Wolf Unbound: Aspen Valley Wolf Pack

by Amber Ella Monroe

  He tracked the unfamiliar wolf scent for about a mile until he came out on the other side of the forest near the south side of the city. It lead him to a trailer park community blocked off by a chain-linked fence. His inner beast wanted to forge ahead, but in order to get on the other side of the tall fence, he had to climb over it. Reluctantly, he shifted back to human form and clambered up the wobbly fence.

  About twenty trailers were on the lot. For the most part, the atmosphere was quiet except for the handful of kids playing on the playground near the front of the community. His sense of smell wasn’t as keen as it was when he was in wolf form, so he had to use more effort to concentrate. Beads of sweat poured down his forehead as his body worked to cool him off after his non-stop trek to get here. He dragged the front of his shirt over his eyes and down his face and forged ahead.

  Garrett’s intuitions led him to a small mobile trailer with a red Volkswagen parked in front of the door. At first, he thought he had the wrong location. Inside the home, a woman was screaming at the top of her lungs. But she wasn’t in trouble. Right in tune with her cries, were the grunts and moans of a man. The pair was inside, and from the way she was hollering his bloody name, Garrett could tell they were fucking.

  The blood scent and wolf pheromones that he’d picked up behind the store were stronger now than before. There was no doubt that his guy was inside.

  Garrett took a look in both directions and noted that there weren’t any immediate threats. Just the kids playing on the playground. He shoved his foot hard into the door, smashing it down to the floor.

  He barreled inside.

  This time when the woman screamed, she wasn’t screaming in pleasure.

  Garrett couldn’t believe his luck. The woman naked on the bed was the same woman who’d served him that first night at the tavern. Her hair was even braided back the same way. Her eyes widened and then recognition flushed over her face when she saw him.

  Before his target could begin the shifting process, Garrett charged across the room and threw him hard against the wall.

  “Who are you?” his target croaked.

  “I was going to ask you the same question.”

  “What the fuck, man?” he exclaimed. “You’ve gotta wait your turn to fuck. I was here first.”

  His target was still concerned about fucking, yet his dick was now lying flaccid between his legs.

  Garrett’s gaze flittered toward the waitress then back to his target. “I didn’t come to fuck. You were at Weltman’s jewelry store today, and ironically, someone died there just before a fire started.”

  His target diverted his gaze, guilt clouding his face. “I ain’t got shit to do with no fire,” he said.

  “What were you doing there?”

  His target charged, nearly knocking Garrett to his feet. They struggled in the tiny interior of the trailer. His target was trying to get away, but Garrett wasn’t going to let that happen. Meanwhile, the half naked waitress screamed bloody murder.

  Garrett picked up his target by the neck and then slammed him hard against the wall. “Answer me! What were you doing there?”

  “My job! Fuck! I was doing my job, okay?”

  “What job is that? Breaking and entering? Arson?”

  “I didn’t start no fire, man,” he insisted. “I was sent to collect something.”

  “Something?”

  He struggled against Garrett’s hold, but Garrett pushed firmly at his larynx. He was almost blue in the face before Garrett loosened his grip.

  “Money…Weltman owed my boss money.”

  Somehow, his target had gotten hold of a vase. He took it, slammed it against the side of Garrett’s face, and then made a run for the door. He never made it outside. Garrett dragged him back inside, pounded him into a table, and brought his fist down across his face.

  “I wasn’t finished,” Garrett growled. “Who’s paying you? Who’s your boss?”

  He gagged on his own blood as it drained down his nose to the back of his throat.

  “This could all be over for you,” Garrett said. “I need a name.”

  He gasped. “Si…Simon.”

  Garrett ground his teeth together, his aggravation rising at the sound of the name. Simon was one annoying, sick bastard.

  “Where is he?”

  “I don’t know.”

  He was lying.

  Garrett snatched a knife up from the kitchen counter and thrust it into the thickest part of his thigh.

  “Don’t waste my time, motherfucker! I asked you a question.”

  “In the barn…the barn,” he panted. “Behind his old family home. Take the woods and run north. He’s in there. Goddammit, let me up! I don’t know anything else.” He grasped at the knife in his thigh.

  Garrett released his hold, yanked out the knife for him, and tossed it back on the table.

  The man stumbled backward, hopping on his good leg. After a failed attempted at regaining his grounding, he dropped to his knees on the floor and uttered a string of curses at Garrett. The bastard was through. Just to make sure he wasn’t going to regain his strength any time soon, Garrett dragged him up to a standing position and knocked him unconscious with his fist. He hit the floor like deadweight.

  The waitress he’d been fucking was huddled in a corner. “Please…I don’t know anything,” she said, meekly.

  “I’m not going to hurt you. It was him I was after,” he said. “Is this your home?”

  She shook her head. “No. We just hook up here. Look, I’m not the only one selling sex here. I—”

  “T.M.I,” he said, holding up his hand. “You need to be weary of the company you keep, lady.”

  “I needed the money,” she exclaimed, her mascara running down her face as tears escaped her eyes. “Tips at the tavern haven’t been the same”

  He retrieved a few twenty-dollar bills from his pocket and threw it on the table next to the bloody knife.

  “Put on some clothes and get outta here,” he said, and then left her inside the trailer.

  As he raced back toward the forest, he dialed Alejandro’s number.

  “Yo,” Alejandro answered.

  “The old Montague barn…you know where that is, right?”

  “You mean the one behind Simon’s old family’s home. The County Inspector’s report says the house was filled with asbestos. That place has been barred off and abandoned for years.”

  “Well, that’s where I’m headed. No time to talk,” Garrett said, and then hung up the phone.

  He increased his speed, racing through the woods as fast as his legs would take him. In mid-run, he shifted, trusting the wolf to guide him.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  It was too late to turn back now and take cover. By the time Garrett propelled his wolf forward to burst through the open fields, Simon’s bodyguards had already seen him. Two of them were lying out on their backs in the grass under the sun just outside the barn when he arrived. They bolted upright as soon as they scented Garrett’s wolf and shifted almost instantaneously, meeting him in the middle of the field.

  Both wolves circled Garrett. Between the three of them, there was enough hostility and rage to fuel the negative charge around them. From the corner of his eye, he spotted Simon stepping out of the barn in human form. But just as soon as that crook made his presence known, he shrunk back behind the door.

  Garrett figured that in order to get to that murderous bastard, he’d have to go through the two wolves circling him. They were going to blindly and foolishly defend this territory and the criminal hiding in the barn, even if it killed them. He sensed that protective drive in them—the same drive Garrett experienced whenever he was propelled to safeguard someone. At least he knew what he was up against. But Garrett had an agenda as well. Not only did he have a job to complete, he also had a score to settle. No one bit his woman and got away with it. No one marked the woman that belonged to him and lived to tell about it.

  The wolves pounced on him and all hell broke
loose.

  Fire and adrenaline rolled through him as he collided with fur and flesh over and over again. Shards of pain seized him as the wolves took turns trying to immobilize him. Although he was only outnumbered by one more, he had to use quick thinking and his instincts to guide him. When one of the wolves stumbled aside to shake off a hard swat to the face, Garrett toppled him, immediately going for the throat. Blood filled his mouth as he bit down hard. A loud yelp ripped through the air as Garrett sunk his canines deeper.

  The second wolf leapt on his back, thrusting his claws deep. Garrett stumbled back on all fours and flung the wolf off his back, sending him several feet into the air and across the field. When he turned his attention back to the wolf he’d bitten, it was some ten feet away and had already shifted back to human form. Blood pulsed from the bite on his neck. He wasn’t going to recover from that anytime soon. No matter how many times he shifted.

  From Garrett’s stance, which was only a couple yards to the right of the barn, he saw a flash of auburn as Simon ran out in human form and took off toward the hills. In the same instance, the sound of paws beating the ground put Garrett in a conundrum. He turned just in time to the see the second wolf coming straight at him. Canines exposed. Claws lengthened and all. Acting quickly, Garrett leapt up, intersecting the other wolf mid-air. They thrashed around on the in the grass a bit until Garrett had the other wolf pinned to the ground. This time when he locked his jaws around thick, sinewy muscles that could only belong to a throat, he held a tighter grip, surrendering totally to his inner beast. Shaking his head from side to side, he ended the wolf’s life.

  At that moment, a van hurled across the field at him. He jumped out of its path and was surprised to see Alejandro behind the wheel. He and another passenger jumped out of the vehicle.

  Garrett shifted painfully to his human form and pointed to the bodyguard that was still alive, “Don’t let this one get away! Simon was in the barn but he took off.”

  He raced in the direction where Simon was last seen. As soon as he caught Simon’s scent, there was no doubt that he’d find the bastard. Simon had gotten a head start, but he was still disadvantaged. For being the slickest, criminal in all of Cross City, he was a slow runner. For this reason, Garrett didn’t bother to shift. He was gaining in on Simon.

  Simon’s retreating back and the stream he was about to cross came into full view. Garrett pushed himself forward. Harder. Faster.

  Simon dropped a bag to the ground and tore off his shirt. He then dropped to his knees, arched his back, and held his face to the sky in preparation of shifting.

  Oh, no you don’t.

  Before Simon had time to activate his change, Garrett tackled him to the ground. The force in which he plowed into Simon knocked the breath right out of him.

  “You won’t be running off again,” Garrett growled.

  “This isn’t your fight. Let me go,” Simon spat. He took a swing at Garrett and missed.

  “To hell it ain’t. You bit and marked a woman who clearly belonged to me.”

  “Clearly? Last I checked, I had rights to claim her. Her daddy signed her over to me.”

  “Consider your claim useless. The woman is mine.”

  Simon chuckled. “Where is she? I thought that after I burned down that piece of shit tavern of her’s, she would come runnin’.”

  “You are one miserable bastard, you know that? Conning folks out of money, killing senselessly, and taking what doesn’t belong to you.”

  “I know what does belong to me. That dump of a tavern. So I do what the fuck I want with it. Since she’s trying to cut corners and gip me for what she owes even though we already gave her daddy the money to keep the tavern up, I set fire to that bitch. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

  Garrett charged and the men fought with fists until both of them were bloodied and bruised from being punched and battered.

  Simon spat blood on the ground. “Tell that little tease that she can come out of hiding and get what’s coming to her. She owes me a good fucking for what I did for her family. I will murder that bitch just like I did the rest of them who don’t gimme what they owe me.”

  Bile rose in Garrett’s throat and blood rage consumed him. He grabbed Simon and shoved him with brute force, face first, up into a tree. From that point, Garrett couldn’t stop himself. He pounded his fist into Simon’s face over and over again. His knuckles were skinned down to the bone as he beat the bastard where it counted.

  Simon continued to mutter about all the vile things he’d done. Everything from running the Alpha over in the road like a stray mutt, to throwing a man over the city bridge for not paying what they owed him.

  Now he understood why Benjamin wanted him to suffer and why so many others were weary of him. Simon would pay for what he did. And Garrett’s last name was Justice for a reason. Garrett wanted to shut Simon up for good. He dragged the bastard over to the stream and shoved his head against the rocks and held him under the water.

  Simon’s lower body thrashed violently. He gripped Garrett’s forearm and tried to pry himself free.

  Garrett let him come up for air to tell him one thing. “The only bitches you will ever fuck again are the ones in Hell!”

  “Fuck y—”

  He shoved Simon’s head back under the water. He was certain he’d almost killed him, when he realized that both Alejandro and Benjamin stood behind him. Another man that had been in the van with Alejandro was present as well. It appeared that Benjamin had nearly killed himself to get here. The old man hugged the tree next to him, panting as if he’d been running for hours, not minutes.

  Suddenly, he remembered his deal with Benjamin. He was to turn Simon over alive.

  “He has to die,” Garrett growled between clenched teeth.

  “I agree. He has to die.” Benjamin panted. “But he also has to take responsibility for what he did to my son and other members of our Pack. A lot of people in this community need answers.”

  Garrett wanted to kill. He felt the life force draining from Simon and he reveled in his suffering. He wanted to end this man’s life for what he did to Autumn, but there was someone else that had suffered far more from Simon's antics.

  Garrett released his death grip on Simon and the man gasped for breath before saying, “Just kill me! Get it over with now.”

  Garrett rose. His clothes were torn, filthy, and drenched in water, sweat, and blood. “He’s yours.”

  Alejandro and the other man seized Simon, throwing some chains around him and hog-tying him to prevent him from shifting. Simon's mouth was strapped closed to keep him from spewing insults and shit talking.

  “You won’t see him again,” Benjamin assured him.

  “If I do, I’ll torture and kill him myself.”

  “You won’t see me again either,” Benjamin said. “After it’s done, I’m heading out west to spend the rest of my days in a quieter setting. If Dane needs anything from me in the interim, I’ll leave Alejandro and one of my personal messengers behind. We came to an agreement this morning. The Pack and the city are his. Please take care of it and the remaining Pack members.”

  Garrett nodded. “We know what to do. Take care of yourself.”

  After another look of disdain thrown in Simon's direction, Garrett shifted, fled the scene, and raced through the city back to his motorcycle.

  He was anxious to get back to one woman and one woman only. Autumn. Even while he ran as wolf, flashes of the happy memories that they’d shared over the past few days came to him. He let his wolf take control, trusting that it would always guide him to the woman he’d love for the rest of his life.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Garrett ascended the steps slowly and halted just in front of the screen doors of his home. Mingling with the sound of the crickets chirping and the birds fluttering around in the trees overheard was the sound of the television turned on inside. There was something cooking and the aroma wafted from the small window above the sink to where he stood on th
e porch. Having swum in the lake just before coming home, he was drenched from head to toe. Despite all of this, everything going on around him, and everything that had transpired, there was only one woman on his mind still—Autumn.

  Her scent was the most prominent above everything else around him. He took a deep breath in and out, turned the knob, and pushed the door open.

  His beautiful mate had been on the way to the kitchen, dabbing at her damp hair with a towel. When she saw him, she dropped the towel and rushed to him.

  “I didn’t hear you come up the steps,” she panted, wrapping her arms around him.

  “I’m not wearing my boots,” he said.

  She smiled, her eyes gleaming with hope. Then she kissed him. Long, roving, caresses across his lips. He pulled her closer and felt her heartbeat speed up against his chest. He deepened the kiss, dipping his tongue into her mouth and tasting all of her.

  She parted from the kiss. “You’re soaked.”

  “I took a dive in the lake,” he said. “I didn’t want you to see me the way I was.”

  She touched his face and frowned. “You were fighting, weren’t you?”

  When he didn’t say anything, she lifted the wet shirt over his head. Together, they peeled away his clothing until everything but his briefs were in the foyer.