The small opening she’d run through to get to him immediately closed, the wolves cutting off all escape for either of them now.
“What are you doing? You need to run.” He couldn’t hold back the desperation in his voice as he tried to calculate some way for them to get out of this. But with each second, the pack got closer, nobody wanting to be the first in the fray, but all of them ready to leap in the second somebody got the courage to do it.
“I can’t just leave you. You know I’m protective of wolves. That’s my job, my life’s work,” she said, nuzzling his thick fur. “That includes you, Grayson. Because you’re a wolf, and for other reasons, too.”
For a moment, he nuzzled her back, absorbing the feel or her soft body against him. And as the pack closed in, rage and love and protectiveness balled up inside him, fueled by his desire to keep April safe from any harm.
If this was the end, he was going to give them a fight to remember.
Then, suddenly, he felt incredible energy humming beneath his skin. A power he’d never felt before, made of light and love and care that had never existed until he’d met his mate and fully realized it for himself.
Like a light switch, something just turned on, and out of nowhere, an aura of light surrounded them like an orb. Then, in a flash, it materialized into a translucent, white shield in a domelike shape, protecting them in a twenty-foot circle, just as the pack was about to reach them.
Grayson didn’t even know where it had come from or how he’d done it. He just knew somehow that he’d made it, and he’d done it to protect his mate.
“Woah,” April exclaimed in wonder, looking up at the glowing light.
“Amazing,” someone muttered outside the shield.
One wolf, both annoyed and curious, approached the aura, first pawing at it and, unable to get through, trying to dig beneath. But beneath the ground, the shield continued invisibly, allowing none to enter.
There was a pause as wolves muttered to each other in confusion.
“Is he an alpha?” one murmured.
“That’s definitely an alpha power,” another replied.
Finally, ahead of them, Taylor stepped forward, arms flailing.
“What are you waiting for? There’s still only one of him. We’re an entire pack.” The spokesdouche urged the pack to continue attacking, fists clenching in futile rage. To his right, Brett’s eyes had gone wide with surprise, not at all looking in the mood to be fighting.
At this point, Grayson wasn’t sure this was even about the alpha’s wishes, rather more about Taylor just trying to be right.
Inside, though, Grayson just held on to whatever power within that made him able to keep the unnatural force up, keeping April safe from harm.
But outside, the wolves were already rallying.
“Let’s get him.” The mob was quickly turning back on the perceived threat in their midst.
“Yeah, we can take him!” one shouted out. “He’s alone!”
“Wanna bet?” a new voice chimed in, familiar and self-assured as always.
Grayson smiled gratefully, knowing help had finally arrived.
Chapter 18
April looked up from where she’d been holding on to Grayson’s fur, eyes closed tight in anticipation of an attack, to see two figures walking over to the edge of the crowd, standing above all the shifted wolves.
For whatever reason, Grayson’s shield flickered slightly, and he calmed a bit against her arms.
She put up a hand to block the evening sun from her eyes and studied the men carefully. Did he know them?
“Hunter!” Grayson called out. “Garrett! About time you got here.”
His shield flickered and then fell, and he let out a huff as he sat back on his haunches tiredly. After the fight he’d had, she was surprised he was still standing. Especially considering he hadn’t even slept last night.
Because he was too busy worrying about her. Protecting her. Handling this whole difficult situation on his own because there was no one to help him.
Except now it seemed there was.
The first man was tall, with dark hair and a sharply trimmed beard, giant-size height and build, and oddly kind, sparkling eyes in a color she couldn’t make out from this distance. Maybe amber?
As they came closer, she studied the other man, the one who had spoken up.
He was tall, maybe a little shorter than the bear of a man next to him, and wore a weathered, dark Stetson, a denim work shirt, and fitted dark jeans, along with cowboy boots.
He looked oddly out of place here, but didn’t seem worried about it at all.
He removed his hat, resting it against his leg and revealing medium-length blond hair and piercing blue eyes that shone in the sun. He was handsome in that cocky, movie star next door kind of way, though in her eyes, he didn’t hold a candle to Grayson.
She kept her hand in Grayson’s fur as she stood to face them.
“Damn, Gray, you sure know how to cause trouble,” the man said.
“You could have shown up sooner, Hunter,” Grayson mumbled, glaring at the man. “I told you it was time sensitive when I called.”
“Yeah, I know, Alpha.” Hunter raised an eyebrow teasingly. “Should I be calling you that now? Is that what you are?” He turned to the burly man beside him. “What do you think, Garrett?”
These must be the construction friends he was talking about. She remembered him saying Garrett was also his boss.
Garrett cocked his head. “I don’t know. I guess it makes sense since we already formed a pack. I hadn’t really thought of any one of us being in charge.”
“I don’t care who’s in charge,” Grayson said. “As long as one of you brought what I asked for.”
Hunter smiled wide at that, flashing perfect white teeth with slightly pointed canines. “We both did, in fact.” He walked back the way they came, toward something they seemed to drop on the ground.
As both men took hold of their burdens, April gasped as she realized they were dragging men wrapped in burlap with rope tied around them, looped at the ankles.
The men were growling as they were pulled into the circle, and the rest of the shifted pack moved out of the way.
Brett stepped forward, almost out of nowhere, getting between Grayson and his friends. “What’s going on here? What do you have there?”
Hunter dropped his hold on his cargo and folded his arms, rolling his eyes exaggeratedly. “You wolves are great at sniffing shit from ten miles away, but you can’t beat a cat when it comes to sneaking up on someone.” He put his foot on the tied man on the ground. “Found these two hanging around her cameras. In human form.”
Garrett stepped forward, tossing his cargo on the ground with a grunt. “Grayson asked us to look out, see if any of the pack was breaking their promise. Looks like it’s a good thing he did.”
He knelt down to pull the burlap back, revealing the angry red faces of the men they’d caught. “You recognize these two?”
She heard Grayson gasp beside her.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” he said in a low voice. “Mattson, why the heck would you do this?”
Mattson was out for the count and couldn’t answer, but clearly, these were his lackeys.
Brett moved forward then, crouching to get a better look at the two. The expression he gave Grayson was stricken. “You were telling the truth.” He stood, looking disappointed in his pack as a whole. He faced Hunter and Garrett. “You say they were out in front of the cameras? Not even trying to hide?”
“It doesn’t matter,” someone in the crowd hissed. “The traitors must—”
Everyone but Brett was still shifted, and Brett whirled on them with fierce blue eyes. “Now just shut up, all of you. My father is sick, and he isn’t thinking well. I’ll alpha challenge if I have to, but all of you need to just shut up and listen to me right now!”
The whole clearing went quiet, and Brett seemed taller as he bore down on all of them with an angry, disappointed express
ion.
“You’ve been acting like fools from the moment you tried to scare his mate off”—he pointed at Garrett—“to how ungrateful you’ve been to Grayson. To how prejudiced you’ve been about Hunter.”
“He knows all of our names,” Hunter said, looking impressed.
“Shut up,” Brett said, and Hunter put his hands up in a shrug. “Anyway. I can’t have the pack doing this anymore. Without leadership, we’re falling apart. People like Mattson are going to keep creating trouble for us.” He looked at the men on the ground with disgust. “What was the plan, then? If you get us discovered by April, it gives you a chance to attack? What if she had seen the cameras and gotten away? We would have been caught by the Tribunal.”
The men grumbled but wouldn’t answer him, so Brett stalked over to Mattson where he was lying, still shifted, on the ground after Grayson kicked the crap out of him.
“Wake up, you.” Brett snarled. “For once, you’re going to answer me.”
Mattson looked up blearily, but when he saw Brett’s expression, there was actual fear in his eyes. “What is it?”
“Why did you do it? Why did you try to get the pack to turn on Grayson? Why would you risk all of our safety for the chance to attack someone who is helping us and a human who means us no harm.”
Mattson looked away guiltily. “He was here, trying to take our females.”
“What?”
“Candace,” Mattson said in a low voice. “He was flirting with her. He walks in here, pretending to help, acting like he wants to take over as alpha, trying to steal our women. When I saw he fell for that stupid human, it was the perfect opportunity.”
Brett raised a foot and rested it on Mattson’s neck. “You selfish asshole. You broke your pack’s promise. You’re no longer a part of the pack.”
Mattson snarled but simply looked away from him.
“When we’re done here, you take your stuff and go. And if we see you here again, you’re finished.”
“This pack sucks anyway,” Mattson growled. “I’d rather be on my own.”
Grayson looked over at April, his wolf eyes so different yet so similar to his human ones. She stroked his fur lightly, loving the feel. It was odd that she’d spent so much time watching wolves, and now she got the feeling that she had one of her own. “I guess he finally manned up,” Grayson said, watching Brett continue to threaten the rest of his pack.
Hunter and Garrett walked over to them, and Hunter shook his head as he took in Grayson’s wolf form. “Looks like you made quick work of the bad ones, but I hate to see you all scratched up.”
“Did you bring clothes?” Grayson asked. “When we shift, we are naked.”
“Oh,” April said. Not that she would mind seeing that at all. But she didn’t want anyone else to, especially as the wolves were disappearing toward their trailers, shifting and changing, and she averted her eyes so they could do so.
“I’ll grab some from your trailer,” Garrett said, jogging off. “Be right back.”
So Grayson just sat on his haunches, looking fine with his wolf form, as if he could stay there all day.
Brett was still herding the rest of the pack around, and surprisingly, it seemed like no one would challenge him.
It appeared this little pack had gotten a new alpha today. At least one who would stand in, ready to take over when the other could no longer do his duty.
The thought made her sad because no one deserved to lose a family member, but at least the pack would be safer now with someone stepping up to watch out.
But there she went, sympathizing with people who had wanted to harm her. Still, she supposed she could see why Grayson hadn’t just given up on them before. The people here were struggling. Their homes were worn, their way of life was dying, and they really needed help.
As she stroked Grayson’s fur, waiting for his friend to bring clothing, a woman with sandy-blond hair approached them, looking bashful.
“I’m sorry, Grayson,” she said quietly. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble. I just thought you were a great guy, and you were helping us. And then when I told on you, I guess I was jealous…” Her gray-blue eyes were downcast.
Grayson spoke to her in wolf form. “It’s fine. It’s not your fault Mattson went off, and you were just trying to protect your pack.”
She nodded, then gave April a shy smile. “I think your human mate is pretty. I hope we still see her around.”
Grayson looked at April as if curious to see her response. He probably expected her to want to run screaming after everything that had happened, but the researcher in her was already curious about this little settlement now that the misunderstanding had been worked out.
They now knew Grayson wasn’t trying to expose them and that bad members of their pack had done it, and they would hopefully extend more benefit of the doubt to outsiders now.
April extended her hand for Candace to take it. “I’ll be back. I’m sure. Maybe I can even help out here.” Maybe she could use her knowledge of the delicate balance between wolf packs and humans to help the pack adjust to modern life. And maybe she could also get them government help without alerting anyone. Maybe there was a reason she’d come here after all.
Her eyes darted shyly to Grayson. Maybe more than one.
“Okay then,” Candace said. “I’ve gotta get going. Help people clean up and calm down.”
April watched her calmly, glad it seemed some of the younger generation was here to help out.
Grayson let out a sigh. “Glad that’s over. You’ll never know how hard she chased me.” He raised one wolfish eyebrow. “I guess you saved me after all.”
She laughed. “I guess so. But I see what you mean about the people here. They aren’t that bad.”
“They tried to kill us.”
“Well, they do need a little… taming. Ha-ha.”
Grayson just stared at her for a moment, before the sound of shouting tipped them off.
It appeared Mattson and his friends were being escorted from the premises. Given what they’d done, it made sense, but it still made her a little uncomfortable.
They’d attacked Grayson, knowing he wasn’t at fault and that they were the ones who’d endangered the pack on purpose. If the pack was going to survive, toxics like that had to go.
Mattson was clearly fuming, and as Brett marched him out with folded arms, he turned back and pointed to Candace, eyes blazing. “It’s that little slut’s fault! Leading all the men on here, and—”
Crack!
Everyone in the clearing looked up as Brett had finally had enough and plowed his fist straight through Mattson’s jaw, knocking the other man over.
As Mattson landed in the dust, sending up a cloud of dirt, Brett pointed to his lackeys.
“Get him out of here before I kill him.”
The two wasted no time, dragging their friend to an old Jeep and taking off down the road, hopefully never to be seen in this area again.
“Damn,” Hunter said. “Beta’s got a right hook.”
Grayson shook his head. “Not beta. Alpha, by the looks of it.”
April smiled as she noticed Candace approaching Brett to check his hand out after the punch and Brett blushing slightly at her touch.
Things were going to be okay here, probably.
“Where is Garrett?” Grayson growled just as his friend emerged from the trailer with his clothes. “About time.”
“You should be grateful,” Hunter said. “If we hadn’t found those wolves, you would have been dog meat.”
Grayson gave them a look, then disappeared behind a trailer to change. When he came out, he was wearing work jeans and buttoning up his flannel shirt. He let out a sigh as he stepped in front of his friends.
Then he surprised April by hugging both of them, pulling them into a three-way embrace.
“Thank you,” he said. “You’re all the pack I need.” He looked over his shoulder. “Well, you know. Other than April.”
The two just nodded at
him, looking amused as he walked over to April again.
Her heart started to pound as she looked him over. It was so odd to see him in human form again, to trace the angles of his handsome, hard features and see those glittering silver eyes.
That buzzed hair, those muscles.
She couldn’t decide if she liked him more as man or wolf. Then he put out a hand to take hers, and she smiled. Definitely for some things, human was better.
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her, long and deep, letting her curl her arms up around his neck.
When he released her, there were little cheers from some of the surrounding people. Apparently, things changed fast out here in the wild.
“You two get out of here,” Hunter said. “We’ll help sort things out with the pack, see where we’re going from here.”
“Are you sure?” Grayson asked.
Garrett waved a hand. “You’ve done more than your share of the work. We’ll help out here. You go make things final with your mate.”
Final?
Grayson nodded and took April’s hand. “Want to go back to your campsite? I think we should have privacy there.”
She thought for a second, then nodded. “Yes. Let’s go back to my place.”
As long as she got some time alone with him, to tell him everything she thought and ask all of her questions, she’d be fine.
Chapter 19
“So shifter packs are a lot like wolf packs,” April said thoughtfully.
“I guess so,” Grayson replied. He squeezed April’s hand as they made their way toward her camp, taking their time as he explained everything he could about shifters. April had more than a few questions, but that only made sense, given her inquisitive nature.
He liked that about her.
They broke through a line of trees, and he saw her beat-up old SUV, followed by the rickety tent trailer that he was surprised was still standing at this point.
“I guess there’s still a lot for me to study here,” she said with a smile.
“First thing we’re doing is getting you set up somewhere better than this. Maybe somewhere in town,” Grayson exclaimed.
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