Oakdale pack had betrayed Bucklin, after all. But that was two years ago, and this guy hadn’t had any part in it. Aside from William, they were all interchangeable, faceless bureaucrats who were too busy playing leader rather than being leaders.

  Seth tapped his fingers on the heavy oaken table he sat at the head of and studied the folders in front of him. Each one had a different plan to bring prosperity back to a dying town, but Seth couldn’t bring himself to care about any of them. He had imagined he would be a great leader when he’d agreed to take this position two years ago, but what had he done? Nothing. Most of his days were spent at home studying. William didn’t think he was ready to make decisions yet, so he was bringing Seth along slowly. He was deputy mayor and Seth trusted him more than he trusted even himself. William ran most city council meetings and brought him the results over dinner. He was young, but he wasn’t stupid. Up to this point he’d just been a figurehead because of his bloodline. But now? Now he had the power to make a difference in his people’s lives and he didn’t want to screw it up.

  This was Seth’s chance to build his legacy while simultaneously rebuilding a town that was nearly dead. The pressure was insurmountable, yet all he could do was sit back in his chair and tap his fingers. Somehow the decision ultimately rested on his shoulders. It was strange for the council to give him this much power. It was probably William who had told them the decision would ultimately lie in his lap. Nobody argued with William.

  “Why do you have your meetings at a table like this?” he asked. “I don’t recall Aster having meetings at a table like this. He didn’t, did he?”

  “Mr. Mayor,” another faceless yes-man said while clearing his throat. Was this guy even related to a former alpha? Probably not, but what did it matter? Seth was the figurehead and William was the puppet master controlling all these other marionettes expertly. It was exactly what Seth wanted. William was a brilliant leader. “I’m not sure Aster is the best one to model your regime after. He did lead us to ruin and then abandon us.”

  “What pack were you in?” Seth asked, sitting up and leaning over the table.

  “Red Moon,” the man said.

  “Blood Moon,” William said, sighing.

  “A pack who can’t even get their name right,” the former Oakdale member said while shaking his head. “I always hated how you changed the name of your pack depending on who was talking.”

  “It was originally called Red Moon,” the nervous man explained while giving nervous looks to William. “But, well, you see…Crow….well….”

  “Yes, yes,” William said, flipping his hand. “My son thought Blood Moon sounded more menacing. That’s the only reason.”

  Yes, Seth thought. He was a treacherous snake who thought he controlled Bucklin from behind the scenes. Without his father to keep sense in his head he would have done something stupid that would’ve lead to his death much earlier.

  Seth smiled at William. At least he was on Seth’s side.

  “You know,” Seth said, bringing them back on point, “this town was humming when Aster ran it, right up until Satan’s Angels invaded.”

  “And then he abandoned us,” the Blood Moon member said. “Now we have more abandoned buildings than Detroit, for god’s sake.”

  “The ones who remained are smart,” William said. “And Seth is our leader.”

  “Sounds like he wants to get down on four legs and follow Aster into the forest. We’re not savages here,” Lester said with a giggle.

  “Yes,” Seth said, sliding Lester’s report onto the floor, drawing a grunt from the boring councilman. “That was the most exciting thing you’ve said all day.”

  Seth leaned back in his chair again and closed his eyes. There were so many decisions to make. This wasn’t how he’d expected his first two years as alpha to go. He had spent too much time screwing around and delegating to his top beta. William was a genius, but it was time for Seth to step up and be the leader. He wasn’t anyo
ne’s figurehead; he was alpha, dammit.

  “The decision does ultimately lie with me,” he said, looking down at the proposals.

  “We elected you to lead,” William said.

  “Did you elect me because I was the best for the job, or because I was Luke’s bastard son?” Seth asked. “The only one with the blood of the original alpha flowing through his veins, right? I haven’t been included in one goddamn decision over the last two years.”

  “We didn’t want to bother you with trivial matters,” William said.

  Seth could feel his anger rising. He knew every man at this table, save William, viewed him as a punk kid and a complete joke. He wanted to shift and tear each and every one of them apart. They were faceless yes-men who had no respect for him. Whatever decision he made was going to be met with derision and rejection. He loved William, who had always been there for Seth when his father wasn’t, but he had done him a disservice as mayor and alpha up to this point. It was time for him to stand up and gain the control he should have had from the beginning.

  “I’ve made a decision,” Seth said.

  “Yes?” William asked.

  “We’re going to build the casino.”

  A younger wolf named Jack who used to belong to the Stonewall pack sat back in his seat and smiled as he pumped his fist. “You won’t regret this decision, Mr. Mayor. This vampire developer, Mr. Sokolov, is a genius. He’s taken towns that had nothing and turned them into real destinations. Forbes Magazine called him the mini-Vegas maker. Can you imagine that here in Bucklin? It’ll blow the small town tourism industry we had right out of the goddamn water.”

  “Yes,” Seth said, smiling. “That was all in your presentation, Jack.” He eyed Lester again. “Which, I might add, was very well done.”

  “But have you considered—” another faceless moron said.

  “I have considered it all,” Seth said, his voice booming through the room. The others were now seeing his alpha blood show and they all recoiled back into their seats. “For the last two years I’ve delegated too much responsibility to the deputy mayor. No more. I’m in control of my town now. This is the decision I have made, and you will respect it. Any questions?”

  Everyone shook their heads and looked down at the table, unable to make eye contact with the furious Seth. He was bigger than everyone else in the room and he could kill them all in a fight right now if it came down to it. They knew that, and no one would challenge him on this day any further.

  Seth just sat at the head of the table with his feet up as the other councilmen filed out of the room. Their two-year party was over. Bucklin was in the shitter and was a veritable hellhole. Seth couldn’t allow his people to suffer in poverty any longer.

  When the last one had left, William walked to the heavy wooden door and shut it, then turned to Seth with a broad smile across his wizened face. “That was perfect, my boy.”

  “Do you think I regained the respect I needed?” Seth asked.

  “Oh, yes,” William said. “You did it exactly as I told you to. It was just perfect.”

  “Were they really talking about coming up with an emergency vote to remove me as mayor?” Seth asked.

  “Yes.” William nodded. “That little Blood Moon asshole who dared to speak out? His name is Ronald, and he thinks as Crow’s cousin he’s the best for the job. He was always following my son around, but Crow kept him on a short leash. That wolf didn’t piss unless Crow allowed it.”

  “Your son always wanted to lead,” Seth said.

  “This town would be in even worse shape with Crow in charge,” William said, shaking his head. “My son thought he was Machiavellian in his machinations, but in reality he was closer to a fool like Dick Cheney. He never had what it took to lead. I saw that, he didn’t.”

  “Why weren’t you alpha, then?” Seth asked. “You were the eldest.”

  “I’m not a leader,” William said, shaking his head. “I’m an advisor. I gave Crow advice, but he never took it. That pack was just children running around, pretending to be badass wolves. Hell, every pack except Oakdale and Dawnguard was just children pretending to be something they weren’t. This town was always a powder keg waiting to explode. Abaddon just happened to light the fuse.”

  “I thought things were going pretty good until the end,” Seth said.

  “No,” William said. “Most of the wolves in this town were beasts trying to hold on to humanity that wasn’t there. That’s why they all left so readily. It would have happened eventually, mark my words.”

  “We came out of the forest all those years ago to be human,” Seth said. “You’re right, it’s time to rehabilitate this town.”

  “I’ve been grooming you to lead for two years, my boy,” William said. “All those dinners where I explained the decisions we’d made? It was all to prepare you for this moment, when you’d take control of this town and fulfill your destiny. You’re in charge now, Seth, and I couldn’t be prouder.”

  Seth smiled. It had been a long and frustrating road. The thoughts of frustration had been flying through his head even during this meeting, but now he was feeling more empowered than ever before. He was the man in Bucklin and now everyone was going to recognize it.

  “These are my people,” Seth said, then stood up and walked to the window of the conference room. “I’ve let them sit in limbo for two years because I wasn’t ready to lead. But here I am now and I will rescue them. The blood of the first alpha, the rightful leader of this town, runs through my veins.”

  “That’s right,” William said. “Aster should never have taken over as alpha of this town after your father’s death. Rowan wouldn’t have been much better, but at least he would have had the right blood.”

  “None of that matters now,” Seth said. “We haven’t seen any of them in two years. At least none of you have. They’re gone and they have no more claim.”

  “Have you thought about that?” William asked.

  “Thought about what?” Seth asked.

  “About their claim?”

  “They have none.”

  “Yes, but do they know that? You’re young; you’ve never been around a wild wolf. You don’t know how… well, how do I put it? Territorial. That’s the word. How territorial they get over what they perceive to be theirs. You saw the way Rowan was willing to murder over Eva. What do you think he’ll do when he sees humans moving into his town?”

  Seth looked down. That was one of the more attractive parts of this plan. They would finally open Bucklin up to humans and the population would boom. It was controversial amongst the council, but all the wolves who would have had a problem with it had followed Aster and Rowan into the wilderness. They had their pack land in the mountains and they hadn’t been seen in the city in two years.

  “If Rowan or Aster has a problem with it, I’ll deal with them myself,” Seth said. “What’s our next step?”

  “I’ll make the phone call and they’ll be here in no time to sign the contracts. In the meantime we’ll get word out to the town residents and start getting them on board with this plan.”

  “Excellent.”

  “Give it about a week and Sokolov Enterprises will send an envoy to meet with us to start the construction. By this time two weeks from now you’ll be breaking ground on the casino and every news station in the state will be here.”

  Seth could only smile. Bucklin would spring forward into a new age, a new generation, and Seth would be firmly planted at the helm.

  Chapter 2

  As the black Mercedes roared to a stop in front of city hall Maribel couldn’t help but do the sign of the cross over her body. This had been one of the wildest rides of her life. All three of them driven up from Dallas this morning, but she had never expected the head of Blue Moon Security to drive like such a bat out of hell.

  All she could do was sit in the backseat, afraid to unbuckle as she tried to gather herself. Out of the front passenger seat stepped a stunning redhead who made what few men were on the st
reet stop and stare with awe. Maribel was used to seeing men drool over Ms. Wilson, but that didn’t stop her from shaking her head and stifling a laugh every time it happened. Stacy Wilson was a big time project lead at Sokolov Enterprises and she got the job done, but all men saw was her impossibly long and smooth legs, her tight waist and her fiery red hair. Maribel knew for a fact she’d been asked on more than one occasion if the carpet matched the drapes. Those poor bastards never saw her surprisingly strong right hook coming when they stepped over the line.

  She was a shark renowned around the country for her ability to close deals and make sure a project stayed on schedule. Legend had it the trains in Italy had hummed like clockwork when Mussolini was in charge. Apparently sociopathic dictators got the job done more often than not—Ms. Wilson was a perfect example.

  Of course Maribel had read the studies and run the numbers. Everywhere else in life, being a sociopath was a bad thing, but in her business that kind of ego got the job done ninety-two percent of the time. The numbers were solid enough for Maribel to believe in them. Unfortunately Ms. Wilson was nigh on insufferable to spend time around.

  Out of the front seat came a man whom Maribel had just recently made the acquaintance of, but he’d never failed to scare her shitless in the short time that she’d known him. First of all there was his insane driving. When he screamed around the corner to Bucklin City Hall and nearly took the Mercedes up on two wheels she’d seen her life flash before her eyes—and it looked like a math textbook.

  But his driving wasn’t the scariest part. Jacko was the head of Blue Moon Security, a private firm that had done more tours of Afghanistan and Iraq than any other firm in the world. Now they were under exclusive contract with Sokolov Enterprises. Jacko wasn’t the biggest man, but he was solidly built. His head was shaved, a look that just accentuated the hard lines of his chiseled face. He had more scars on his face and body than Frankenstein’s monster. He’d seen action in his life and he’d lived to tell about it.