by Jade Alters
Manny chuckled. “You'll do what? Kill me. It's not that easy, remember? Not unless you plan on sawing my head off. Or maybe you have some silver shackles in your pocket? I didn't think so.”
“Stop it!” Will yelled. Will never yelled. Just the idea of him raising his voice in anger startled us all. “Do you hear yourselves? For almost two years we have been all we had. We have killed and almost died for each other. Now the two of you want to throw all of that away over a woman? Manny, regardless of how you feel about what Clay did, it's done. And if you've been paying attention at all since day one, you could see the way the rest of us could that Clay was the one she wanted. Jesus man, you made her hate you. She thinks I'm nothing more than a clown and Titan...well, I'd guess he was second in the running. But my point is that she made her choice. She gave herself to Clay and now we need to move on. What we're going to have to face when the sun comes up in the morning is going to require that all of us our at the top of our game...or none of us will ever survive.”
I felt my body relaxing. Will made a lot of sense. Of course, most of that sense was in my favor. I could barely see Manny's face over Titan's big shoulders, but I could see that his eyes were no longer glowing and his lips were closed over his teeth. He gave me one long, last glare and then said, “So what's the plan for tomorrow? The hike from here is only about two more hours. We need a plan.”
Manny hated winging anything and I was a lot the same in that respect. The problem was that in this case, the people at the tower had to know we were coming by now, so getting inside without being noticed wouldn't be possible. Once we were inside, I was sure they would hold us some place where we wouldn't have any chance of getting at the scientists or Grover either one.
They'd keep us in the holding cells where we would be unable to change... Courtney and us would be at their mercy, and Courtney was where I drew the line.
“I'm not taking her to them. Before we mated, we figured something out. She was brought here for that purpose...but not to mate with me, or any of us. She was brought here to mate with the wolves they have underground. She's here to perpetuate their species. To start a new pack.”
“Fuck,” Will said. Titan sighed loudly and Manny was silent. Titan was the first to speak. It was in a tentative voice, almost like he was thinking out loud.
“Maybe you got her pregnant already. If so...we can start our own pack. They can't very well breed her if she's already bred to the alpha of another pack...can they?”
I shook my head. “I don't know. I don't even know how long it takes for a wolf to have a baby.”
“Babies...plural,” Titan said. “Anywhere from two to fourteen at a time. The average is four. And it only takes two months for them to come to term.”
“So she'll be pregnant like a wolf...and not a human?” I asked.
“Hmm...I really don't know,” Titan said. None of us really knew much about any of this. It was a hard place for four men that prided ourselves on being knowledgeable about things other people knew nothing about, for the better part of our lives.
A piercing cry broke through the night, and then a loud howl. We grabbed our guns and ran for the mouth of the cave. My heart was beating rapidly as I thought about how stupid I'd been to leave her out there alone.
It was only when we were outside, our eyes and noses burning with the stench of roasting flesh, that at least one of our questions was answered. A man, dressed in dark clothing and with a long, dark beard and dark hair, lay smoldering on the fire. He was dead, his throat had been ripped out.
About two feet away stood a small white wolf. Her fur was matted with blood around her mouth and nose and the front of her body was covered with it as well.
“Courtney?” I took a step toward her and she bared her bloody teeth at me. The hair on the back of her neck was standing straight up. I could see nothing in her eyes but fear and wild. I looked at Titan, the one of us who seemed to know more about our own nature than the rest and said, “Why doesn't she recognize me?”
“It's her first transformation,” Titan said. “I don't remember anything about mine, do you?”
I shook my head, slowly. “I guess not. They told me I tore up the lab pretty badly, but I don't remember any of it.” the little wolf growled again, low in her throat. I looked back over at her. Without the blood splashed through her fur, she'd be beautiful. I'd never seen a white wolf before. “So what do we do?”
“Let her run,” Manny said. “If she's meant to be with us, she'll come back.”
“No!” I objected. “It's too dangerous up here. What if she falls into one of their traps?”
Manny looked at the pile of melting flesh on the fire and said, “It looks to me like she has a killer instinct. If you try and corral her now Clay, you'll have to fight her. Do you want to do that?” Manny knew I didn't. I would sooner chew off my own arm than hurt her. Backing away from her was the hardest thing I ever had to do. The other men took my lead and stepped back as well. The wolf watched and waited and when we were all near the mouth of the cave again, she turned and ran toward the forest where she and I had made love only an hour before.
Courtney
I had no idea what was happening to me. I did remember sitting by the fire waiting for Clay to talk to the other men and then suddenly the hair on my arms and on the back of my neck stood up and I caught the strong scent of body odor.
At least that's how my brain interpreted whatever I was smelling. I remembered standing up and turning to face the direction the smell was coming from, and the next thing I knew was that my bones began to ache. It wasn't like a muscle ache, the way my legs had hurt from walking.
This was a pain deep in my bones and for a few seconds it was agonizing and I thought I might die.
Then suddenly the ache was gone and I could feel myself standing on not two, but four legs. Everything around me looked different as well.
It was suddenly like I could see that it was dark, but at the same time see everything around me clearly. And my hearing was much more acute. I heard the crack of brush underneath the feet of whoever I'd caught the scent of, and he was getting closer.
At that moment, I saw nothing in my mind and felt nothing in my body but a need to survive. I crouched low and felt the fur stand up on the back of my neck as I raised my lips. My throat vibrated with a low growl and the second the man came around from behind the rocks, I lunged at him. I went straight for his throat and I heard him scream just before my teeth pierced it.
The taste of his blood made me want more and I tossed my head back and forth even as he fell to the ground with me on top of him, listening to his flesh rip.
As soon as he stopped resisting, I dragged him over to where the fire was still burning and used my nose to roll his body into it. The smell of burning clothes and flesh almost overwhelmed me and I had just stepped out of the path of the smoke when the three men stepped out of the cave.
It was then that things got even stranger. I could smell that we were animals like me, but I could also smell their human. I was drawn to them, all of them, but that survival sense told me to stay back. I knew that I knew them...that I was connected to them somehow, but the adrenaline still coursing through my veins had flooded my mind and I couldn't think straight. I couldn't remember how I knew them. I had a strong feeling that they were safe, but my heart was still pumping hard and I was panting and I felt an even stronger need to run. I had to release that feral energy either by taking another life, or by running it off.
The one with the green eyes came toward me and I felt a surge of heat...but I didn't understand it. Feeling that need to protect myself I'd growled at him and warned him away.
All at once I'd felt a sharp pain in the center of my chest...like maybe I was feeling his pain. He looked sad, but he stepped back to give me room and he and the other three men let me go.
Now I was running...faster than I ever thought possible. The wind was whipping through the white fur that covered me and I had my tongue hanging
out. My body calmed with every pad of my feet against the woodland floor and by the time I reached the stream, I was parched.
Instead of taking a drink, Courtney stepped into the cold water. I was so hot both inside and out that it felt like heaven. I rolled around in it, dunking my head several times, and then at last taking a long, cold drink. The water cooled my mouth and my throat and when I stepped out of the stream, I shook my body and the water that still clung to my fur flew in different directions. Once I was quenched, clean and cooled down, I curled up under one of the trees alongside the stream and closed my eyes. At last, I could rest.
10
Clay
I watched her sleep. We'd given her time to run, and then we had gone and found her, naked and curled up underneath a tree, sound asleep, not an hour later. We brought her back to the cave and I put her in her sleeping bag and then lay down next to her. I tried to close my own eyes, but I was afraid to take them off of her.
They had tried to take her and if she hadn't been able to shift, they would have her now. She'd done a great job of killing that man, but I also had to worry about how her human was going to handle that when she woke up.
She was sleeping harder and she looked more peaceful than I'd seen her in the three nights we'd all spent together.
That much I understood.
Changing into my wolf was an almost instant cure for insomnia. It used every ounce of energy in your body to become and maintain that state. It did get easier but with this being her first change, she might sleep twelve hours or more if we let her. She was also going to be starving when she woke up.
Before I lay down with her I'd gone out and hunted down two more rabbits. We had eaten the MRE's, but sleeping in that cave with the smell of the fresh kill had been almost as hard as staying awake to make sure Courtney was safe.
She whimpered and rolled over toward me. When she opened her eyes, she was looking into mine and for a second, I thought she didn't recognize me. But I only had to wait long enough for the sleep to recede and her vision to adjust...and then she smiled.
“Hey….Hey. You okay?”
She turned onto her back and stretched and it was then, as the sleeping bag slid down lower on her chest, that she realized she was naked.
“Oh my God!”
She clutched the sleeping bag to her and sat up. I watched her eyes go from one man to the next as they all began to stir as well.
She finally looked back at my face and whispered, “Why am I naked?”
I reached up and ran my hand softly through her hair and down the side of her face. With a gentle smile I said, “You don't remember last night?”
“I remember you and I...” she looked around again. Her face flushed dark red and she lowered her voice even more and said, “We made love in the woods. Then we came back here, and that's all I remember. I must have been so tired...”
“Baby, you shifted. You changed into a wolf. You don't remember that at all?” Courtney's features now looked horrified and I had to watch her search her memory for what had taken place the night before.
“Oh God, I thought it was a dream.”
“It wasn't a dream, baby. You changed into the most beautiful wolf I've ever seen. You're as white as snow.”
“Did I...?” she looked around again, we were all looking at her now. I shot them all a dirty look but Will was the only one that turned away. “Did I hurt someone?”
“Yeah, but if you hadn't hurt him, he was going to hurt you, or at the very least, take you to the tower. You did great, baby.” I watched her swallow hard and I knew she was re-living the memories, especially when she shuddered, hard.
Manny was getting up and reaching for his pants. I saw Courtney glance over in his direction and her eyes lingered on his body for a second.
He was just in his boxer shorts. I didn't like it, the fact that Manny was half naked, or the fact that Courtney seemed interested in his body. I cleared my throat and said, “Are you hungry?”
She put her hand over her stomach. “I'm starving. But what am I going to do about clothes?”
“The ones you washed that first night are in my pack. I'll get them for you, and the rabbit. Did you want it cooked?”
A strange look crossed her face and she said, “No...I don't think I need it cooked.” I chuckled as I stood up.
“You'll get used to eating some things you would have sworn you never would.”
“This wolf thing sounds like a blast so far,” she said, with a smile. I saw her bring her hand up to her neck and cover the bruise and puncture marks I'd left there the day before. I didn't like that it probably still hurt...but I was proud of putting it there. I got the food and clothes for her and then pulled on my own pants and jacket and followed Manny outside.
“So what's the plan?” Manny asked.
“I don't want to bring the rest of you into this...but, I'm not taking her there. I tried communicating with Grover, but I'm getting nothing. I feel so damned bad about not being there for him...but she's my mate, Manny. I have to protect her.”
Manny grimaced again when I said, “My mate,” but he let it go, except to say, “She's part of our pack now, it's all of our responsibility to protect her. If you take her and go, we all go.”
I nodded. “I hate leaving Lt behind...again.”
“Me too,” he said, “And I would love to get in there and find out exactly what's going on...maybe destroy them from the inside out...”
“Then let's do that.” Manny and I turned to see Courtney standing in the doorway of the cave. She was tossing out the rabbit bones, and it looked like she'd eaten it all.
“We can't do that without putting you at risk. They'll lock us up, and they'll use you to breed,” I said.
“Will they lock me up?”
“Yes, more than likely.”
“You don't think I could use my feminine wiles to get one of those horny wolves to help me?” she was smiling. I frowned and said,
“This isn't a game, Courtney, I'm not sure you understand what we're up against here.”
She put her hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes. “You think I don't know that this isn't a game? I've been kidnapped, almost attacked, turned into a wolf and killed a guy...Oh, and did I mention that now I'm hearing voices in my head?”
Manny and I looked at each other. “What kind of voices?”
“Well, not “voices” really, a voice. It's a man's voice and he seems to want to tell me all about being a wolf. So far, the most important thing he's said is that I'm an alpha...a white alpha, and that makes me rare. Which means that you didn't change me, Clay. I was always who I was...this place and this situation, and you all brought it to the surface. For some reason, I suppressed it all these years.”
I wasn't sure how to feel about that. She was my mate, I was sure of it. But if my blooding of her hadn't made her what she was, that meant that she was still free to choose someone besides me.
I wanted to rewind back to that moment that we were in the forest and make it more clear to her that she belonged to me. I'd never felt so possessive of anyone in my life.
While I was worrying about myself, Manny was still thinking of the team. I felt guilty about that. It was one reason why the Special Forces preferred single men. Women complicated things.
“This voice,” Manny said, “Did he say who he was?”
“He says he's your commander, all of you. He didn't give me a name but he says he's inside the tower. He says he probably won't still be alive by the time we get in there, but he is working on getting some of the wolves they want to breed with me to “fall in line,” I think, is how he put it.”
“It's him,” Manny said. “Fall in line, is Grover's favorite saying.”
“He said he'll be dead soon, so that's even more reason for us to not go in there. We can leave now with a clear conscience.” I wasn't sure if I was trying to convince myself or them. If I was trying to convince them, I was doing a shitty job. Manny was frowning at me, but that was
nothing compared to how Courtney was looking at me.
“A clear conscience?” she asked, “We leave and go somewhere and start a new life, knowing those poor things are withering away in cages? We let these insane doctors or scientists or whoever they are...we just let them continue with what they're doing? Do you honestly think if I get away, they won't just go looking for someone else to take my place? How could that leave any of us with a clear conscience, Clay?”
“It would leave us, and most especially you, alive.”
“Running from my own shadow for the rest of my life? Not knowing if my own father set me up? Not understanding who or what I am? No, I don't think so, Clay. You can run if you want to. I'm not going.”
“You think I want to run? You think I'm a coward?”
Her eyes grew sad and she said, “No Clay, of course not. I think you want me to run though, and I'm just telling you that I'm not going to do that.”
“Fine,” I said. I wasn't happy, but she had a lot to learn about being a mate and I knew now was not the time to try and teach her. I just prayed we would all make it out of there so that I'd have another chance.
Courtney
While the men put their heads together and tried to come up with a plan, based on what they knew about the layout of the tower, I struggled to adjust to what was going on in my own head. I still felt that magnetic pull toward Clay, but I realized that even after making love to him, and letting him bite me that I wasn't sure he was my intended mate. The reason I felt that way was that as soon as I got close to one of the other men again, I felt that same pull.
Then of course there was the voice. It started out so faint that I could barely hear it. At first, I'd thought it was my imagination. But then it got louder and the man started telling me things about his team, who he now referred to as my “pack,” He told me that I was rare, and special and that the bite hadn't changed me,
