Howling for More

by Bailey Bradford

  Because he was afraid he’d hurt me and Dare. Not because he didn’t want me. Us. Now, if Chiz could just get around his own pride, he might be able to approach Bowen calmly.

  “You’re just what?”

  Chiz shook his head. “Huh?” Then he remembered what he’d said. “Oh. I’m a mess, for one thing.” Then he smiled and winked at Dare. “I like you, for another. And I like Bowen too.”

  Dare blushed but looked pleased. “Oh. Okay.”

  “Do you like me, or us, too?” Chiz startled himself by laughing. “Oh God, I sound like a kid back in elementary school! Maybe I should write a note and have you check yes or no.”

  Dare’s shy grin was a sight to behold. “I never got one of those before.”

  Chiz’s pressing need for answers or…or whatever it was that was pricking at his conscience could wait a little bit. He stood up. “Well, I can fix that for you.”

  Dare opened his mouth, and Chiz dipped in for a quick kiss.

  “I don’t need a paper with checkboxes,” Dare whispered against his lips. “Answer is yes to both.”

  Chiz smiled so big his cheeks hurt. “All right then. What’re we going to do about getting Bowen to mark yes, too?”

  Chapter Eighteen

  What a fucking miserable week. Bowen was exhausted and had new blisters on his hands despite how tough his skin was. His feet ached, all of him ached, and God damn it all! That included some mushy spots inside that he tried not to acknowledge.

  But he was pretty certain he’d fucked up with Chiz and yeah, even Dare. Even so, Bowen couldn’t figure out what else he should have done. He’d already turned Chiz into a freak like himself, and as hot as Dare made him, Bowen had no illusions. If he fucked Dare, he’d probably bite him, and that had to be the thing that had sparked the change in Chiz.

  Bowen sighed as he left the barn. The sun had set a while ago, and he knew, despite being so worn out, that he was not going to sleep much.

  The fact that he was off his game, physically wiped out and mentally fucked, had to be why he didn’t see the man standing on his porch until Bowen was slogging up the steps.

  “What—” he got out, all senses suddenly blaring in alarm as the mountain of a man lunged. Bowen didn’t have a chance. Before he could even blink, one thick, huge hand was around his throat, and he was picked up as if he weighed nothing.

  The man holding him up was scary as hell, and looked a lot like something hell itself might have rejected and spat out. Furious, with red eyes glowing in the darkness, the stranger growled and shook Bowen fiercely.

  Bowen didn’t want to die. Adrenaline surged through his body and he lashed out with hands and feet.

  All that got him was slammed against the front door. Bowen’s breath gushed out of him and pain exploded in his head.

  “You do not raise a pack against me,” the attacker snarled before rattling Bowen’s bones with another shake.

  Bowen tried to speak, but he had no breath, and that hand was still around his throat. He clawed at it only to have the grip tighten.

  Everything started to blur—his vision, his life, and all he could do was think that he’d fucked over two people he could have, should have, protected.

  Because now he knew—the man killing him was another wolf shifter. A bigger, stronger, angrier one, and he didn’t appear to care for competition.

  As suddenly as he’d been grabbed, Bowen was released. His legs said ‘fuck you’ and gave out as he went down.

  “I left you alone because your parents weren’t pack,” the man growled, his words mixed with the sound of his wolf. “And you repay me by trying to start your own pack?”

  Bowen thought he shook his head, but it was hard to tell with everything spinning.

  “What?”

  “No,” he forced out, the words stripping his already dry throat and making it ache. “No pack.”

  “Right. So you didn’t turn a human into one of us?”

  Bowen couldn’t speak. His throat hurt and felt like it was swelling. His chest hurt, too, and he was afraid he was having a heart attack.

  “No one turns a human without the area alpha’s permission,” the—area alpha?—said. “And that’s me, as if you didn’t know.”

  Bowen sucked in a shallow breath, exhaled, then tried again. He was healing already, which was good, because he must have had damage in his throat. “Didn’t know.”

  “Yeah, right.” The man squatted and cupped Bowen’s chin.

  Bowen flinched and figured he was dead meat.

  Instead, he was studied for a long moment, and the stranger’s nose twitched as he sniffed almost continually. “You know who I am.”

  “No,” Bowen protested.

  More sniffing, then the man leaned down and inhaled right by Bowen’s ear.

  Bowen shivered, and fear tangled with something else inside of him. Not lust, but…something he didn’t recognize.

  Until his wolf whimpered and begged to be set free so he could roll over for the stronger alpha.

  Oh. Oh shit. Bowen gulped.

  “Your parents never told you about me?”

  Bowen slowly shook his head, just the miniscule bit he could while his chin was still in the grip of a giant shifter. “They died in an accident years back.”

  “Yeah, that much I knew. I am the territory alpha. Jonas Kantz.”

  Bowen had never heard the name. “I don’t—that doesn’t mean anything to me.”

  Jonas’ white teeth glinted in the dark night. “It means everything. You just don’t know it. For example, it’s up to me whether you, and the human you turned, live or die.”

  “Wait, I didn’t mean to—” Bowen began, only to be overridden as Jonas kept talking.

  “You committed one of the biggest transgressions a shifter can commit. You’ve revealed us to humans, and in fact, turned a human. So that’s actually the two biggest fuck-ups possible for a shifter to make. Both sure death sentences.”

  Bowen jerked his chin free and began to get to his feet. “Not for him, not for Chiz. He’s innocent. I won’t let you hurt him.”

  “Admirable.” Jonas backhanded Bowen. “Foolish.”

  Bowen went down hard. His ears rang and he tasted blood. “You aren’t going to hurt him.”

  “You think you can stop me?” Jonas asked. “Especially when he’s with another human male, probably turning him just as you turned…Chiz?”

  Bowen’s sweat was cold on his hot skin. “He won’t. He wouldn’t turn…anyone.” Dare. He has to be with Dare. Jesus, I hope they’re both okay. Please, let them be safe.

  “Fear. It has a rancid scent.” Jonas pressed a booted foot to Bowen’s shoulder. “Stay down. Every time you rise, it’s a challenge.”

  “I—you can’t hurt them,” Bowen rasped. “Please, kill me, whatever, but leave them alone.”

  He wasn’t sure, but he thought Jonas shook his head. “How stupid do you think I am?”

  “Not as stupid as I am,” Bowen mumbled.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Oh geez.” Dare was so nervous that he was going to have to take another shower before Chiz got there. Otherwise, he’d be a sweaty, stinky mess.

  Then again, a third shower might result in all his skin sloughing off. Dare snorted and stepped in front of the old cheap fan he had. He turned it on and was glad it still worked, even if it didn’t blow hard. At least it would keep the sweat off him for a few minutes.

  The AC in the window was barely putting out, and it was just hot as hell. Maybe he shouldn’t have worn a button-up shirt? Dare scowled down at the blue fancy-ass shirt he’d splurged on at Wal-Mart. He felt like an idiot in it, and with the white undershirt, he was suffering unnecessarily.

  Besides, he wasn’t going for a job interview. He was going for a…for a menage interview? “Oh geez,” he muttered again. He began unbuttoning his shirt. He should just be himself, right?

  Then again…he hesitated on the third button. Bowen hadn’t seemed too keen on Dare being h
imself.

  “But he’s a cowboy, so he—this shirt—” Dare groaned and took the shirt off. Who was he to say that a cowboy couldn’t like to see a man dressed up? If that thin button-up was considered dressy at all. The more Dare glared at it, the cheaper it looked.

  Well, he could take it back. Dare picked the shirt up and laid it over the footboard. He took the white undershirt off too, and was folding it when someone knocked at the door.

  “Shit!” It had to be Chiz, because they had a plan, and that plan was to be implemented ASAP. “Just a sec!”

  Dare grabbed a soft yellow T-shirt from the top dresser drawer and put the shirt on while he trotted to the door. Dumb luck kept him from tripping himself.

  He’d learned not to just yank his door open anymore, thanks to his family. The last thing he wanted was another go-round with Earl, or Mama, or anyone that shared his DNA. “Who is it?”

  “If you’d put in a peephole, you’d know without asking,” Chiz retorted. “Let’s go.”

  Dare unlocked the door and opened it, but before he could step out, Chiz surged at him. Dare had enough time to catch him, then he was all but wearing Chiz, and being kissed so ferociously that he nearly came in his pants.

  Chiz nipped at his lips, his tongue, and writhed demandingly against him. Dare had two handfuls of ass and the taste of Chiz flooding his senses. Need buzzed under Dare’s skin like an electrical current.

  Dare began to slide his hands up, under Chiz’s shirt, then Chiz jerked his head back and shouted, “What the—”

  Dare was a little slow in processing what was happening. He tried to keep a hold of Chiz, but Chiz was yanked away, and Dare’s lust switched to fear then anger as he saw the burly men dragging Chiz back.

  “Let him go, you—” Dare began, shutting up quick as he dodged a punch that whooshed through the air. He ducked and lunged, a combination that had him tackling the man who’d tried to hit him, Dare’s shoulder driving hard against the jerk’s package, eliciting a loud howl of pain.

  Dare scampered back once they hit the ground. The guy he’d hit curled up and started to puke. Before Dare could stand, another man came at him. He spotted Chiz, noted that he wasn’t restrained, that another fucker was on the ground, unconscious. Chiz could kick ass, as Dare well knew.

  That was all Dare saw before he had a huge, angry and…weird-looking man in his face. Weird-looking because there was something just not right about his features, and Dare didn’t have time to wonder what that was.

  He was too busy trying to avoid punches that were coming faster than any Dare had ever faced before. And he simply wasn’t able to evade, to dodge. The hits were jackhammer fast, and took Dare down in seconds as pain exploded through his right side.

  And it was as he was collapsing that his brain screamed at him—eyes! He has yellow, definitely not human eyes, and fangs! He’s a monster!

  “Dare!” Chiz yelled, and Dare tried to get his arms to move, his fists to clench, but he froze as he met that unnatural yellow-eyed glare.

  “Smart man,” Dare heard a moment before something solid connected with the side of his head, then the world went black.

  Chapter Twenty

  Bowen had been sitting on the floor for hours, watching Jonas interact with the half-dozen other shifters attending to him. As much as Bowen wanted to hate Jonas, the wolf in him kept telling the human part to shut up and mind his alpha.

  Why, Bowen wondered, had his parents not discussed any of this Jonas-crap with him? Granted, they’d never been very chatty about being shifters, and Bowen had never pushed, but even so, they should have told him this. That there was an alpha, someone else nearby who apparently ruled the area.

  Bowen had never caught a whiff of another shifter. He had to assume Jonas and his…pack, or whatever they were, lived outside town, away from civilization. He could have asked, started to just as a new shifter came running into the room.

  “Alpha Jonas! We have a problem!”

  Jonas scowled and the new guy shivered before dropping to his knees. “I’m sorry, Alpha. I tried—” He shook his head. “No, I was too scared, and there were too many. I…I ran. I’m sorry. I—”

  “Dillon, what the hell are you babbling about?” Jonas snarled, and Dillon lowered his head, covering the back of it with his hands as he pressed his forehead to the floor. “I’m sorry!”

  Bowen’s gut went tight with anxiety. He wanted to smack Dillon himself, even though he had no idea what the man was freaking out over. He expected Jonas to kick Dillon or hit him, something, just because of the way Dillon was cowering.

  Instead, Jonas sighed and squatted. He cupped one big hand over Dillon’s. “When have I ever hurt you, Dillon?”

  Dillon quivered and whimpered, “Never.”

  Bowen’s temper flared. “So it’s just me you want to smack around, huh?”

  Jonas glared at him. “It’s not my fault you didn’t know the rules.”

  “It kind of is,” Bowen snapped back. “I mean, if you’re the alpha and in charge of every one of the shifters around, then it stands to reason that you failed in ensuring I had the education I needed.” He was pretty proud of himself for his logic, even if his wolf was trying to curl up in a ball inside him.

  Every sound in the room ceased, as if no one even dared breathe. Jonas’ glare should have scorched the skin off Bowen’s frame, there was so much anger in it.

  Then Jonas’ expression blanked, the anger hidden or gone. He turned back to Dillon. “What happened? Don’t fret so, you aren’t in trouble, pup.”

  There was a tenderness in the way Jonas caressed Dillon’s hands. Not that of a lover, Bowen thought, but perhaps a child or relative. Come to think of it, Dillon did look like Jonas somewhat.

  “I should be,” Dillon whispered. “I didn’t do anything, and they took them.”

  “They took who?” Jonas asked. “Dillon, who took—” He darted a glance Bowen’s way, and Bowen’s insides crystalized with fear. “Who took Chiz and the other guy?”

  Bowen was up in a flash. “What the fuck are you talking about?” He wasn’t even sure who he was shouting at—Jonas or Dillon.

  Dillon whimpered and seemed to curl up on the floor while still remaining on his knees.

  Jonas shot to his feet and had Bowen pressed against the wall in less than a heartbeat. “Don’t you ever address my brother in that tone again.”

  “Or your alpha,” someone added.

  Jonas growled. “That, as Bowen has pointed out, is my own fault. I will let it slide, but snap at Dillon again…” He bared his teeth, and there was nothing human about them, nothing human in the way his hands morphed into huge claws, paws, that were every bit as flexible as hands.

  “They’re mine,” Bowen muttered, unwilling to back down, at least in regards to Chiz and Dare.

  “The one you turned, maybe,” Jonas informed him. “Maybe he’s your mate. The other one?” Jonas shook his head. “And now he knows about us.”

  “No one shifted,” Dillon said. “I mean, I don’t know. I didn’t see anyone shift.”

  Bowen’s heart was pounding so hard he heard his pulse almost as loudly as he heard Dillon’s voice. “They’re mine,” he reiterated. “Both of them.” Though why he was saying that, Bowen didn’t have a clue. He’d barely even had any time with Dare. Regardless, he couldn’t stand the thought of someone taking him or Chiz. “Where are they? Who has them? How do I—”

  Jonas shook him. “Enough. I haven’t gotten any answers that you’ve not heard. Let me ask Dillon without you being a hotheaded idiot.”

  Bowen wanted to snarl and snap and argue, but Jonas had a point. He’d been right there listening to Dillon, and Dillon hadn’t said much.

  Bowen lowered his gaze, and some of the tension in the room eased—not much, but some.

  Jonas let go of him but stayed toe-to-toe with Bowen. “You will shut up and let me find out what happened. I had Dillon watching Chiz—and that’s the stupidest name I’ve ever heard—to mak
e sure he didn’t turn anyone. Like you did.”

  Arguing would just delay the information Bowen needed. He gave a curt nod and bit back the ‘yes, Alpha’ that was trotting across his tongue. There was no way he’d call Jonas anything other than asshole if he had to use a title.

  Jonas’ expression was grim as he pushed on Bowen’s shoulders.

  Bowen wanted to resist, but again, he couldn’t be the cause of any more wasted time. He sat, thumping his ass on the floor.

  Jonas turned back to Dillon. “Dill, come on, get up. Tell me who took them.”

  “I don’t know,” Dillon wailed, peeking up at Jonas. “I was watching, then there were a bunch of shifters, and they smelled weird, not like us. They attacked. I ran. I don’t even know if the…if Chiz and the other guy are alive.”

  Bowen couldn’t keep back a pained rasp. “They better be, or there’s gonna be a fucking slaughter.” He didn’t know when or how, or who, even, but he’d tear apart anyone who harmed Chiz or Dare.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chiz was tempted to spit in the face of the smug fucker smirking at him. Tempted, but Chiz wasn’t stupid. All such a thing would get him was slapped upside the head, or punched and possibly seriously injured.

  So no, he wouldn’t spit. “Fuck off.” But he wouldn’t roll over, either.

  “Aw, you’re a cute little queer.” The man chucked him under the chin in a most ungentle manner. “Too bad you’re gonna have to die. I don’t like conversions. The stink of human is all over you even when you shift.”

  “And we’re taking over this territory,” said a second man who looked much like the first, only younger. “No more wolves leading the way. You’ll be the strongest alpha ever, Maxwell. Alpha Maxwell. With me as your beta, no one will ever get close to you, and we’ll show these idiots how dangerous coyote shifters are.”