Free Beta’s Challenge by Mildred Trent and Sandra Mitchell Page B

into the living room.
    “Ask Miss Doorbell Killer here.” Tara snapped and headed into the kitchen.
    “Excuse me, ladies,” Tomas said as he headed toward the stairway. “I need to see the men in the house.”
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Seven
     
    “Who is that and what the hell have you two been doing,” Tia asked, a little perturbed that she seems to have been left out of the loop. “Hold up. Did he say men of the house? Oh now I know you two bitches better start talking and fast,” Tia said glaring from Tara to Toya and back.
    Tara and Toya looked at each other and shook their heads. Heading to the couch, they sat down and waited for her to join them. They began explaining the evening’s events to her while she bounced up and down in the chair, squirming at the juice details.
    Just as the three of them began laughing at their own corny jokes, three men came bounding down the stairs as if the house were on fire.
    “What’s going on, Gabriel,” Tara asked as she jumped up and rushed to one of the men.
    “Tomas received a call from one of the females of our pack. Mikal has lost his damn mind. We have to go back and straighten out this mess. Things are worse than we imagined,” Gabriel explained as he wrapped his arms around Tara and nuzzled her hair.
    “Whoa, there big guy. You can’t just go busting in there like gangbusters, thinking you can change things. You have to plan your actions carefully,” Tara stated, stepping out of his embrace placing her open palm in the middle of his chest. 
    “That is the human way of things. Wolves don’t have politics such as that. The only way I’ll be able to take control of the situation is by challenging Mikal outright,” Gabriel stated, running his thumb over Tara’s right cheek.
     “And if you lose?” Tara asked.
    “I can’t lose,” Gabriel stated dryly.
    “But if you do?” Tara argued.
    “Okay, Tara. What do you suggest?” Gabriel sighed in defeat and headed to the couch, pulling Tara behind him.
    As he lowered himself to the cushions of the couch, Tia yelled out, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, here. What is all this talk about wolves and humans? What the hell is going on here?” Tia began, waving her arms around excitedly. “Somebody better start talking or I am going to call the nearest asylum and have them bring a padded wagon here are round up all you crazy mothers,” she finished with an elaborate swing of her arms that ended with her hands on her hips.
    “Not now, Tia.” Toya said.
    “What do you mean not now?” Tia argued.
    “Not fucking now, Tia,” Tara and Toya said in unison, exasperation and annoyance sounding off clearly in both their voices.
     “Fuck that. Tell me now, ” she demanded in her best lawyerly ‘ the-bullshit-stops-here ’ voice.
    The ladies were so busy going at each other they didn’t notice anything the men were doing until a beautiful reddish-brown wolf padded silently up to Tia and rubbed against her leg.
    Tia looked down, saw the wolf, and jumped so high and so fast, she was over the couch and standing on the top of Tara’s kitchen island before anyone realized she had even moved.
     “ WHAT. THE. FUCK. IS. THAT ?” Tia screamed.
    The room erupted in laughter. Tara, Toya, Gabriel, and the other man were holding onto one another to keep from falling down, they were laughing so hard. The group looked at Tia then at each other again and burst out laughing again. This went on for at least fifteen minutes.
    Finally, calming down enough to catch a breath, Tara looked at Tia and asked, “How the hell did you get over there so fast?”
    “Yeah, I didn’t think you could move that fast, Tia,” Toya chimed in, still shuddering from her laughter.
    “Never mind that, you crazy bitches. What is that?” Tia said as she pointed at the wolf, which now sat on his haunches looking up at her with what could only be described as a ‘doggie smile’.
     “Tia, meet Tomas’s alter ego,” Gabriel said pointing at the wolf.
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