by Elle Thorne
The grass was green, the bloom of spring in the wildflowers scattered about. The resin from the trees was fragrant, the air crisp. Some day to die, wasn’t it? But they’d not get any ammunition on Jared.
She noticed Peter Moore, in human form, in a different tailored suit than he sported the night before, cleanly shaven, watching dispassionately.
“Any final words? Care to rescind your decision and perhaps give up some information?” He raised a perfectly arched brow.
“I have one question,” she said. “How did you know I went to Crooked Arrow?”
He sneered. “GPS tracker on your phone. The phone I pay for,” he reminded her with a scoff. “Is that all? No information on Crooked Arrow?”
“None.” Her jaw was set, her mind determined. She wouldn’t go down begging or crying.
“What kind of information would you like on my pack?” a voice said, coming out of the woods.
She startled. Four men strode forward. Tall, muscular men with thick, corded necks, broad chests, wide shoulders. Arms which should be registered as weapons.
One man, she knew from her reconnaissance. Keith Dorsett. The one next to him, the one that made her heart beat so much faster—Jared—wore a forbidding expression, but his eyes softened as they alit on her. Two more men, neither of whom she knew.
“Keith Dorsett.” Peter Moore acknowledged with a nod. “I’d say welcome to my territory, but you’re trespassing. Not even bothering to check in with us, to make us aware of your presence, nothing that protocol demands.”
“Does the protocol involve killing innocent humans?” Jared said.
Humans? He knew. She crumbled inside.
Peter gave Jared a look of disdain, then quickly dismissed him as not an alpha and, therefore, not worthy of his time. “Dorsett, we outnumber you.” He told Keith. “Three of us to every one of you.” He glanced at his manicured nails as though the conversation bored him.
“Not exactly,” said another voice from across the clearing.
Gabriel Bonegate strode forward, duster flowing behind him with every step the giant man took. His hat down low.
Peter’s gulp was audible, even to her non-shifter ears. “Bonegate. What are you doing here? You can’t be—”
“I’d say I’m evening up the odds.” Gabriel glanced at her, gave her an almost imperceptible nod.
Darby was dumbfounded. She thought he hated her.
Two more men appeared next to Gabriel. Appeared. Not walked up. Appeared. Like… She inhaled a sharp breath. In black cloaks, their faced were hidden beneath cowls. Magic-wielders?
With creaking and screeching of sinew, Jared began a shift into a huge brown wolf. His head widened, face lengthening into a snarling snout. He dropped to all fours, erupting into his wolf. Next to him, the three other Crooked Arrow shifters did the same.
The Silver Peak shifters snarled and growled, stepping closer and closer to the Crooked Arrow bunch.
No. No. No.
She couldn’t bear the thought of Jared being hurt. These kinds of odds were still not good. She stepped toward Jared, which brought her closer to her father.
With snapping, creaking, stretching, and popping, Peter Moore morphed into a large gray wolf. He was larger than the Crooked Arrow wolves, but that didn’t stop Jared from stalking toward her father.
Darby lunged to get between them.
Peter Moore’s wolf whirled sideways. His claws extended. His fierce drooling jaws clamped around her arm. She reached up to—
Suddenly, her father swiped with his extended claws. Six-inch and razor-sharp, they sliced across her chest and neck.
Warmth bloomed on her torso. He released her arm, but all she was able to do was stand there and stare at the ocean of blood cascading down her body.
The sounds of the battle, teeth gnashing, growls, roars, metal clashing—
Where did the metal come from? she wondered in a mind that felt like it was far, far away—
Everything faded away. It was all in another world. Or another universe.
Her vision became smaller and smaller, reaching a dot, which finally faded to black.
Chapter Nineteen
Jared no longer cared if he lived or died. He stopped being a shifter, and in exchange, he became a dervish of fury and revenge. Peter Moore had killed her. He would pay for this. He no longer cared about his wellbeing. Didn’t care about the other Silver Peak shifters. His singular purpose was to bleed Peter Moore dry and then to feast on his still-beating heart.
He tore through Silver Peaks shifters with a focus which alarmed him. He’d never seen this side of his wolf. He’d never have thought it existed. As if from afar, he processed that the cloaked figures which had appeared beside Gabriel were wielding scythes which seemed to have some type of magic to them. He couldn’t have said what it was, too intent on his goal. He couldn’t see Bonegate. Had no idea where the man was or even if he was in the battle.
Keith was bloody but getting the best of a shifter. Luke, Judd, and Score were also there, in wolf form, taking down enemy shifters. Risk hadn’t come. He hadn’t been at the Ranch when Jared had stopped by to see if anyone would join him in his efforts. And Jared hadn’t wanted to take the time to find him. They’d manage without him in the effort to bring Darby home.
That was how he thought of it. Bringing her home. But now, he would be bringing her home in a body bag. He’d bury her at Crooked Arrow, but he’d be damned if Peter Moore would breathe after today. Fury egged him further in his cause. He had one shifter to get through before he could pounce on Peter Moore, who stood by in his wolf form, watching the melee. Near the bastard’s paws, Darby was bleeding out.
Jared saw red. Red as he plowed through the shifter barring his way, leaving him minced and shredded in his wake. His hackles raised. His body tensed and flexed. He reached the Silver Peak alpha, teeth bared and snarling. Moore snapped at him, sent his claws toward Jared’s wolf throat. He ducked, swerved to the side, bloodlust rising. He shouldn’t have been able to best the alpha, and yet, his whirling and teeth gnashing, claws flying wolf had begun to dominate, sending the alpha slinking backward, away from Darby, and on the defense.
Jared blacked out and his wolf took over, delivering debilitating blow and bite after blow and bite, drawing blood, eliciting their vengeance.
“Enough,” a voice said so low Jared could have sworn it was in his head, but it wasn’t.
He glanced about. Peter Moore’s wolf was dead. His throat ripped out. Behind him, Darby was still. He ran toward her body but scanned the area for the voice.
There it was.
Gabriel Bonegate, striding his way. “He’s dead. Let’s see to her.”
All were dead, except for the Crooked Arrow bunch. The cloaked ones were gone, whoever—whatever—they were.
Painfully, Jared shifted, converting and turning his body to human, ignoring the pain of the breaking and shifting bones, the agony of the sinew stretching in some spots, and shrinking in other places. Muscle reformed, tendons sprang back to human.
Now a man, Jared dropped to his knees next to Darby. Holding her, he choked on his need to sob,.
Her breath came out, shallow and labored.
“She’s alive,” he murmured.
“I know,” Gabe said. “We can save her.”
Jared studied the wounds on her throat. The blood she’d shed. “How?” Because to him, it looked impossible. “How the hell can we save her?”
“You have to trust me.”
“I do trust you.”
The Crooked Arrow shifters approached. They’d morphed from their wolf form to human and were just as bloody and injured as Jared, but none of them seemed to be concerned about their own wounds. Like Jared, they only had eyes for Darby. He’d told them how he felt about her, and they’d understood. They hadn’t batted an eye when he informed them he was coming to get her and might need backup.
“We all trust you, Gabriel Bonegate,” Keith affirmed. “How can we help?”
“Le
t me take her. Alone, because where I will take her, no shifter can go.”
“If she dies while she’s with you, I’ll never forgive myself,” Jared told the gray-eyed man.
“If I don’t take her, you’ll never forgive yourself.”
Chapter Twenty
Darby rolled over and into the hard body of a man she’d never thought would ever wrap his arms around her. She nuzzled Jared’s chest, buried her face against his warmth. “Tell me again how Gabe saved me.”
He brought her higher up and kissed her lips. “I told you, I don’t know exactly. He took you away.” His breath was hot on her cheek.
“Away where?”
“Woman, you’ve only been awake for one day, and you’re driving me crazy already.”
“I should have died. I want to know what he did that saved me. Wouldn’t you be curious?”
“I’d be thankful. I am thankful.”
“I’m not saying I’m not,” she harrumphed, shoving bedhead hair from her face, blowing away the few strands she’d missed.
He reached up and shoved her hair back in her face. “He didn’t say. I told you last night when you woke up. Remember?”
She remembered. She’d awakened, had a cup of soup, and then promptly fell asleep again. “I do.”
“Then stop asking me. Ask him.” His voice held a measure of teasing to it, but it also was serious. She realized he didn’t know. “Do you feel… How do you feel?”
“I feel, different? Better? Stronger? Why are we in his cabin?”
“He said you would need some time to recover. I didn’t think you’d want me to abandon Vix—”
“Oh, good gosh, I forgot about Vix. How is she?” She sat up and crossed her legs, sitting next to him. “Wait, how long did I need to recover? How long? What happened at Silver Peaks?”
“Your father’s not alpha anymore.”
“Not… Wait.” She dropped her gaze. “You know?” She couldn’t bear to look him in the eye. Not after deceiving him. Not after their history.
He took her shoulders in his wide hands, pulled her close, then tipped her head back with a thumb on her chin. “I do know. And it doesn’t matter.”
“Did you know the whole time?” For some reason, she had to know. Had to feel the pain of self-punishment. She brought this whole thing on, after all. “Wait. He’s not alpha anymore?” She drew in a sudden breath. “Does that mean…?”
He nodded. “It does. He didn’t make it.”
She searched her heart for pity or sadness. She needed a while to sort these feelings through. It wouldn’t happen in one day.
“And I didn’t know the whole time. But it didn’t matter then, and it doesn’t matter now.” He kissed her lips tenderly, held her close. “Let’s go see Vix.”
“First, I need to tell you something.”
He raised his lips from hers. “Tell me.”
“The scent. The one that attracted you to me, at first. That wasn’t me. It was a potion my sister gave me.”
He smiled. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing else matters but this.” He indicated the two of them with a wave of his hand. “Only this.”
Moments later, in shorts and tees, holding hands, barefooted, they padded their way toward Vix’s enclosure. A ding signaled a text, breaking the silence. Jared let go of her hand and fished the phone out of his pocket, glanced at it, frowned.
“Gabe’s coming over. Said he needs to talk to us.”
“Maybe he’ll tell me what he did to save my life.”
“I hope so. I’d like to know myself.”
The second they stepped up to the enclosure, Vix and the kits came running out.
“They’re so big!” The kits had grown much in what seemed like such short time. Vix was barely limping. “Can I touch them?”
“They still act skittish,” he warned her when she put her hand down to the wire.
“It’s probably for the best. You’re releasing them, right?”
“Yeah, I’d like to see if they can’t make it on their own. They weren’t meant to be pets. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like nothing more than to have them stick around, but I don’t think it’s fair to them.”
She knew what he meant. “If you love something set it free—”
“If it runs off, hunt it down in Silver Peaks?” He laughed and pulled her in for a kiss.
A big red truck pulled up, and a man in a duster and a hat pulled down low stepped out.
“Gabe.” She found herself liking the man, thankful he’d saved her life and come to her defense as well. “Thank you.”
Jared shook Gabe’s hand. “Yeah, thank you, man. Beyond appreciation. You saved her life.”
“Don’t mention it. You seem better than the last time I saw you. Are you having any side effects?”
“Let’s grab a spot outside. Cold brew anyone?” Jared said with a mischievous smile.
“It’s not even noon yet,” Gabe replied. “But sure, why the hell not?”
“Side effects? Like what?” What would she have as far as side effects? She studied his face for a giveaway, but, with his eyes covered by the shadow of the hat’s brim, she had no luck. “What did you do?”
She followed Gabe to the picnic table under the large elm. Jared joined them, handing out longnecks.
“It wasn’t what I did, but to help you heal, they had to—” He shrugged, seemed reluctant to discuss the matter, and, instead, released the cap on his bottle. “They said it would appear within a couple of days of waking up.”
“It?” Jared opened hers, handed it to her. She mouthed a thank you.
“They suggested a way to prompt it.”
“You’re talking in circles, Bonegate.” Jared’s voice was frustration filled.
“I need you to shift into your wolf, Jared.”
Jared’s eyes narrowed, but the silver of his wolf made an appearance. “What, now?” There was a gravely tone to his words.
It seemed to Darby his wolf was pushing forward. Like his wolf wanted to do this. But the question was, why did Gabe want him to do that?
“Please, Jared.” Gabriel tipped the brim of his hat upward, revealing spooky gray eyes that were matte, with no striations, no—
Good gosh, those eyes were different.
Next to her, Jared rose to his feet. Sounds came from his body. Sounds she knew only too well. Screeching, stretching, creaking, bones readjusting and breaking, head widening, snout appearing and lengthening.
In a matter of seconds, less than a minute, his wolf appeared, magnificent, brown, with red on his cheeks, cream color on his chest. The wolf watched her, his eyes silver and intent.
He howled.
Wait. No. He wasn’t howling.
But he was.
There was howling in her head. Lots of it. Loud howling. She covered her ears.
Gabriel Bonegate was saying something. His lips were moving, but she couldn’t hear him over the howls.
She squeezed her head, harder and harder, but the howling only grew louder.
Glass shattered. Where? Somewhere nearby. It shredded her insides. How could that be? How could glass shatter soundlessly but make her insides feel like she was being sliced into tiny slivers by a master chef?
She grabbed her stomach, tried to make the pain go away. The yowls continued, filling her head, but the agony in her torso made the howling seem minuscule by comparison.
She glanced up and noticed Jared’s wolf was watching her, standing guard, while at the picnic table, a pair of gray eyes were trained on her.
“What the hell is going on?” she roared, but the words which came out of her mouth didn’t sound like words at all. They sounded like words in her head, but when she spoke them, they sounded like snarls and growls.
She crumpled to the ground, unable to make the pain in her stomach go away. She squeezed tight on her abdomen but yelped when it felt like talons were digging in. She pulled her hand away.
Her nails!
Her nails were black and long
.
She shrieked as they started to elongate even more. It was like having nails pulled.
Next, her gums were in pain. She glanced down and noticed foamy blood mixed with spit was drooling from her mouth. She put her hand up to feel and found long canines between her lips.
She drew her hand back. Oh, lord. It wasn’t a hand at all. It was a paw.
She shriveled to the ground, fetal and dying the death of a thousand deaths.
And suddenly, much quicker than it started, the pain stopped.
Jared’s wolf stood over her. He crouched low, his paws next to her… face? Did she even have a face? And he licked.
She rose to her feet, unsteady.
Gabe was watching from his spot at the table. “This was the side effect.”
She tried to say something, but it came out as a growl. Jared’s wolf head-butted her softly. She leaned into him, and he put his head over her neck, making her feel safe.
“This was what I couldn’t tell you,” Gabe continued. “In order to save your life, I had to take you to a sorceress. She had to do some magic on you. You know lore. How shifters come to be. Luckily, because you were shifter-recessive, it wasn’t as difficult.”
Speak for yourself, but it came out as a snarling rumble. It was sheer hell, shifting like that.
“I’m sorry your first shift wasn’t easy. It will get easier, though I’m sure you know, it won’t be a walk in the park. It never is for shifters, I hear. But it was the only option I had, if I was to save your life.”
She understood. She wasn’t going to tell him so because it would only come out like another growl, and she didn’t want to keep growling at the man who’d saved her life.
“So, I wanted to say a couple of things, then I’ll let you two go do wolf things. Explore, hunt, whatever. Jared, this was your grandfather’s cabin, but I’d like for you to have it. I don’t use it, hardly ever.”
Jared’s wolf made a low rumbling sound deep in his chest. It almost sounded like a purr to Darby’s ears.
“It’s yours. Now, you don’t mind if I finish this beer and visit with Vix, do you? While you two go check out the flatlands?”
