by Jayne Hawke
Wolf Pack
Wolf Ridge 3
By
Jayne Hawke
Copyright Jayne Hawke (2019) ©. All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogue are purely from the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is fictionalised and coincidental.
Licensed material is being used for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted in the licensed material is a model.
Cover art by Ravven.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
1
White-hot fury tore through me. How dare that bitch steal away Cole? My wolf side pushed forward. My gums hurt where the shift began to take over before I realised. Closing my eyes, I pulled myself back under control.
“You’re absolutely sure Natasha took Cole to be sacrificed?” I asked.
“Yes,” Sky said immediately.
I focused on my breathing and tried to tamp down the deep anger within me. Cole was mine. He was more than my pack mate, and I would tear apart anyone who dared lay a hand on him.
“What do we know?” I asked.
I opened my eyes to find Sky sitting opposite me.
“Not much yet. I only know that much because the Morrigan assigned me to him as my next task.”
I bared my teeth.
“And she didn’t feel the need to give you more details?”
Sky curled a lip.
“We’ve been having... difficulties.”
I gritted my teeth and pushed aside all of my snappy responses. Sky was trying to help; being a bitch to her wasn’t going to improve the situation.
Briar padded into the room, her eyes low and shoulders hunched.
“What happened?” Briar asked softly.
“We felt the tension,” Adam said.
He’d crept in behind his sister, almost managing to not be noticed.
I exhaled slowly. They had some involvement in this. They had had some idea of what Natasha was, and had ties back to the Apophis witch. I reminded myself that that was all behind us and they were pack now.
“Natasha took Cole to be sacrificed. Did you know she planned on doing that?” Sky demanded.
“No! We like Cole! We’d never do anything like that,” Briar said.
There were no signs of lies. Briar’s eyes were wide open in horror, but her heart rate remained steady. There were no attempts to move away.
“Where is he? When do we get him back?” Adam asked.
He stood a little taller now as eagerness added some confidence.
“We don’t know yet,” I said.
Amy ran into the room. She looked around at the dire expressions on everyone’s faces and visibly deflated.
“You already know about Cole,” she said quietly.
“Has your goddess given us anything we can use to get him back?” I asked.
That was probably rude of me, but Cole had been taken and there was no time to screw around with small talk.
Amy shook her head.
“There’s a lot of magic hiding Cole and his location. The Apophis witch is close to becoming his god’s avatar.”
“Well, that sounds fantastic,” I said drily.
“It means an aspect of Apophis will take over the witch’s body, allowing him to walk the earth,” Amy explained.
I sighed. That was just what we needed. Of all the gods to be walking the earth, the dark one with plans to devour the sun was right at the bottom of my list.
“I am a Morrigan witch and I have been assigned to this case to kill that witch,” Sky said fiercely.
“And my lady has given me permission to do whatever is necessary to wipe him from this earth,” Amy said with more fire than I’d seen in her before.
Looking at the usually quiet little witch, I saw sharp edges and power gently rolling off her. It would have been so easy to underestimate her before, but now she was a force to be reckoned with.
“Cole is our alpha, too. You will not keep us out of this,” Briar said.
I raised an eyebrow at her as she crossed her arms and defiantly stared at me.
“You will not jeopardise your jobs. I will not see my pack throw their lives away. We can get Cole back.”
Briar narrowed her eyes.
“We can help plenty around our work,” Adam said as he stepped forward.
I nodded.
“And we’ll give you as much as you’re capable of handling.”
They had a right to help bring Cole back. As they said, he was their alpha, too.
“So, what now?” I asked the witches.
2
“We find Cole. There are a number of different tracking spells we can try,” Amy said.
“What do I need to do?” I asked.
Amy and Sky shared a look. One that came somewhere between pity and an unwillingness to speak. I was a garou, what magic I had was limited to shifting and the guardian duties. There was nothing within me that would help with a tracking spell.
“Focus on Cole,” Amy said.
It felt as though she were just giving me something to make me feel better, but I’d take it.
“We need as strong an image of him as possible,” Sky added.
I settled myself down in my usual stool and looked at the empty one where Cole should have sat. I could see the bright blue-green of his eyes, the dark hair that was the perfect length to run my fingers through. Slowly the image solidified in my mind. The tip of his dragon peeked out from under the sleeves of his t-shirt, and the constant sense of frustration tugged at his pretty mouth.
Sky and Amy both whispered while I held onto that image with everything I had. We were going to get him back.
Amy spoke in soft elegant tones that sounded almost lyrical. The language flowed from her tongue and brought a smile to my face despite having no idea what she was saying. I glanced over and saw the slight glassiness to her eyes as she worked. Her hands remained flat in front of her while she stared into a space only she saw.
Sky was the opposite. Her face was one of a vengeful warrior as she made big slicing motions with her hands as though hacking through time and space to reach Cole. Where Amy was gently reaching out to discover a location on a map, Sky was tearing down everything standing between us and them.
My image of Cole began to fade as I watched the witches work, and I immediately tried to pull it back. That was all I could offer them. I needed to focus. I remembered the feel of his strong arms wrapped around me and his clean lupine scent as I laid my head on his ribs. There would be many more runs to come.
Cole had given me so much. I had fought him at ever
y turn, but I couldn’t imagine having been brought into this world by anyone else. His frustrating insistence on testing me and pushing my every limit had turned into a game that we both enjoyed. I’d have laughed if someone had told me I’d fall for the grumpy brooding alpha a few months ago, and yet there I was.
Briar was pacing in the hallway. I heard the change in footsteps as she shifted her weight, and it became something more. Adam was hidden away in the living room, likely looking through books. We all had our ways of coping with difficult situations.
“I can’t find anything,” Amy said as her eyes cleared.
I frowned, allowing the image of Cole to slip away.
“There’s so much magic wrapped around him. It’s dark chaotic magic - the Apophis witch has hidden him too thoroughly for me to be able to dig through and find him.”
“I’m not getting anywhere either,” Sky growled.
The Morrigan witch paced back and forth in front of the kitchen sink while muttering obscenities to herself.
“This is what I was made to do,” Sky said.
“He is far stronger than we realised,” Amy said.
Sky’s nostrils flared.
“That is no excuse. I should be able to find my way through his darkness and pinpoint Cole.”
I raised an eyebrow. There was far more going on there than Sky’s not being able to get Cole’s location. I decided not to push it, but if it interfered with our need to get Cole back I’d be left with no choice.
“If you can’t hack through his magic, can’t you slip between it or something?” I asked.
“Perhaps if he were using another form of magic. Apophis’ magic is dark and chaotic, though, it’s like trying to slip through every changing darkness. One second it’s a light mist, the next it’s thick tar. There is no way to work through or with it,” Amy said.
I ground my teeth. We weren’t going to give in that easily.
“What if you held onto one of his t-shirts or something?” I asked.
Amy smiled.
“Yes. That would help anchor us.”
I ran up the stairs to Cole’s room. I’d never stepped foot in there. Pausing in front of the door, I knew this was a turning point. A moment when I had to accept what had happened. That room was his sacred space that no one was allowed to enter.
Opening the door, I stepped inside.
It was perfectly neat and tidy. A white bedspread covered the bed with a perfectly folded black silk blanket covering the foot of the bed. There wasn’t a single piece of mess or clutter in there. My heart ached for him.
I went to the closest closet and opened the door. The rails were full of suits in various dark colours, the silver one at the end stood out in stark contrast. I knew he’d look good in that suit and made a mental note to make him wear it for me. He was going to return.
I grabbed the closest dark t-shirt, sitting upon a shelf full of other similar dark t-shirts, and hugged it to my chest. The scent of our detergent removed any trace of him from it, but it was his. I ran back down the stairs and handed it to Amy.
Amy gently took it from my hands and closed her eyes. Sky wrapped her hands around my upper arms and looked into my eyes.
“You are an anchor to him,” she said firmly.
I swallowed as I braced for whatever aggressive magic she was going to throw at me.
Briar moved to stand at my side. I was aware of the growl in her throat and the glare on her face without looking at her. I could feel it hanging between us. Sky ignored her entirely and maintained her eye contact.
Something crackled and I heard the distinct sound of wings. A soft caw echoed around the back of my mind, but it was there and gone.
Sky pulled away and cursed in a variety of languages.
“I can’t do it. I can’t get through or around the magic.”
“Neither can I,” Amy said as she gently placed the t-shirt down on the table.
I rolled my jaw. We weren’t going to give in. Not that easily.
3
The witches had already tried tracker spells, so it was on me to use my bonds with Cole to find him. I went up to my room for some familiar peace and quiet while trying to shake off the feeling of dread. Amy was convinced we had a few days to find Cole, but no one was certain. I would have known if they’d already sacrificed him, wouldn’t I?
It took me a few minutes to make my bed and try to get my head straight. Images of Cole sprawled out with his insides spread around him haunted me. If he didn’t make it, his death would be on me. I should have pushed far harder to remove Natasha from the situation.
Settling myself down in the middle of my bed, I pushed it all aside and tried to find my inner calm. Cole’s voice replaced the awful images and brought a sad smile to my face. I could see the scowl on his face and hear the matter-of-fact tone he’d use to tell me to find that inner calm. It had always seemed so easy to him. His constant frustration with me had become endearing in a weird way.
Pressing my fingers to the tattoo marking our shadow bond, I tried to reach through the bond and get a feel for him. I knew it could be done, but my mind was fighting against me. The anxiety and worry were there, acting as a dam blocking my ability to really let go and focus. The more I pushed it, the more I saw Cole’s familiar scowl in my mind’s eye. That had to be something. I just needed to push harder. The witches didn’t have a real tie to Cole; my bonds would act as a tether or something. They had to.
Slowing my breathing, I tried to open my mind and feel for Cole. It felt like the right thing to do. My mind stretched out around me and felt as though it were racing down a weird invisible tunnel. There was nothing but darkness and the sensation of moving through space. Cole should have been at the end of that tunnel, but there was a pitch-black wall instead. I pushed against the wall and looked for cracks or ways around and found nothing.
The more I poked at the wall, the more I got flashes of a large snake and primordial chaos. A shiver ran down my spine at the thought of being dragged into that chaotic darkness. I got the impression that was where Apophis had been, and possibly where Cole would be sent.
The tunnel gave me hope. Amy and Sky had talked about hacking through mist and tar, and yet I had a nice clear tunnel all around me. If I could just break through that final barrier I’d be able to find him. I knew it.
I banged against the wall with my mental fist and threw everything I had against it. They were not going to take him from me.
“Rosalyn. Enough,” Sky said firmly.
I reluctantly gave up on my assault against the black wall and opened my eyes, feeling the tunnel and my chance at finding Cole slip away.
“You’ve been trying this for an hour. You’re exhausted,” Amy said softly.
“You’re trying to headbutt your way through a wall of magic,” Sky said.
I frowned as I realised my hands were shaking from exertion and there was a soft darkness at the edges of my vision.
“I brought Pop-Tarts,” Briar said as she held out a plate.
“There was just a black wall and a feeling of dark chaos,” I said as I took the plate.
Amy sat next to me and put her arm around my shoulders.
“He’s a very powerful witch. This isn’t unexpected.”
I bit savagely into a Pop-Tart, trying not to wallow in the feeling of frustration and helplessness. I had little magic of my own, and no way to find Cole. If I was in a movie, I’d have some awesome hacker friend who could track Natasha’s car by her number plates or something. Maybe I could find someone like that on the Grim.
Amy pressed down on my shoulder when I went to stand.
“Eat and rest,” she said firmly.
“She’s right. It takes a long time to build up to that kind of magical exertion,” Sky added.
I huffed and finished the Pop-Tart. There was no way in hell I was going to sit around and let the witches do the heavy lifting. I was going to get my Cole back and make Natasha wish for death.
4
My dreams were full of Cole, hazy flickering images of his beautiful smile and the deep chaotic darkness. Every time I reached out to grab him and pull him to me, he slipped between my fingertips, nothing more than a thin image cast against the dark backdrop. I woke up feeling frustrated, with my wolf barely below the surface. Nothing would be able to contain my wrath if they sent Cole to that awful place.
When I went downstairs, I found that Sky had camped out in the living room and someone had made up the spare bedroom for Amy. Seeing my little pack bustling around the kitchen smoothed out the sharp edges of my mood and gave me a little hope. Briar was flipping through a textbook full of technical diagrams relating to cars while Adam tried to make himself useful with breakfast. Amy shooed him away and sent him to the table before she flipped the pancakes.
Sky brought everyone fresh coffee, and for a few short minutes everything felt normal again. I found myself waiting for Cole to make an entrance with his usual brooding scowl on his face. Of course, he never came.
“Adam’s taking Briar to work, and then he’ll be back here ready to begin looking for information on the Apophis witch,” Sky said as she handed me my plate of pancakes.
I raised an eyebrow, feeling my hackles rise at her taking control of my pack. She smirked at me.
“Relax, we all know who’s alpha,” she teased.
I knew that I should relax and roll with it, but my sense of humour was lacking that morning. I smiled tightly and wrapped my hands around my mug of coffee.
“Where are we looking for information? Who can we lean on?” I asked.
“I’ll speak to my coven and see where things stand there. You should start on the Grim, and we’ll see what we can do with the witch library,” Sky said.
I remembered the witch library. Last time we’d been there, we’d only had a few minutes and then needed to escape. There was a huge wealth of information there that the witches hid away. I hadn’t been all that happy about that from the moment I found out about it, but it really irritated me in that moment. As they loved to remind us, garou couldn’t wield magic, so what reason did they have to hide it away from us?
