Dark Wolf Unbound (Heart of the Shifter #2)

by Stephanie Rowe

  He didn’t know why she’d chosen him. He had no fucking idea why, and as much as he believed he should stay away from her, he couldn’t, not as long as she was in danger and her nephew needed his help.

  They reached the bottom of the stairs, and she opened the door. As she opened it, light filtered through the opening, blinding him momentarily.

  “Kiernan!” Abby slipped past him, racing into the room. Jace propped himself against the door, using the wall to hold himself up as he watched Drake, the female shifter, and a man he didn’t know cluster around the injured shifter, who was on a cot much like the one he’d been on upstairs.

  Drake. Jace wanted to stop Abby from getting close to the other males, but his body wouldn’t respond. His good leg was shaking, and his injured one was useless.

  Drake looked up, and immediately stepped in Abby’s path, smoothly deflecting her as she reached for the unfamiliar male. “He’s healing. Let him be.”

  Abby immediately stopped, her hand on Drake’s arm. Jace fixated on her hand, his wolf suddenly tense as he watched the way her fingers wrapped around Drake.

  Drake glanced sharply at Jace, and then his eyes widened. He carefully removed Abby’s hand from his arm, and stepped back. She’s all yours, mate. Tell your wolf to stand down.

  Jace swore. He was broadcasting? He should have better discipline than that. He dragged the door closed behind him as he quickly took in the situation. The room was simple and barren, but clean. Doors and a long hallway suggested that it was a sizeable space, extending deep underground.

  He reached out with his senses, checking for other inhabitants, but he didn’t find any. We alone? He knew Drake would have searched out the entire lair the moment he arrived.

  Yep. We’re good. Drake was still standing between Abby and the others, but he was watching Jace. You look like hell.

  I’m better than the poor bastard Kiernan’s working on. But as he said it, Jace found himself sliding down the doorjamb to the floor. He sat hard, unable to contain his grunt of pain as he landed. Now that the adrenaline was fading, the pain was setting in, and it was coming hard.

  He leaned his head back against the door and closed his eyes, trying to focus enough to reach inside him and assess his injuries. As a shifter, he had extensive healing capacities, but he hadn’t had time to work on it. He trusted Drake implicitly, and if the other wolf said the place was safe, then it was. There were only two wolves he truly trusted, and Drake was one of them.

  He checked his ankle first, grimly assessing the damage. It was as bad as he’d thought. The bones were completely shattered, pulverized into fragments and dust. Not healable. Fuck. The enormity of the situation settled on him like a crushing weight. How the hell could he keep Abby safe from Lucius on one leg?

  He couldn’t.

  Swearing under his breath, he concentrated on his ankle, pouring healing energy into it, refusing to concede defeat. “Come on,” he muttered.

  A light hand touched his shoulder, making him start. He grabbed it even as he opened his eyes. Abby was crouched in front of him, her eyes dark with worry. “Jace. I want you to meet Kiernan.”

  Beside her was the unfamiliar shifter. He was early thirties, strapping and strong. A powerful wolf that exuded dominance. He was wearing jeans and a tattered tee shirt that didn’t hide the unrivaled strength of his frame. He had one hand on Abby’s shoulder, possessively marking her as his.

  Jace sat up quickly, his wolf roaring in fury. “Don’t touch her,” he snarled.

  Kiernan’s eyes narrowed, and Abby’s mouth dropped open in shock. Shit. What had he just done? He knew what he’d done. He’d claimed her. Marked her as his own in front of a competitor. He had no business doing that, but he couldn’t make himself retract it. He just met Kiernan’s gaze, letting the other shifter feel the full force of his power and his claim. For a moment, Kiernan didn’t move, then Abby quickly moved to Jace’s other side, away from Kiernan, breaking the tension. Kiernan, Jace noticed, didn’t try to stop her.

  Smart move.

  Abby put her hand on Jace’s shoulder, squeezing gently. “Kiernan,” she said softly. “Jace needs help. His ankle and his arm.”

  Jace narrowed his eyes at the shifter, unwilling to submit to a wolf he didn’t know. “Who are you?”

  “I heal.” The shifter gave no other answer, but Jace could feel a humming vibration in his ankle, as if he’d already started working on Jace’s leg.

  “I didn’t give you permission,” he snapped. He didn’t like this at all. He was in this shifter’s lair, injured, and the only one who could vouch for him was Abby, who hadn’t even been sure he was trustworthy. For all he knew, Kiernan would pull out a recording of that song and—

  Shit.

  He’d be fucked. He was locked in a basement with a bunch of shifters that he could turn on in a split second. What if Lucius started blasting the song from upstairs? Would they hear it? How long would it take for Jace to attack them all?

  I’m on it. Drake’s voice was hard and unyielding.

  He locked gazes with Drake, who was standing just behind Kiernan, his hands relaxed by his side, the rest of his body primed and ready to step in. I don’t like this, Drake.

  Drake nodded. You need help, Jace. If he can help you, take it. He met Jace’s eyes, his expression too knowing about the extent of Jace’s injuries. If he pulls out the song, I’ll kill him instantly. And you, if I have to.

  He hated being so weak that he had to put himself in a vulnerable position. It went against every fiber of his body to endanger Abby and Drake because he needed help.

  “Jace.” Abby touched his shoulder, drawing his attention back to her. “Let him help you. He’s gifted. He saved my life.”

  Jace turned his attention back to Kiernan. He studied the shifter, reaching out with his mind to try to pick up on his energy signature, but he got nothing. He couldn’t even catch a scent from him. It was as if he was a mirage, not truly present. “I can’t sense you.”

  “As it should be.” Kiernan looked at him, resting one muscular forearm over his knee. “I can help you.”

  “Why would you?” Jace shot back.

  “Because it is my calling.” Kiernan’s voice was calm and steady. “It is my gift and my curse. You found me, so it is my duty to help.”

  To his surprise, Jace felt the truth resonating in Kiernan’s words. The shifter truly did believe it was his duty, and that was something Jace understood, being driven by his own duty to protect other shifters, to create a pack that would keep them safe. “I accept.”

  Kiernan nodded, and rose to his feet. Without another word, he walked across the room and disappeared through a door that Jace hadn’t even noticed. “Chatty guy,” Jace observed.

  Abby stood up. “He’s waiting for you. Come on.”

  “Back there?” Jace tried to stand, but it took both Abby and Drake’s assistance to get him vertical. His body was shaking, and he could barely focus. He knew his body was going into shock, and that was not a good sign. He’d pushed hard after his injuries, yeah, but he’d done that many times in his life and he’d never hit a wall like this before.

  He could barely support himself as they helped him to the other room, and the cot they set him on seemed to come up faster than he expected when he tried to sit down on it. Or maybe he’d gone down too fast. Either way, he knew he was in bad shape.

  “Get him on his back.” Kiernan’s voice was distant, fading, and Jace frowned, trying to stay focused as several sets of hands moved him, rolling him over. Pain shot through him, and he sucked in his breath as his ankle hit the side of the cot.

  “Why is he in such bad shape?” Drake asked, but Jace could barely focus on his words.

  “There’s silver in his blood stream,” Kiernan said.

  Silver? “How?” It was a tremendous effort to form the words.

  “Point of entry was the ankle.” Kiernan’s hands closed around Jace’s leg. A scream of agony tore from Jace’s throat, and he fo
ught to get his leg free, but he couldn’t move.

  He opened his eyes, and saw Drake leaning over him, holding him down. “Get the fuck off me.”

  Drake glanced at him. “Sorry, Jace. It has to be done.”

  Kiernan did something to his ankle again, and another scream tore from Jace’s throat as the pain ricocheted through him. Jesus. He gritted his teeth, sweat streaming down his temples. He’d felt pain before, and he was an expert at managing it, but he’d never felt anything like this before.

  “It’s incredible he’s still functioning.” Kiernan sounded impressed, almost in awe. “He should have been dead hours ago. I’ve never seen anyone be able to compartmentalize silver before, and yet he did it, even with his body under such duress from his other injuries.” More pain, and another scream.

  Jace arched his back, unable to stop the scream as it tore through him. His mind was fragmenting, shattering into dozens of pieces. Memories flashed through his mind. The screams of the woman he’d killed. Melissa. Dying. Crying. The taste of her blood. His need to kill. The burning, insatiable need to kill—

  “Jace.” Gentle hands framed his face. “It’s Abby. Focus on me.”

  Her voice was like an angel’s whisper, easing the agony trying to consume him. He focused on her green eyes, letting himself be swept away by her voice. Her warmth seemed to wrap around him, a soothing, powerful shield that distanced Kiernan and Drake, leaving him with only Abby. He reached for her, and she took his hand, squeezing tightly.

  Pain screamed through his body now, as if Kiernan had released the silver and it was burning him up from the inside out, his blood searing its way through his veins. It felt wrong what he was doing. It felt dangerous. It felt like death. He tried to get up, but Drake was still holding him down. “No,” Jace gritted out. “It’s wrong. Don’t trust him. Stop him.”

  Drake and Abby looked at each other across Jace’s body, and he saw their silent exchange. Then the searing pain slammed into his brain, and darkness descended.

  Chapter 13

  Jace snapped awake, bolting upright in bed. The room was pitch black, but his eyes adjusted swiftly as he rapidly assessed the situation. Abby was asleep on a chair next to the cot, and Drake was standing guard in the hallway just outside the door. He could sense the other two shifters in a room down the hall, but he couldn’t find Kiernan. He sensed no other shifters at all.

  The hold was secure.

  Some of his tension eased, and Jace took a moment to look around. He was in a windowless, cramped room, less than six feet wide, housing only the cot, and Abby’s chair. The night was silent, and quiet, no tension lurking, giving him the chance to breathe again. He was in Kiernan’s lair, and it was secure at the moment.

  With no pressing danger looming, Jace took a moment to study Abby, watching the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. She was curled up in the chair, looking tiny and vulnerable. Her hair was tumbling down around her shoulders, falling across her face. He studied the wayward locks, his hand clenching against the instinct to brush the hair back from her face. He remembered the reassuring touch of her hands when Kiernan had been healing him, the way her voice had taken the edge off his agony.

  Gentle.

  Soft.

  Kind.

  Unable to resist, Jace rolled onto his side to face her. He cautiously reached across the space between them and brushed the stray lock back from her face. Her hair was soft, like silk, softer than he could remember feeling.

  Her eyes flickered open. For a moment, she stared at him sleepily, as if she were still hovering between dreamland and reality. He smiled at her, and something turned over in his chest when she smiled back at him. “How are you?” she asked.

  At her question, he suddenly realized that the pain that had been haunting him for so long was absent. He’d reached out with his injured arm…and it was much improved. The scars were shiny, but on their way to healing, and he could tell that the internal damage had been repaired. “Damn. I’m impressed.” Then he focused on his shattered ankle. No pain. Frowning, he flexed it. To his shock, it moved easily, with only a dull ache of pain. He sat up, frowning as he moved it again, testing it in every direction. He had full mobility. “Impossible.” He leapt off the cot and landed on his right leg. He braced for debilitating pain and a collapse to the floor, but his ankle held up. It trembled under the impact, but he was able to keep it straight and solid with a little focus. The faint ache was astoundingly minimal, easy to compartmentalize. Son of a bitch. His ankle had been reconstructed. He was back.

  He sank back onto the cot and bowed his head, unable to contain his sudden rush of emotion. His ankle was healed. He was strong enough to be the alpha who protected his pack and his mate. He could do what he’d thought he’d never be able to do again.

  “Jace?” Abby’s hands slid over his bare shoulders. “It didn’t work?”

  He caught her hand and looked up. She was sitting beside him, her face inches from his. “You did this,” he said, his voice hoarse.

  Wariness flickered in her eyes. “Did what?”

  He slid his hands through her hair, emotions thick in his chest. “My ankle was done. I couldn’t be an alpha, or even survive in a pack with a crippled leg. It was over…and now it’s fine.”

  Her face lit up. “It’s healed? Really?”

  He turned toward her, swinging his legs around her so he flanked her hips. “You did it. You brought me here. You ignored my orders and dragged me to Kiernan.” He tunneled his hands through her hair. “You gave me back my life, when all you should have done was hate me.” He didn’t understand her. He could barely grasp what she’d done for him. He’d resigned himself to his useless leg, and to have it given back to him was overwhelming, a gift he would spend a lifetime trying to be worthy of.

  She encircled his wrists with her fingers. “Jace, you need to stop,” she said gently. “Hating yourself for what you did allows Grigori to win. You were coerced to do something completely against your nature. If I can see that, why can’t you?”

  “Because I relive her murder every second of every day.” He tangled his fingers in her hair, needing to ground himself in her. Even as he tried to convince her of his guilt, at the same time, he needed her to argue with him, to not let him win. “I wanted to kill her. My wolf thrived on the attack. I felt it inside me, a sense of victory when she died. Do you understand? I became a monster that day. It wasn’t simply that I killed her. It was that I wanted to do it.” The words were ugly, a hateful ugly truth, but he had to say them. He was ashamed of what he’d been, of that truth, but he didn’t want to hide from it anymore. Abby had given him so much. She deserved to know who he really was, and what he’d become inside.

  Abby sighed, and turned toward him. She slid onto his lap and wrapped her legs around his hips.

  Jace stiffened, his body going hard at the intimacy of the position. He pulled his hands from her and held them up, forcing himself not to touch her. “What are you doing?”

  She clasped her fingers behind his neck and tried to tug him toward her.

  He resisted, his hands still in the air. “Abby. You need to get off my lap. Seriously. Right now.” Desire raced through him, a deep, relentless need to slide his hands through her hair and drag her toward him. To sink his mouth onto hers and claim her. To toss her onto his cot and strip off her clothes, layer by layer, until she was all his.

  She ignored him. Instead, she leaned into him and pressed her mouth to his. Her lips were soft and tentative, igniting a fierceness inside him he’d never experienced. With a low growl, he opened his mouth, taking her offering with a searing kiss of unrestrained hunger. She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back just as fiercely as he was kissing her. The need was uncontrollable, raging through him with relentless heat. He’d burned for her since the first moment he’d seen her, fighting the battle every moment, but she shattered the last vestiges of his control.

  “Kiss me, Jace,” she whispered. “I want you.”
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  Another surge of hunger, and his kisses became a frenzied, desperate claiming, far beyond his ability to control them. He needed to touch her, to kiss her, to feel her bare skin beneath his palms. His wolf craved her, and so did the man, unified in their need for the woman in his arms.

  Abby was so brave, and yet, at the same time, so vulnerable. Her courage to bring him to Kiernan when Lucius was hunting them astounded him. Her ability to forgive him for the unthinkable was beyond comprehension, a gift he was clinging to desperately. She was brave, but at the same time, she was soft, offering Jace comfort and faith when he deserved none. He was so lost right now, drowning in the chaos his life had become, but she had stood by him, giving him purpose, never judging, never doubting. She saw in him the man he’d thought he was, giving him hope even when he knew he didn’t deserve it.

  She’d given him so much, and he felt as though he’d only taken in return. He knew he didn’t deserve this moment with her. She should be punishing him, not giving him the most precious gift on earth, her faith, her trust, and her kiss. He knew this, but he couldn’t make himself break away. He needed what she gave him. He knew that without Abby, he wouldn’t still be alive. His soul wouldn’t still be hanging together by a sliver, refusing to shatter completely.

  He needed Abby in a way he’d never needed anyone or anything. He ran his hands down her spine, beneath her shirt, tracing each bone. Her body was a miracle to him, curvy, soft, and yet strong at the same time. Unrivaled elegance and beauty…and the body of a survivor.

  He palmed her belly, pressing his hand against the hard ridges left behind by Lucius. Abby tensed and she stopped kissing him, though she didn’t pull back. Suspended in fear, waiting for his next move.

  Anger rushed through him, a fierce outrage that Lucius had taken away Abby’s understanding of her beauty, stripping away self-confidence in who she was. She was wrong to fear his reaction to her scars. Resolution flooded him, and he shifted, rolling her onto her back on his cot.