by Lori King
A snarl was the only warning, before the first wolf attacked him from the back. His teeth scraped down Thomas’s spine leaving a burning trail of pain. Arching as far away from the animal as possible, he threw himself to the ground trying to escape from the vicious canines that were snapping at him. Rolling away from the injured wolf that he had been trying to protect, he couldn’t stop the groan of pain when the attacking wolf bit down into his vulnerable side. He felt his ribs crack, and the intensity of the burn in his belly assured him that he was bleeding internally. Being a doctor really sucked sometimes, because it meant that in this moment, he knew he was dying before anyone else did. Twisting himself, he threw his arm out with every bit of strength he had left, reaching for the wolf’s vulnerable throat. When the animal let out a surprised yelp, Thomas knew that he had hit his mark. A choking, rasping sound was now coming from the injured animal, and he watched as its eyes widened in fear and understanding. The broken windpipe was a slow painful death, but again, he had managed to stop a vicious animal.
“See you in hell, asshole,” he whispered, as the light went out of the wolf’s eyes. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins, keeping the pain at bay, but the moment all was quiet, he groaned loudly in frustration. “Fucking hell!” he screamed at the sky, wanting everyone and no one to hear him. “Just when I finally find a piece of happiness I managed to get myself killed.”
“Thomas!”
The voice was hollow, like it was from a distance, but he turned his head toward it automatically. A flash of gold and then KJ’s scent filled his nose bringing him some peace.
“KJ?” He managed to lift his hand to cup her soft cheek, but he could feel it trembling. His other hand was still pressed to the wound in his side as he tried to hold his own life in for a little bit longer. It just figured that he finally found love, and she had to watch him die now.
KJ stared down at Thomas in horror. He was covered in blood and surrounded by dead Kaplan wolves. Tugging his large hand away from his bleeding side, she felt the tears well up in her eyes when she saw the blood streaming from his body. It was bad, fatal if Thomas was correct in his assessment.
Her stomach heaved, as she stared at the deep wound in his abdomen. She could only see the top teeth marks, which meant that the bottom teeth marks were in his back. Someone dangled a shirt in front of her, and she took it, pressing it to the wound firmly, and trying not to pass out.
“No! Oh my God, no! You can’t die on me, Doc. I just decided to keep you, so you don’t get the option of dying! I need you!” She raged at him with tears on her cheeks. Her pain was soul deep, and her lungs felt like they were closing up on her. Her wolf howled in her ears, screaming in pain for its dying mate.
“Tom! Holy shit! What have you done to yourself? Peaches, move over, and let me look at him. We need to get him into the cabin so that we can get him fixed up.” Bryson tried to physically move her, but Thomas shook his head, stopping him. KJ looked up into Bryson’s worried face feeling like someone had just carved her heart out of her body and dropped it on the ground. Cash and the other Gray wolves stood with most of the Quiver Creek Pack watching with sadness and regret etched onto their faces.
“No, Bry. Taking me in and stitching me up isn’t going to be enough, and I—” Thomas choked on his words and coughed as blood spilled out of the corner of his mouth.
“Tom, let us try. Damn it, man. We told you to stay in the fucking house! Why the hell did you even try to fight those wolves?” Bryson asked, pressing down on Thomas’s side, trying everything he could to stop the flow of blood, as KJ gripped his hand against her breasts and cried silent tears.
“He was saving me!” Rose Griffin stepped forward, and KJ could see she had a bite wound over her hip. “It was two on one, and Doc stepped in. If it weren’t for his quick thinking I would have died. He’s a hero.”
“What the hell were you doing out here, Rosey Posey? You should have been in the storm shelter with the other kids!” Samson held his daughter against his chest, rocking her as she shook with her adrenaline.
“I had to help! Dad, they killed Kelly and Brick! I saw them, Brick was being torn to pieces, and Kelly tried to help him. It was so scary, Dad!” Rose’s voice broke into sobs, and a sound of anguish rose from the group.
“Oh my God! Sam, that’s three of us! Zara was the one on rounds when they first attacked. They took her out just as soon as she sounded the warning.” Kayla’s voice was quiet and tight.
“Rudy is gone, too. I couldn’t get to him, they took out his throat.” River O’Brien’s face was a ghastly shade of gray, and KJ tried to compute what he was saying. They were talking about her family members. People who were dead. Her family members were dead. Rudy. Zara. Brick. Kelly. Was it possible?
KJ could hear the others muttering around her, but she couldn’t make out their words anymore. All she knew was that the love she had just begun to accept and let into her heart was seeping out of her as quickly as Thomas’s blood was staining the dirt around him. “No! You won’t be a martyr. Fuck that! We’re going to do the claiming right now, and then you will shift. You can heal as a wolf.”
Without waiting for permission, or encouragement, she bent and latched onto Thomas’s shoulder with her canine teeth. Sinking her sharp teeth into his skin, she tasted his tangy blood on her tongue, just as warmth filled her body, sending the burn of desire straight to her clit. His groan of satisfaction was tempered with the pain his body was fighting. She lifted her head and held his chin in her hand.
“Thomas Jameson, look at me. I love you, and you are mine. I won’t give you up. Please, bite me, I need you. Please!” She waited for another second as emotions and pain rolled through his dark chocolate eyes. When he nodded his agreement she turned and tilted her head, pressing her neck against his mouth. His strength was fading fast based on the first tentative nip he placed there, but then a sharp sting hit her as he bit through her skin.
It wasn’t the ideal setting for a claiming, but she knew that with the bond came the shift to a wolf, as well as the strength and healing qualities they possessed. As her blood spilled into his mouth, her wolf was howling with a combination of pleasure and agony. The sweetest heat filled her belly and stole her breath, making her moan softly. He pulled away and stared back at her in awe. Love lit the brown pools, and he gave her a small grin.
“Thank you, little one. I love you too. Bryson, take care of her for me,” Thomas said, coughing again. More blood dribbled from his mouth and KJ wailed.
“No! I claimed you! You have to shift now!”
She felt hands on her waist, and she flailed as Bryson wrapped himself around her body and tugged her away from Thomas. Screaming at her mate to let her go back to his side, she watched as Ryley, Cash, and Samson helped gently lift Thomas from the ground and carried him into the cabin they stood next to. She pounded on Bryson, and threw her legs back trying to get free from his viselike grip. Her wolf and her human both wanted nothing more than to hold her mate in her arms and help him through the change. If he could shift, he would live. She just needed him to shift.
Bryson felt like the worst kind of man in the world as his mate cursed his soul to hell, and fought with every fiber of her being to get to Thomas’s side. His eyes lifted to Rafe’s, who nodded, and Bryson held her tightly.
Still holding KJ against his chest as she sobbed and shook with emotion, Bryson followed everyone into the cabin. Every few moments she would lash out, trying to escape his grasp and get to Thomas. It didn’t look good for him. The amount of blood he was losing alone was terrifying.
Once Thomas was settled on top of a large table in the dining room, Graham stepped to his side, and pulled the clothing off of his body trying to see the wound. Bryson allowed KJ to move to Thomas’s side and help her father tend to him, thinking that if Thomas was going to die, then he deserved to have his last moments with his mate.
Cash stepped up to Bryson, and put his hand on his shoulder. “I need to talk to you.�
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“Right now? I don’t want to leave her—” Bryson started to protest, but something on the cowboy’s face had him following him to the front porch.
Ryley and Rafe stepped out behind them, with Noah, Luke, and Owen on their heels. “This better be good, Cash.” Ryley growled. “My sister is in there watching her mate die, and we should be with her.”
“I have a plan, but you aren’t going to like it,” Cash said, and Bryson felt his stomach drop to his feet. “We need to force him to shift. There are only two ways to force a wolf to shift, threaten him…”
“Or threaten his mate,” Bryson finished quietly, his voice vibrating with rage. “No! You’re not going to put her in danger! I won’t let you!”
Rafe stepped in between Bryson and Cash, forcing them apart. “Before you tear him to pieces, remember the pain that she is feeling, Bryson.”
Bryson’s mouth fell open, and his eyes widened, “Have you all lost your minds? What do you plan to do? Hold a gun to her head?”
Cash shook his head. “No, we have to get her scared enough that she will scream for help and his wolf will respond. We have to give her to Kaplan.”
Bryson saw red, and lunged at Cash. His wolf came forward, shifting to the surface as he lashed out at his new pack mate. The threat to KJ was enough to make him lose his mind. This was the most insane plan he had ever heard, and the fact that Cash thought he would just go with it was ludicrous.
Hands landed on his neck, and a pair of arms wrapped around his middle. Before he knew it he was completely and irrevocably restrained by members of the Gray Pack. They were going to do it with or without him. They were going to betray KJ.
“No! You’re going to get her killed! I’ll rip your throat out, motherfucker!”
Cash knew as soon as KJ sunk her teeth into Thomas that this was the moment Delaky had been trying to prepare him for. He had to betray KJ and his new pack mates in order to protect a piece of his family. He couldn’t just sit back and watch Thomas die. This was the only solution. Owen, Luke, and Noah helped Rafe and Ryley restrain Bryson who was half-shifted into wolf form. The pain in Bryson’s eyes was enough to make Cash’s blood run cold.
The gravity of his plan sunk in as he turned and entered the cabin. Without meeting anyone’s eyes, he walked over to KJ, who had climbed onto the table, and tucked herself against Thomas’s uninjured side. She was begging and pleading with her mate, trying to find a way to get him to shift on demand. If only it was that easy.
Taking a final deep breath, he met Thomas’s eyes as he bent slightly, and reassured by the approval he saw there, he scooped KJ up in his arms and ran. He pushed himself, trying hard to ignore the feral hellcat in his arms. He loved this little girl like she was his own sister, so hearing her curse him to hell and farther was painful. There was no other choice, so he kept moving. Past Bryson who screamed at him to stop, and into the woods.
KJ was screaming and pleading with him to stop. “What the hell are you doing, Cash? Let me go! Thomas needs me! Let me go you stupid asshole! Where are you taking me?”
She continued to berate him as he carried her further into the woods and away from the cabin that held the doc. KJ’s screams got louder, and more desperate, but Cash refused to let her go. Pain laced his own heart and he felt like every step was hell on earth as he moved away. Bryson’s words echoed in his ears.
You’re going to get her killed!
Although he knew that this was the fastest way to force the doc to shift into his new form, he couldn’t have known how hard it would be to carry her in the direction he knew the Kaplan wolves were. He could smell them, and his own wolf fought against his actions.
His wolf was snarling in anger at him as he deliberately moved toward danger with his captive, risking her in order to save Doc. If it worked it was genius, but if it didn’t work…Well, he couldn’t think about that right now.
A howl to his right stopped his forward motion, and KJ went still in his arms. Her face was tear streaked, and swollen, and Thomas’s blood was still on her lips as she went pale.
“Cash?”
“I’m sorry KJ, but I have to—”
A Kaplan wolf darted from the trees into their path, and snarled at Cash as it shifted. “Well, well, well. What do we have here?”
“Move, wolf. I need to see Nicolas Kaplan, and I don’t have time for your shit.”
Cash’s heart was pounding as he realized that there were more Kaplan wolves just a couple hundred yards away. If this wolf sounded the alarm there would be no going back. Even if Thomas shifted he wouldn’t be able to rescue them both from the middle of the Kaplans again. It was just dumb luck that Bryson had managed to free them the first time.
“Cash?” KJ’s voice was weak and confused as she looked from the tall rangy wolf in front of them and back to Cash. “What is going on?”
“I’m taking you to the Kaplans,” he said flatly, and her face paled.
The strange wolf roared with laughter. “What? You aren’t man enough to handle a hot she-wolf so you’re giving her to real men?”
“Shut up you dumb fuck! Go back to your patrol and let us pass.” KJ was stiff in his arms, but she wasn’t fighting him anymore. If she shut down and refused to scream then Thomas wouldn’t know she was in danger and wouldn’t shift. Fuck, this was a terrible plan!
“You’re giving me to him? To Nicolas? But, why?” she said in a whisper, looking fragile and vulnerable.
It was on the tip of his tongue to deny it, and tell her what he was actually doing, but if he diverted from the plan now, Thomas was as good as dead. “Yes. In fact”—he swallowed hard before he ground the words out—“this wolf can just take you with him. If I go carry you into that camp, I’m probably dead. This solves that problem.”
Cash could have sworn that KJ stopped breathing for a moment as her eyes went wide, and then narrowed. He refused to meet her gaze, turning instead to the gleeful-looking stranger. “Here, you take her.”
Just as Cash went to transfer KJ to the wolf’s waiting arms, she fulfilled her part of the plan, and let out an ear curdling howl for help. Cash had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from grinning. The Kaplan wolf, however, was flustered by her reaction, and didn’t get a good grip on her. The moment Cash’s arms left her body she twisted out of his hands, and dropped to the ground on all fours.
She snarled as the other wolf grabbed for her hair, stopping her mid-shift, and wrapped his hand in it tightly, making her whimper in pain. “Hell no, sweet cheeks! You’re not depriving me of the reward Nico is going to give to whoever brings you in!”
She yelped in pain right before a large black wolf barreled into the Kaplan wolf’s side, knocking them both to the ground. Cash’s sigh of relief was audible as he watched Thomas rip the throat out of the wolf that was hurting his mate. KJ sat in all her naked glory, staring at the two wolves in shock. When Thomas finally let go of the dead animal’s body, and let his body fall limply to the ground, she gasped and laughed.
“Thomas! You did it! You shifted!” She threw her arms around the bloody wolf, who turned angry eyes on Cash.
“Whoa, man! I had to do it! If I didn’t put her in danger, you wouldn’t have shifted in time.” Cash backed up quickly to keep his distance for the moment, as both KJ and Thomas glared daggers at him.
The accusation on KJ’s face was heartbreaking, but Cash knew he had done the right thing. He couldn’t just let a member of his family die without trying everything. And it had worked, so they should be grateful, not pissed off.
A howl sounded nearby, triggering Cash’s self-preservation mode. “Sorry ladies and gents, but the war is about to be kicked into high gear. We’re way too close to their pack for comfort considering you just killed one of them. Get your asses up and let’s move!”
Cash shifted into his wolf, and waited just long enough to make sure that both wolves were well ahead of him before he followed them to the relative safety of the Quiver Creek den and their family.
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Chapter 12
Kelly and Brick Poplin had two young sons. They were fantastic parents, and loyal to the Quiver Creek Pack of misfits. Zara Todd was a mom as well, to Justus and Fabian. Justus was sixteen and Fabian was only eight. All four children now faced the grief that came with losing their parents.
KJ could hardly stand to face them as the remaining pack members came together in the Whetstone cabin once more. The four wolves that were lost in the battle, along with the dozen Kaplan wolves that were found dead throughout the den, were buried just east of the cabin line. It actually made her physically sick to know that the Kaplans didn’t even reclaim their dead. They just left them to rot in the sun. It was horrifying, and reminded her just how lucky she was that she hadn’t actually been captured by them.
The loss of so many of their pack mates had taken its toll on everyone. Her mother and father especially seemed to be at a loss as to how to face life without Rudy in it. He had been a sort of leader and figurehead for their little pack, and unofficial Alpha of sorts. There was no doubt in KJ’s mind that Rudy died exactly how he would have chosen, but it didn’t take the sting away.
Thomas had been in his wolf form for hours. His body had to have time to heal, and until it was well rested he couldn’t shift back. After warning Cash that they would hash it out later, Bryson had stuck by her side like glue, supporting her in every way as she went about the business of consoling her family and grieving. At the moment she was seated in Bryson’s lap, with his arms banded tightly around her middle, and Thomas’s head resting on her thigh. She stroked her fingers through his midnight-colored fur, marveling at the beauty of his wolf form. He matched the other Gray Pack wolves in size, but they were stunned to realize that his eyes changed color when he shifted. Instead of their normal melted chocolate color, they lightened into a brilliant amber that had swirls of chocolate brown throughout.
