Haunted Wolves: Green Pines, Book 2

by Moira Rogers

  Wood creaked. Cracked. He ignored her attempts to stop him and slammed into the surface again, snapping two of the long boards. They bowed outward, but Colin didn’t follow. He bounced off the space left behind with a sizzle of magic and staggered back.

  He was gearing up to charge again, so Lorelei stepped between him and the shattered boards. “Colin, stop. You’ll hurt yourself.”

  He lunged again.

  She only had a heartbeat—less, a fraction of one—to wonder if she’d made a mistake. He hurled toward her, only to stop when his palms slapped the wall on either side of her head. His body froze just short of hers, trembling with the effort of checking his momentum.

  She held her breath, afraid to break that tenuous control. “Stop,” she whispered again, finally, and reached for him, combing her fingers through his hair.

  Trembling, he turned to catch the edge of her hand between his teeth, and Lorelei shivered. He was there, behind that fierce, golden gaze, and he would never hurt her.

  But he would defend her, just as she would defend him.

  “We’ll wait until they come back,” she murmured. “When they lower the wards holding us in, we’ll catch them off guard.”

  He shuddered and nuzzled his way up her wrist before making the short jump to her jaw. “Lay a trap?”

  “We have to warn the others.”

  That brought his teeth back, closing on her throat this time as he growled a warning.

  Safety. Though he didn’t say it, she knew well enough the motivation behind his animal anger. But she’d seen Stella do things, deadly things, and these witches possessed magic that eclipsed hers. There was no time for selfishness, not when the pack was in danger. “You’re a good beta, Colin. You know this is bigger than just us.”

  He studied her, his eyes stripped bare of any humanity. The essence of Colin, all his impulse and instincts, and all of that fierce attention focused entirely on her.

  She laid her hand on his cheek. “It’ll be okay. Trust me.”

  Wetting his lips, he nodded once. “We wait. The witches die.”

  But they didn’t have to wait. Power shuddered through the small cabin in a wave that heralded a tall woman’s appearance in the doorway. “Looks like someone’s up.”

  Colin’s eyes narrowed. His jaw clenched under her hands, and she felt the winding tension, his entire body readying for an attack—

  One only she could release. The wolf inhabiting Colin’s skin would protect her to his last breath, but the beast fought its instincts because he’d given over trust to her.

  One word from her would do it, and she gave it eagerly. “Now.”

  And then he was gone. The witch was raising her hands when Colin collided with her. Magic ripped through the cabin, shattering the windows. Glass rained to the floor, the oddly musical sound almost covering the sickening crack of bone as Colin jerked the witch’s head sharply to one side.

  Some of the power permeating the cabin went dark along with the fading spark of life in the woman’s eyes as she slumped to the floor, unmoving. The absence of so much magic left an odd echo reverberating through Lorelei’s head. Mere moments, a handful of heartbeats, but it felt like an eternity before she reached Colin, gripped his hand and pulled him through the open door into the sunlight.

  Silence gripped the forest, but she plunged into the trees with Colin right behind her. “Shed this body,” he growled, tugging at her shirt. “She’s safer from spells.”

  Her wolf. She left her shirt to him and reached for her pants, tearing the fabric in her hurry. He could run ahead, but trying to convince him to leave her would be useless. Instead, she measured her breaths, each one loud as a shot in the quiet of the woods.

  As she knelt to change, Colin’s fingers brushed her bare shoulder, the touch sparking with power. “Run,” he whispered. “Especially if the witches come. You bring the pack.”

  Colin had been fighting like this his whole life, and stood a far better chance than she did of successfully facing down a witch. All Lorelei had learned was to survive, to do what was necessary—even if that meant running in the opposite direction. Her stomach roiled, but she nodded shortly before closing her eyes and reaching for the flicker of magic deep inside.

  Leaving him was unfathomable, and she knew she might have to do it.

  Colin had always been fast as a human.

  His wolf was faster.

  Lorelei ran on four legs, her paws nearly silent beyond the soft slip of damp leaves, but Colin had no trouble keeping up with her as they careened through the forest in the direction of the farmhouse.

  Of course, he wasn’t exactly the one in control.

  Lorelei vaulted over a stump, her nose lifted to the air. When she landed, it was with a skid, and a moment later, Colin knew why. The wolf dragged air into their shared lungs, and Colin was fumbling to pick apart the tangle of scents when a growl rattled in his throat.

  Peculiar, that he could feel the vibration when movement was beyond him. The witch’s spell held him trapped, an invisible net tangled around the human parts of him. He could whisper to the wolf, urge him to action, give him the words he needed to talk to Lorelei—but he couldn’t twitch so much as a finger.

  Now, at least, he didn’t have to. Colin and his wolf were in perfect agreement when it came to Lorelei. With their captors closing in, only one thing mattered. Run, run, please Lorelei—“Run!”

  Instead, she dug her front paws into the dead, crackling leaves in front of her and threw her head back in a loud howl.

  A summons. A command. Distant howls answered her, one from the east that sounded like Eden and another from the south he knew was Fletcher. The pack, no doubt spread out in search of their missing members.

  The witches would hear the howls too. And hurry.

  Send her away. Tell her to run. Order her. Beg her. Our mate should be safe. Must be safe.

  Ignoring him, the wolf moved his body, urging Lorelei toward a tangle of underbrush where a wolf could lie in wait.

  Footsteps crackled through the forest, human and hurried, quiet enough that he knew the sound had to be blunted by magic. Then the older witch from the cabin appeared, a young man and two more women by her side.

  Too many to attack—and no choice. Surely the witch could trace her own spell straight to where Colin crouched. The magic choking him into passive silence would lead their enemies to Lorelei. Colin knew it. So did the wolf.

  No choice at all. Muscles tensed as they drew closer, and Colin wished he had control over his body. Not much, only enough to turn his head and fix Lorelei in his mind. Human or wolf, it didn’t matter. He wanted to see her one last time, just in case—

  The wolf sprang, driving past a tree to slam into the old witch. No last, fleeting glances for the wolf. Only the furious glee of attack, the confidence that their pack approached, and this fight wouldn’t be his alone for long.

  The witch knocked his head aside with her arm under his chin and began to chant. The words cut off in a hiss of pain as another weight hit her—Lorelei, raking teeth along the outside of the witch’s leg.

  Lorelei jerked back, ripping flesh, and turned, her muzzle wet with blood, just as the man reached into a bag at his side. Colin tried to fling out his arm, and was shocked when his fingers closed around the man’s throat. He lifted, growling when the two-legged prey twisted and kicked, reeking of fear and cowardly magic—

  The alien thought startled him enough that his fingers clenched. He’d regained that tiny grip on his body, and ceded a part of his mind to the wolf in return.

  The sound of running tickled his ears, numerous paws rushing across the forest floor, but he only had a moment to focus on the sound. Then Lorelei yelped and fell as magic sizzled through the air, and Colin tossed his opponent aside without a care for the thud the body made when it crashed into a nearby tree.

  At one purpose, Colin and the wolf spun. He didn’t know which one of them thought the word—mate—and which told their body to lunge. His
human body was large and bulky, perfect for flinging himself between a violent spell and one small, injured wolf.

  When the pain started, any remaining walls dissolved. He melted into his other half, embraced the wildness and drowned in it. There was no Colin. No wolf. Just the Beast, furious and wounded, and ready to die to protect the brightest part of its world.

  Lorelei couldn’t move. She struggled to get up, though her right front leg felt like it was on fire, but Colin’s weight held her down. He shuddered and shook, pain wracking every inch of his large frame, and she howled again. In protest, for help. Because she couldn’t stay quiet.

  Finally, she managed to squeeze out from under him, not entirely but enough to drag herself the rest of the way. The older witch still stood, along with the two younger females—including the one who’d cast the spell meant for Lorelei. She’d caught only a hint of it, a glancing rush of agony before Colin had shielded her, and now it was her turn to save him.

  The only surefire way to kill a spell that had been cast was to kill the witch, and Lorelei climbed painfully to her paws and growled.

  Gladly.

  She could feel the pack converging on them from all sides, a subtle awareness on a level beneath anything the witches could sense. Help was close, but not close enough for Colin, who snarled defiance as his body contorted.

  The witch holding the spell was young and fair, a sweet-faced woman with short blond hair and blue eyes wide with the memory of terror. Something else was fighting to replace fear—a triumphant satisfaction, and a growing excitement. Colin howled as she twitched her fingers, and she watched, entranced, a vicious child who’d discovered the pleasure to be had from her own power.

  She didn’t even see Lorelei coming.

  Fighting as a wolf was new, but there was nothing foreign about the way flesh yielded beneath her teeth or the hot flow of blood. She might have taken pleasure in the screams that subsided to gurgles—maybe, if she’d wanted to hurt anyone. But all she wanted was for Colin’s pain to stop.

  He collapsed in a heap on the slick leaves, muscles twitching, but before Lorelei took more than two steps toward him, a rough work boot slammed into her ribs.

  The man blew a palmful of black powder into her eyes. It burned, but more horrifying was the way her vision went dark. Not as if he’d blinded her, but as if night had fallen all around them. Lorelei scurried back, terrified, as tiny red wisps of smoke shot up from the ground. The wisps formed into imps, demons that laughed and snarled and reached for her.

  A sharp yip sounded next to her, and then Eden was there, the comforting surge of her power recognizable, though her shape was an indistinguishable blur. She plunged through one of the demonic apparitions, reducing it to smoke and mist, and charged past Lorelei in the direction the wizard had gone.

  The fight devolved into chaos—howls and snaps and screams, and below it all, the jagged, metallic clash of magic as Stella’s voice rose over the din, confident, angry. Determined.

  Shapes loomed up around her, shapes that resolved into Fletcher and Jay and Mae. Wolves surrounded her—but not Colin.

  As Lorelei’s vision cleared, she caught a glimpse of Colin’s shirt, shredded and discarded beside one of the fallen witches. She spun, her heart beating a painful staccato beat against her ribs.

  A pained howl ripped past her, and she jerked around again to find Colin facing Stella, his lips pulled back in a snarl.

  “Oh, no you don’t.” The woman shook her head slowly. “I just pulled your ass out of the fire, Knox. You don’t get to gnaw my face off. Not today.”

  Colin paced forward, advancing on her without the slightest hint of recognition, and Lorelei shot forward. She insinuated herself between them and faced Colin, leaving Stella at her unguarded back in a show of trust.

  He stopped abruptly, his sides heaving, but that furious golden gaze never left Stella. Lorelei realized the woods around her had fallen silent. The pack ringed them in a loose circle, Fletcher in human form and kneeling over a fallen witch who was still breathing.

  Fletcher was the one who spoke, glancing from Lorelei to Colin. “Are you trying to use magic on him, Stella?”

  “I have to. There’s a spell—I can’t tell what it is, exactly, but the one who’s alive must have cast something on him.”

  Lorelei tried to call forth the change and resume her human form, a struggle with all the adrenaline pumping through her blood—and with Colin growling in front of her. Bit by bit, from the inside out, until she knelt on the forest floor, cradling her aching arm. “She bound him. That’s what—what they said.”

  “This one did it?” Fletcher hauled an unconscious woman to her knees.

  But Lorelei had no answer. She hadn’t seen them, and she wasn’t about to tell them that her information had come from a hallucination…or a ghost.

  In the end, it was Stella who saved her from confession by reaching out one glowing hand. “No, not her,” the witch murmured. “It isn’t her magic.”

  “So we missed one,” Fletcher murmured, eyeing Colin. “Or the magic’s anchored in him.”

  Jay had shifted, and moved to stand behind Fletcher. “Is that possible?”

  “They had enough time,” Stella conceded. “Probably not enough to shield it from other witches, though. Which means I can unravel it, but only if he lets me.”

  Lorelei crawled toward him, within easy reach. He wouldn’t hurt her—she knew that much. “I told you to set him free,” she whispered. “And I’m glad you did. But now you have to lock it down so Stella can help you. Please.”

  He trembled at her proximity, but didn’t snarl again until Eden, still in wolf form, took a tentative step forward. She froze, ears and tail high, clearly perturbed by the challenge from a wolf who had been a solicitous beta, but after a moment she huffed and retreated to Jay’s side.

  Colin closed the distance between them, nudging Lorelei’s shoulder with his nose. To her left, Mae whined uneasily, but Lorelei ignored her in favor of tunneling her fingers into the thick fur around his neck. “I’m all right. But I need you with me right now.”

  Snuffling, he nuzzled her chin before his back legs folded. With a great shudder, he lowered himself to the scattered leaves with his head resting on her legs and his eyes shut.

  Stella released a long, slow breath and reached into her bag. “Brave or crazy, Lorelei. Which one are you?”

  The answer had never been so simple or lacking in shame and self-consciousness. She leaned her cheek against the top of Colin’s head and sighed. “Both. And that’s okay.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  “It’s fine. Really.”

  Jay shook his head before Lorelei even finished speaking. “I don’t want to hear it. We’re at least going to immobilize this arm until it heals completely.”

  “You have a responsibility,” Eden added quietly, nodding to the spot beside Lorelei on the battered couch.

  Colin sat there, bleary-eyed, with all of his attention focused on Jay’s movements. He hadn’t moved, and he probably wouldn’t—not until Jay had finished bandaging her arm and buckled the sling in place.

  Lorelei grudgingly nodded. “Okay.”

  Eden smiled encouragingly as she settled herself cross-legged on the floor at Lorelei’s feet. The alphas’ suite wasn’t particularly large, but it was the biggest in the house that afforded a certain amount of privacy—something they needed for a meeting of the pack’s leaders.

  That they were the pack’s leaders had been an unspoken understanding before now, but this small gathering between alphas and their seconds had an oddly official air, for all the humility of their surroundings.

  “Fletcher’s watching the surviving witch,” Eden said, once she’d found a comfortable position. “I had plenty of time to talk to her while you and Stella were dealing with Colin, and I still can’t believe that’s what she is. Nancy Lee used to babysit me. I don’t think she knew Zack’s mother, but she sure seems to know of her.”

  “They were w
aiting for Nancy.” Colin’s voice was hoarse, but at least he sounded like himself again. He finally tore his gaze from Jay’s hands, only to watch Eden warily. “They thought Lorelei was you. They wanted your blood for something, Nancy was supposed to confirm it was you.”

  Which made no sense at all, if the witches’ long-ago association had been with Kathy Green. “Do you think this could have something to do with your father, Eden?” Lorelei asked. “Zack obviously has a blood connection with his mother, but you don’t.”

  “She has a blood connection with Zack,” Colin pointed out. “But they didn’t mention Kathy at all. They were asking about some magic thing. A node they think we dug up.”

  Eden frowned. “Granted, I don’t know much about…well, real magic, but I thought a node was just supposed to be a place of power. A nexus where ley lines meet. Not a thing.”

  Jay raised both eyebrows as he secured the sling around Lorelei’s neck. “Don’t ask me. I’ve got less than no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Sounds like a job for Stella and Shane.” Colin half-smiled at Jay. “That’s a job an alpha has to learn, right? Delegation.”

  “Fair enough.” Jay sat back and raised both hands. “And you’re all done. Be sure and let Colin check it out later, though.”

  “I will,” Lorelei promised. But the question of whether he’d want her around hung in the air.

  For all his intense staring, Colin didn’t rush into the sudden silence with reassurances. It was Eden who cleared her throat and moved the conversation, though it was onto equally fraught ground. “Lorelei, I want to move Tammy and her son into the big house with us. Until we figure out what the witches were after, I’m just as happy with all of us under one roof. But I need to know if that will be too much for you or Kaley or Mae.”

  “I don’t know.” With Zack gone and the trauma of recent events, Kaley would be on especially shaky ground. But Tammy was one of them now, had suffered through the same things and held strong—for the pack. “The least we can do is try.”