Shadowed Flame

by RJ Blain

  I followed in his wake, forced to hop from paw print to paw print to keep up with him. My attention was so focused on picking the path of least resistance I didn’t notice Ryan had stopped until I collided with his hind legs. I shook my head and peeked around his bulk.

  A herd of deer foraged, plundering from one of the few deciduous trees lurking among the pines. They scraped their hooves against the bark and ripped away the newly budding leaves, oblivious a wolf equal to them in size watched and waited, biding his time.

  For what, I wasn’t sure, but I froze and stared at the deer, wondering if Ryan meant to take on so many animals on his own. There were at least fifteen of them, including several bucks with large racks of antlers.

  I shivered at the thought of the sharp-looking prongs tearing through fur and flesh.

  If the risk of being impaled by antlers bothered Ryan, he showed no sign of it. Stalking forward, he circled around the herd so he could come at them from behind. Uncertain of what I was supposed to do, I trailed after him, grateful I was small enough I could hide in the snow while aware of the fact the deer could flatten me beneath their hooves if they took exception to my presence.

  The deer were so enthralled by their foraging efforts they didn’t notice Ryan until he was within striking distance. One of the animals made a deep, short sound, and the others threw their heads up in response.

  Ryan surged into motion and threw himself at one of the does on the fringe of the herd. With an audible tearing, which sent shivers running through me, he clamped his jaws around her hind leg, giving a massive shake of his head. The dull crack of a bone breaking beneath his teeth heralded the animal’s scream. Instead of keeping a hold on her like I expected, Ryan snarled, growled, and lunged at the remaining herd.

  They scattered, vanishing into the trees.

  Ryan’s prey tried to run on three legs, trailing behind the rest of her herd, dark splotches of her blood staining the needle-strewn snow. Falling silent, Ryan circled his prey, both his ears cocked back, as though deciding how best to start eating her.

  The fresh scent of blood stirred my hunger and my wolf, and her eager whines filled my head. I crept forward, my gaze locked on the doe, who let loose another shrill scream.

  Ryan lunged forward, seized the doe’s throat in his jaws, and drove her to the snow. Her cries turned to gurgles, which Ryan silenced with a shake of his head.

  Part of me, the part of me still decidedly human, wanted to turn tail and run. The rest of me smelled the blood in the air and hungered. Ryan’s bright, pale eyes focused on me, and he lifted his head, his white muzzle stained dark. Swallowing, I gathered my courage and plowed through the snow to join him.

  His ears pricked forward, he pawed at the doe’s carcass in what my wolf recognized as an invitation. She was far larger than me, and I stared at Ryan in rebuke, wondering what he expected me to do with a deer at least ten times my size; my entire body was smaller than her head.

  Ryan taught me and my wolf how to best feast on deer, and when I had eaten my fill, he devoured the rest.

  One deer wasn’t sufficient to satisfy Ryan’s hunger, and I learned not all prey fell so easily as his first doe. He stalked after the herd, carrying me when I walked too slow for his liking. With the herd aware of a wolf hunting in the woods, they scattered whenever they caught his scent, bleating their fear.

  Undeterred by the herd’s flight, he stalked after them, driving them higher up his mountain, cutting them off from the safe havens of the valleys far below the peaks. I had no doubt Ryan could have easily chased down any of the animals, but he took his time toying with them.

  I liked his caution, especially whenever I got a good look at the bucks’ antlers. There were three of them, although judging from their size and small racks, two were still young. The third, the largest of the animals, was the real threat, and I watched the buck with wary regard. My wolf’s concern echoed my own, but instead of whining my dislike of hunting something so large and dangerous, I watched him.

  Ryan’s gaze often locked on the buck, and he licked his muzzle, his eagerness sweetening his scent.

  The forest thinned as we headed up the mountain slopes. I gave up following Ryan every step of the way, watching as he darted back and forth, blocking the deer from escaping downhill using the force of his presence alone. The wind strengthened as we climbed upward, and the smoother ground made way for boulders and crags until the peaks jutted high over head in sheer cliff faces marred by cracks in the iced stone.

  It was there, with few places left to go, Ryan threw back his head and howled. The sound echoed from the peaks, and the ground trembled beneath my paws. I whined, tucked my tail, and scrambled for one of the stones uncovered by the incessant wind.

  Thunder rumbled despite the clear skies, and the deer bleated their terror. They scattered, and Ryan charged for the largest of the bucks. They collided, wolf fangs against dark hooves. The buck’s hind legs lashed out, thumping against Ryan’s side, staggering him from the force of the blow. I growled, flattening my ears while I watched, my wolf itching for me to join in the fray despite our small size.

  With a snarl and bared fangs, Ryan threw his weight on the buck’s back, sinking his teeth into the back of the animal’s neck. Something about the way Ryan clawed at the buck’s hide puzzled my wolf. The buck screamed and thrashed, revealing the underside of the tender throat.

  I hopped down from my boulder, gathered myself, and plowed through the snow, ducking between the buck’s flailing hooves. My wolf took control, and she sank our fangs into the buck’s soft throat, tearing at the thick hide to reach the blood and meat beneath.

  Ryan snarled, shouldered me out of the way, and finished what I had started with a single bone-crunching bite. Warbling a complaint, I pounced on Ryan’s forepaw, nipping at his thick fur.

  With a swat of his paw, he knocked me into the snow, bared his fangs, and growled at me. My wolf’s shock and dismay froze me in place, and when she retreated, I whined and backed away.

  Sighing, he reached out and pinned me in place, his paw pressing between my shoulders. A lick to my muzzle reassured my wolf, and I waited to see what Ryan would do.

  He turned his attention to the buck, settled in beside the carcass, and ate. All the while, I was aware of him watching me.

  The deer had fled, but their flight hadn’t saved some of them. The broken bodies of three does littered the churned snow below a ledge not far from where Ryan had downed the buck. I peered over the edge, grimacing at the evidence of an avalanche having slid down the slope, toppling the smaller trees in its path. The third deer was mostly buried, with two of its legs jutting through the snow.

  Picking me up in his mouth, Ryan loped down the mountain, bypassing the cliff to reach the fallen prey. Setting me on an exposed rock, Ryan made his way to the nearest deer, grabbed its legs in his jaws, and began tugging it down the slope.

  It wasn’t until I followed him to the trees I realized we weren’t far from his cabin, and his home had narrowly missed being buried by the avalanche. Leaving the first carcass near his front door, Ryan headed off for the next one. I sat on his porch, draped my tail over my front paws, and shivered while waiting for him to return.

  He was dragging the third doe up the stairs when the door opened and Dalton emerged.

  The man crossed his arms over his chest, sighed, and shook his head. “I told you we would replenish your stock, Ryan.”

  Ryan dropped the doe’s carcass onto Dalton’s feet, sat, and lolled his tongue, but I didn’t understand what the wolf found so amusing. It comforted me my wolf didn’t understand, either.

  “We’ll take care of them. Why don’t you go inside? If you could stop making work for your guests, I’d appreciate it, Mr. Cole.” Dalton bent over, grabbed the doe by her leg, and hauled her to the edge of the porch. With a grunt and heave of his shoulders, he draped her over the railing, leaving her to fetch the other two animals. Ryan nosed me inside the cabin.

  The rest of
Dalton’s pack, armed with cleaning supplies, looked up as we came in.

  Ryan braced his legs and shook the snow out of his coat, and I lolled my tongue at the dismayed cries from the other males. Mimicking him, I got the worst of the water and snow off my fur, basking in the cabin’s warmth.

  I would have been content to lie down, but Ryan picked me up by the scruff and carried me in the direction of the bedroom, flicking his tail dismissively at the other wolves.

  Laughter followed in our wake. Tossing me up onto the bed, Ryan returned to the door long enough to nose it closed before jumping up beside me. Pinning me down with a paw, he went to work grooming out my fur, and only when he was satisfied, did he release me.

  Then he pressed his nose to mine, and I felt a faint pressure in my head before the stabbing pain of transformation lanced through me.

  Changing from wolf to human hurt far more than the other way around, and by the time the pain eased, I wondered why anyone would willingly shift their shape. I groaned, crawled my way under the blanket, and threw it over my head.

  “It gets better with practice,” Ryan assured me, and he slid beneath the blankets with me. The warmth of his body and the caress of his breath on the back of my neck relaxed my wolf. I grumbled wordless complaints about her ability to immediately forget the torture of broken bones and muscles stretching, snapping, and reforming.

  Fenerec had to be insane, all of them.

  “Once you gain size, I think you’ll figure out how to hunt just fine. You had the right idea with the buck.” Ryan chuckled, sliding his hand over my hip before pulling me close to him.

  “Ryan,” Dalton called from the other room.

  Ryan growled. “Insufferable Alpha.”

  I peeked out from under the covers. “So ignore him.”

  With a shake of his head, Ryan rolled away from me and left the bed, pulling clothes out of his dresser. He tossed a shirt and a pair of sweat pants at me. “The man’s a menace. He’d come in here and drag me out of bed by my feet and haul me into the other room naked.”

  Ryan looked as good shirtless as he had in the airport, and my wolf appreciated the sight of him almost as much as I did. “You could go out in just your pants.”

  “And you could go out just wearing my shirt,” he countered. Then he paused, blinked, and shook his head. “Forget I said that.”

  Jealousy had a scent, and my wolf liked when it mingled with Ryan’s cinnamon spice.

  I grabbed the shirt and pulled it over my head, kneeling to test its length on me. Unable to resist the urge, I tugged it down as far as I could in a faked display of modesty. “I would be showing a lot of leg.”

  “I’ll do anything, just put the sweats on. Please.”

  Flashing him a grin, I grabbed the dark sweats. “Anything?”

  “You’re a wicked little bitch, aren’t you?”

  “It’s not my fault you look so good without your shirt.”

  “I had noticed how much you seemed to like my chest before. It was rather difficult not to.”

  I blushed. “I’m sorry about that. I shouldn’t have done it.”

  “Where was that camera of yours focused, anyway?”

  There was a tap at the door. “Ryan?”

  Ryan sighed. “Just a sec.”

  Remembering Ryan’s admission of feeling trapped by other Fenerec, I pulled on his sweats and ran my fingers through my hair in a haphazard effort to tidy my appearance. After snagging my fingers on several tangles, I gave up and wrinkled my nose. “I don’t suppose you have a brush, do you?”

  “Bathroom.”

  I slid off the bed and headed towards the door, only to have Ryan slip his arm around my waist and pull me to him. All it took was a light press of his lips to mine to ignite my wolf’s interest in him all over again. Add in my own desire, and it took every last bit of my will to not yank the man to the bed. My breathing turned ragged, which Ryan answered with a throaty chuckle.

  “Maybe that’ll keep your attention on me for a while,” he murmured, pulling away from me.

  I had no idea how he thought I’d be able to concentrate on any male other than him; my wolf was fixated on his scent and was the jealous type. I had been the loyal and jealous type even before I had become a Fenerec, and I had noticed him before my life had been turned upside down.

  “I’m not interested in any of the other males,” I replied, lifting my chin.

  “That’s promising.”

  “I told you I’m—” I narrowed my eyes. “You’re teasing me, aren’t you?”

  Ryan delayed answering by pressing his lips to mine once more. I gave his shirt a tug before working my way down. He captured my hands in his with a throaty laugh. “Later.”

  Grandmother would have been proud of my one-track mind with a destination right back to bed. “You could just ignore Dalton and pay attention to me.”

  “I heard that,” Dalton muttered from the other side of the door.

  There was something satisfying about twisting around and mule kicking the door, especially when Dalton spat a startled curse. “Go away, Mr. Sinclair. I’m busy right now.”

  “But I need to discuss something with Ryan, Miss Evans.”

  “When I’m finished with him.”

  “If I wait until you’re finished with him, I’d probably die of old age first. There’ll be plenty of time for you to hunt him later, I promise.”

  “I want to hunt him now.”

  “Just give the Alpha male his way, Matia,” Ryan murmured, tugging me towards the door. “It makes them happy and lets them think they’re still in full control.”

  “I heard that, Ryan.”

  “Maybe you wouldn’t hear things you didn’t like if you stopped listening at my bedroom door,” Ryan complained, releasing me to yank open the door. Dalton was crouched in the hallway and stared up at us, his eyes pale.

  One day soon, I needed to figure out what made someone submissive. Without any sign the other Fenerec frightened him, Ryan lifted his bare foot and placed his heel on the center of Dalton’s forehead and shoved, sending the man sprawling. “You may have just robbed me of the best hours of my entire life.”

  I frowned, wondering what he was talking about.

  Laughing, Dalton hopped to his feet before giving Ryan a companionable slap on his shoulder. “You’ll survive for a few hours.”

  “I might not. I really might not. Just look at her, Dalton. Just one look, though, or I’ll be forced to gouge your eyes out.”

  “Control your male, Miss Evans,” Dalton ordered.

  My wolf’s unease became my own.

  Ryan didn’t want anyone controlling him. I remembered his words and his reaction to mine. Clenching my hands into fists, I took a single step forward and bared my teeth in a snarl. “I will do no such thing.”

  “And why not?”

  “He doesn’t like it. Back off.”

  Instead of the anger I expected from the Alpha Fenerec, Dalton smiled.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Dad was sitting at the counter sipping coffee with several wolves from Dalton’s pack; for a long moment, all I could do was stare at him.

  One of them was even a wolf with his large head resting on Dad’s knee, staring up with imploring eyes. I had no idea what the Fenerec wanted, but my father was doing an admirable job of ignoring the massive animal, either unaware or uncaring he ran the risk of being swallowed whole. I doubted the Fenerec would have to chew for long.

  With a frown, I counted bodies, realizing there were two extra Fenerec. I drew in a breath and held it, and my wolf and I worked together trying to sort through the numerous scents in the cabin.

  One of the Fenerec was a female, and I tensed, turning an accusing glare on Dalton.

  Males wouldn’t target Ryan, but a female was another matter entirely. I scowled, sighed, and went into the kitchen, hugging Dad from behind and resting my chin on his shoulder.

  Other people would have jumped or been alarmed, but Dad kept still, altho
ugh I was aware of him glancing out of the corner of his eye to confirm it was me. With Dad around, another layer of my missing sense of security fell back into place, and I relaxed against him.

  There were a lot of things I needed to say, but the words stuck in my throat. I needed to tell him I was sorry for everything, for scaring him again, and for becoming something far from human.

  I could smell his anxiety, which was fading away under the stronger scent of his relief.

  Reaching up, Dad gave my hair a ruffle and a pat. “Are you all right?”

  Was I? Could I ever really be all right? I was alive, I could breathe, but everything had changed. I didn’t know what would happen, either, which didn’t help me one way or the other.

  Before the destruction at La Guardia, my life had been so carefully planned.

  Everything had changed, and change brought uncertainty.

  Change also brought with it excitement and the thrill of the unknown. Without Ryan, I’d probably be dead. Without him, I probably never would have left the airport.

  I’d hold him accountable and enjoy every moment of it; my wolf’s eager whines filled my head.

  “I’m all right,” I replied, and it was the truth. “Thanks to Ryan, that is.” I wasn’t above using Dad to keep Ryan around, and Dad was the type to repay debts. Straightening, I tugged on my father’s arm, pointing at the male my wolf and I both desired. “That’s Ryan. He was at the airport. Ryan, this is my father.”

  The Fenerec using Dad’s knee as a headrest turned both ears back, and my wolf’s unease strengthened. My nose confirmed my belief the Fenerec was male, but there was something about the way the wolf stared at me with too bright eyes that put me on edge.

  I didn’t get a chance to think about it for long; Dad stood, caught me in his arms, and held me in a hug so tight the air rushed out of my lungs in a squeak. When he let me go, he turned to Ryan, who was standing beside Dalton and watching me with pale eyes.