Allister, J. Rose - Disowned Cowboys [Lone Wolves of Shay Falls] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)
Page 18
David glared at Kyle with his nostrils flared, but said nothing.
“Let him go, Solomon,” Kyle said, moving forward. “His business here is done.”
“You know I can’t. He’s aware of our kind now.”
“Thanks to you,” Dillon spat.
“I don’t know a damn thing,” David said. “I have no idea what the hell you are, and I don’t care. The only thing I did care about apparently doesn’t exist anymore. The rest of whatever is going on here doesn’t concern me.”
Solomon snorted. “And I’m supposed to believe you’ll just leave here and never think about what you saw again? That you’ll never mention it to anyone?” He leaned closer to David, and he raised his gun. “That you won’t get it in your head to come back in a jealous rage to get revenge?”
“Why?” The gun quivered slightly. “You aren’t the one who stole my girl.”
“I can’t say that’s entirely true. But one of my pack members did. And I can’t leave a threat like that hanging loose.” Solomon glanced down the barrel of the gun. “Might as well put that away before you hurt yourself. It’ll do you no good on us.”
Instead, David lifted the gun higher so that it was pointed between Solomon’s flickering eyes. “Maybe, maybe not. But I bet it’d hurt like fucking hell.”
Solomon laughed. “You know, I kind of like your gumption. Shame this isn’t going to end well for you.”
David let out an indignant snort. “I just found the woman I love chained up half-naked in a cave with a bunch of naked men—by her own choice, apparently. I’d say things have already ended on a rather sour note.”
Aimee’s stomach twisted into a knot of remorse.
“Solomon, please,” Kyle said. “You’re no murderer, especially of innocent humans.”
“You’re right.” Solomon turned away from the still-quivering gun and wandered back to Kyle. “This entire shit pile is your fault. You’re the one who’s going to have to shovel it.”
Kyle stiffened, as did Aimee and Dillon.
“I’m not going to kill him,” Kyle said.
“I didn’t say anything about killing,” Solomon retorted. “You’re going to turn him.”
“Turn me?” David asked. “What the hell’s that?”
No one paid any attention. Aimee tried to struggle to her feet. “You can’t do that! This wasn’t his fault.”
“It’s the perfect answer.” Solomon’s grin held a mocking edge. “Don’t you see? Kyle wants to be an alpha, and I’ll release him on the condition that he takes this man into his pack. That way, our secret stays safe, Blaise’s outcast loser won’t have to fight me, and David gets to have you after all. Everyone walks away happy, and no one gets hurt.”
Solomon’s pack nodded and muttered assent, but her heart pounded and tears sprang to her eyes. It was her doing that brought David up here. “David will get hurt.”
Solomon bent over her. “David will get a gift unlike anything he’s ever known.”
“What if David doesn’t want a gift?” David asked.
Kyle shook his head. “I can’t do it. I won’t do it.”
His alpha stood up. Aimee turned away from Solomon’s cock, which was dangling too near her face and pulsing with interest. “Oh, come now, don’t tell me you don’t want your romantic rival in your pack. You know this is the best way, Kyle. You caused all this. You’re going to have to suck up some consequences for it. Lord knows I’ve sucked up consequences for you.”
One of the men grunted assent. Kyle gritted his teeth and fell silent.
“Listen, assholes,” David said from across the cave, and Solomon finally turned to him. “I don’t know what the hell all was going on when I came in here, but I have no intention of being someone else’s consequence.”
Solomon sighed. “I know it’s a shitstorm of bad luck that you staggered into this steaming pile, but I’m afraid there’s only one way out. I’m sorry, David. I truly am.”
He nodded to his men, who began moving toward David. The two on opposite ends of the group shifted and gnashed their sharp fangs at him in warning.
“Stay back or I will shoot you,” David said to them, his gun moving back and forth between the pack members as he backed into the tunnel.
One of the wolves sprang at him. With another deafening roar, the gun went off. The wolf went down with a sickening yelp, but the second one was on David with a vicious snarl before he could get another shot off. David began screaming as the creature tore into him.
Aimee shrieked. “God, no! Leave him alone!” She was writhing in her restraints now, furiously tugging at the collar and chain in a futile attempt to yank the latter out of the cave wall. “Kyle, Dillon, help him! Damn it.”
Both of them stood frozen with horrified expressions as Solomon issued a stern command. “Jack! Stop.”
“David!” Tears streamed down her face while she shouted over the muffled ringing in her ears from the latest gunshot. “Oh, David, please.” Her arms and neck ached from trying to force her way out of the collar. “Jesus, someone get me out of this thing.”
“Relax,” Solomon said. “You’ll break your pretty little neck.” He eyed her up and down. “And the way you’re jiggling and writhing has my wolves thinking maybe it’s a mistake to let another pack claim you.” He inhaled and let out a growl of need. “I’ve been around a long time and have damn good control over my nature. But with your bitch-in-heat scent, even I’d love to sink my nine-incher deep in that hot, dripping cunt until you scream my name.”
She froze in wide-eyed shock as she realized that in her struggle to get free, she was no longer covering herself. Instead she was upright on her knees, which were parted wide in the dirt. The blazer had fallen completely open, exposing her breasts and pussy to the men who were now staring at her with a look she recognized far too well.
Dillon knelt down in front of her while she yanked the blazer closed. “Like hell, you’ve got nine inches,” he said. “Go stick it up your own ass, Solomon. Consider her claimed.” She was relieved to see that the blood had dried on his back and the wounds were no longer visible.
The man laughed and reached down to toy with the dick twitching between his legs. “We’ll see about that.”
Rage rose in her chest. “You stay the hell away from me. You killed David, and he did nothing to you.”
“Nothing? He threatened me with a gun and shot one of my wolves. And nobody’s dead.” He sighed. “Although it seems my plan for Kyle to turn him has been unfortunately waylaid.”
Two of Solomon’s men carried David by arms and legs, dropping him on his back in the middle of the cave floor. The jacket was gone, and his striped business shirt was ripped and bloody near the shoulder David clutched when they dumped him on the ground. He moaned in obvious pain as Aimee tried to crawl over to him, but the chain was too short.
“David!” she began to sob. “How bad is he hurt? Bring him closer. Let me help him.”
“Oh, that wouldn’t be a smart idea, hot thing,” Solomon said, standing over David with his hands fisted on his hips. “It’s a full moon tonight. The change is going to come on him almost immediately.”
“Shit,” she heard Dillon mutter. He circled her shoulders with his arm. “He’s right. I’m so sorry, Aimee. If only I hadn’t been such a smart-ass and taken that ring, this wouldn’t have happened.”
She shook her head and sniffed. “No, it’s my fault. I’d have come up here anyway. That seems to be all I want to do anymore.” Another tear dripped onto the dirt.
Kyle knelt at David’s side and unbuttoned his shirt to check the gaping wounds that were pouring red blood. “We have to get him out of here.”
“Where are you taking him?” Aimee asked, panicked.
“Nowhere,” Solomon said. “He’s in no shape to leave right now.”
Kyle folded his arms. “If you let him transform right where the woman he wants is chained up, you know the first thing he’s gonna want to do is get at her.”
Kyle’s tone rose to a similar volume. “I would have claimed her if you hadn’t come in and stopped me.”
Aimee glanced back at David. The wound on his shoulder had not only stopped bleeding, but the holes were somehow closing. He didn’t appear to be in any less pain, however. He continued to moan, his head rolling back and forth in the dirt. He glistened with sweat and shivered as though a fever had come on him hard and fast. “David?” she said. “David, please talk to me. Tell me you’ll be okay.”
“He’ll be more than okay,” Solomon told her. “Just not until the infection completes the mutation cycle.”
Kyle looked up at her. “This isn’t safe, lettin’ him make the change here.”
“You got no choice,” Solomon said. “It’s already started.”
“It’s okay,” Aimee said to Kyle, wishing as she smiled at him that she felt the least bit of the reassurance she was trying to offer. “You’ll protect me.”
His return gaze was even less reassuring. “He won’t have our control. He won’t even understand what’s happenin’. He’ll tap into somethin’ deep and primal, and he’ll react without thinkin’. It could get ugly.”
“It already is ugly!” she shouted, spittle flying from her lips. She sniffed back tears. “You can’t throw him out into the wild alone just because I’m in here. Haven’t I done enough to him?”
She broke down at this point, sobbing so that her ribs heaved and tears dripped down into the dirt.
“He won’t be alone,” Solomon said. “He’s one of mine now, and we take care of our own.” He folded his arms. “Get his clothes off.”
“Don’t,” Aimee said. “You all might not mind prancing around naked, but give him his dignity, at least.”
“It’ll be easier for him,” Dillon said. “Trust me.”
Kyle pulled David’s shirt off and tossed it aside. When he began tugging on the zipper of David’s slacks, however, Aimee averted her gaze and watched Solomon turn to the man who knelt over the wolf David had shot. That wolf had morphed back into human form and was groaning in pain. His dark-haired pack mate dug a finger into the bullet hole, and the injured one tensed up and shrieked. The bullet came out between bloody fingers and was thrown in the dirt.
“Jack,” Solomon said.
The dark-haired man turned. His eyes were flaming in gold, and his pointed jaw clenched tight.
“Do you dispute my claim that David now falls under the rule of your alpha?” Solomon went on. “Or are you going to pull a Kyle and decide to go rogue, too?”
Jack shook his head. “I would never turn on my own pack.” He glared at Kyle, who flinched visibly while he tossed aside David’s remaining clothes. Jack wiped his brow with the back of his hand, despite the blood covering his fingers. “David is yours now. I’m sorry for interferin’ with your orders, sir. I know you meant for Kyle to take him as his.” Another look of animosity shot Kyle’s direction, and if Aimee wasn’t mistaken, a glimmer of jealousy as well.
“You were looking out for the pack’s best interest,” Solomon said. “It’s Kyle’s mess you had to clean up. There will be no punishment for your actions.”
Before Aimee could lash out with a reminder that there had been plenty of punishment for Jack’s actions already, David stopped moaning. Her eyes shifted to find him rolling onto his side, facing her. He was completely naked now. Although he was leaner than the others in the cave, he still had obvious muscle tone in every place that counted. She couldn’t help but look between his legs and then wonder whether girls in high school who joked about poor endowment were lying. None of the male anatomy she’d seen in the past few days seemed to confirm the possibility that small cocks even existed.
David tried to push himself up, but his arms faltered. He only made it as far as kneeling on all fours. His head was lowered toward the ground with his sweat-dampened bangs hanging in his face. His eyes were squeezed shut tight while his chest heaved with exertion.
Aimee let go of the blazer clutched around her and shifted her body to get as close to him as possible. Her neck throbbed from straining against the collar. “David?” she whispered.
He didn’t answer. His heavy panting grew thicker and more graveled until it almost resembled a growl.
“Best you don’t provoke him,” Dillon said, but she ignored him and yanked away when he tried to pull her back.
“Can you hear me?” she asked.
The odd panting ceased, and his eyes snapped open with glowing, yellow fire. She gasped at the intensity of that golden stare. It held less humanity than she’d ever seen when Kyle’s or Dillon’s eyes changed. Those eyes held no glimmer of the man she knew as they quickly raked over her exposed flesh.
Her heart faltered. “David?”
The growl returned, feral and terrible, and he lunged for her. Kyle was on him in a second, along with one of the others from the pack. David snarled, saliva dripping down the corner of his lips as he struggled against the other men and fought to get at her. Kyle had been right. Her heart hammered desperately inside her chest as Dillon drew her behind him, and she looked over his shoulder in shock at the man she’d never seen lose his cool until earlier that day. The chase around her desk had been her fault, too. He’d been reacting to her scent because she hadn’t been claimed.
And still hadn’t.
David’s struggle sent more dust flying into the air, but she could see every twist, tug, and contortion of his body while he tried to fight his way over to her. His penis was no longer hanging against his thigh, either. It stood straight out, purpled with veins and straining as though as desperate to get near Aimee as David was.
She gripped Dillon’s tense biceps while he crouched in front of her in a defensive posture. “Drag him back, Kyle,” Dillon shouted. “The closer he gets to her scent, the harder he’s gonna fight.”
“He’s strong as shit,” Jack said, who was on Kyle’s opposite side, trying to restrain David. “Would have helped to be able to chain him up instead of your woman. Hot as she looks with that collar on.”
Regret pounded through her veins. Locking herself into the restraint had been stupid, and the reasons for it kept multiplying.
David gave a powerful tug and loosened Jack’s grip long enough to lunge closer to Aimee, and he caught hold of the edge of her blazer. Dillon’s fist came down and knocked David’s hand away, and another beta in Solomon’s pack joined the struggle to finally pull him back and pin him face down on the ground.
Dillon had barely relaxed his guard and pulled Aimee in under his arm when David let out an inhuman shriek. Her stomach recoiled into a hard knot. “Stop it!” she shouted at the three men holding David to the ground. “You’re hurting him!”
“They’re not doin’ it,” Dillon said in a somber tone. “It’s the change.”
Another ear-splitting scream came out of him, and her tears returned. The three men released David and backed away. He got up on all fours again but made no move toward her nor even seemed to register that anyone else was there. Small twitches resembling nervous tics sprang up along the skin on his arms and face, which was contorted in obvious distress.
She whipped her head toward Dillon, who still had his arm around her. “What’s happening? Why is he in so much pain? You didn’t look that bad when you were fighting the change.”
Dillon embraced her tighter. “The first transformation is by far the most difficult. And painful.”
“It’s a damn bitch, is what it is,” Solomon said, watching David alternately lower his upper half to the ground, then come up on all fours and toss his head back. “Every cell in your body is trying to fight off the infection and reject the change. Ligaments and bone that have never morphed before are being altered, preparing to contort in wholly unnatural ways. It’s akin to childbirth, I’m told, only every inc
h of your body is being stretched, torn, and reshaped.”
His explanation was drowned out by David’s next scream. Aimee gaped in horrified despair as the small twitches grew into lumps of muscle churning beneath his flesh. She heard a sickening crunch when his mouth opened for the next cry of anguish, and this time his jaw didn’t close. It lengthened, one side at a time, while thousands of white dots began to sprout along the rippling muscles. Tears blurred her vision when his body began a violent shaking, and she hastily wiped at them with hands that were quivering as well.
For a strange moment, everything stopped all at once. No more crackling sounds, no more screams, no more rippling, crawling flesh. David’s eyes flew open and met hers. While they blazed with an animal orange-gold fury, she saw a flicker of recognition in their depths.
“Aimee,” he breathed in a half sob, half plea.
Her heart seized in her throat. “David.”
Then he was gone.
The animal took over, fur shooting out of the white dots everywhere at once, and his final shriek of agony tossed his head back as a man but then became the howl of an animal. The human part of David simply melted away to leave behind a white wolf.
Every male present shifted around her, including Kyle and Dillon. They raised their heads, calling out to the moon in a unified chorus that left her shivering. Kyle and Dillon flanked her, sitting on their haunches while they stared at the new wolf whose gleaming white fur was marred only by a black diamond between his eyes. The golden eyes blinked as if dazed for several moments. Then David staggered to get to his feet. He got all four beneath him but stumbled and fell on the third step. No one intervened. He tried again and again, and on the fourth attempt, he was able to walk toward her on shaky legs.
Kyle and Dillon issued low, rumbled growls with their ears forward and fur ruffled. David approached slowly but did not waver at their warning. Aimee tensed when he got within a foot of her but just held her breath. He blinked again, slowly, staring at her with a powerful gaze that was at once beautiful and frightening. His nostrils flared and he began to sniff the air in front of her. Kyle’s growl sharpened. Then the white wolf’s head dipped down to find her hand, which was gripping her knee. His nose pressed lightly to the ring on her finger, and he gave the diamond a gentle lick. His rough tongue left a wet streak along the back of her hand.