“Fuck,” the human one cursed. “Listen, we just want to talk, we’re not here to hurt you.”
I was way past seeing reason or listening to anything these wolves had to say. In this moment, all I saw were a group of male wolves that meant me harm. An image of my mother bleeding out on the ground flashed in front of my eyes and I completely lost it. I snarled, snapped, and lunged at them, spinning around in a circle so that I could try to attack them all.
The human one was cursing as he reached into a bag that I hadn’t seen before. One of the gray ones nipped at my tail and I spun around angrily, trying to get ahold of him with my jaws. The brown and cream one shoved into me, throwing me off balance and making me miss my target. Now the second gray one was trying to grab ahold of my tail.
I desperately tried to defend myself, but there were just too many of them. Something sharp hit me in the flank and I looked over in surprise.
“Sorry about this,” the human one apologized. “We’ll explain everything once you calm down a little.”
A wave of dizziness struck me and I stumbled a few steps forward. The other wolves watched cautiously as I struggled to stay on my feet, but they didn’t use my weakness as an opportunity to attack. If anything, they backed away. I watched them in confusion as I sank to the ground when my legs wouldn’t hold me up any longer. Why were they just standing there watching me?
Darkness started to encroach on my vision and my eyes closed despite my frantic struggle to keep them open. My body disobeyed my desperate commands to keep moving and I floundered in the dirt for a moment before the entire world went black.
The last thing I heard was a male voice. “Well, that didn’t go as planned.”
Chapter 7
Wyatt
I shifted back to my human form and looked down at the now unconscious female. “What the fuck, Grayson?”
He shrugged at me. “She panicked and wasn’t going to listen to anything that we had to say, no thanks to Corey.” We both glared at Corey for a second. There had been no reason for him to snap at her like that. She had been cornered by a group of strange males on her territory, so of course she was going to try and defend herself. The plan had been to try and put her at ease, not to attack her.
Earlier tonight, we had investigated every inch of these woods and found no scent or sign of any males. This female, Lori, had marked her small circle of territory repeatedly over the past week or so and looked to be completely alone. What was her story?
Kannon sniffed around her and gave her a gentle nudge with his muzzle but I pushed him away. “What now?” I asked Grayson. We had an unconscious female wolf that was going to be beyond pissed off when she woke up. She was probably going to think the worst of us now. There was no way she was going to believe that we had shot her with a tranq gun just so that we could talk to her.
Gray ran a hand through his hair. “Now we get her home, just like we’ve had to do with Corey.”
I sighed. Corey had lost it a couple of times, hence why we had the tranq gun in the first place. None of us were strong enough to be able to get her to shift back to her human form, so we were going to have to carry a wolf through the woods and hope that no one saw us. A couple of naked men, carrying a wolf, and accompanied by a couple of additional wolves would not go over well with most humans.
Gray crouched down next to Lori and gently stroked her fur. She was a pretty wolf with a dappled brown coat and cream markings that started on her muzzle and trailed down to her underbelly. He gathered her in his arms and grunted as he stood. “She’s half the size of Corey, so I can handle her on my own.”
I shrugged but stayed in my human form in case I was needed. “Scout ahead,” Grayson told the others with the pack bond. Kannon trotted helpfully towards the car, but Corey gave us a dark look before he slunk after Kannon. I scowled after him. What was he thinking?
“You wanna search the den before coming back to the car?” Grayson called out as he strolled after the other two.
I groaned but walked over to the small cave that she had been using as a home. The inside of the cave was just dirt and rocks and didn’t look very comfortable to sleep in. I struggled to get my broad shoulders through so I could grab the clothing and bag of food that was way in the back. She had to have another place somewhere, there’s no way this girl could survive with one outfit, a couple sticks of beef jerky, and three packets of cracker sandwiches. I didn’t see a cell phone, money, or any identification. Where was she keeping the rest of her stuff?
I backed out of the little cave and brushed as much dirt off myself as I could before heading to the car. By the time I got there, the female was in the trunk and the other guys were dressing. “Is that really necessary?” I scowled at the trunk.
Gray gave an embarrassed shrug. “How would we explain an unconscious wolf if we were stopped?”
“We better hope that she doesn’t wake up while she’s back there,” I grumbled. “There’s no way she’s going to believe this isn’t a kidnapping.”
“It’s definitely a kidnapping,” Corey said with a smirk. “Don’t try to delude yourself into thinking anything else.”
“But we’re just going to talk to her, right?” Kannon asked worriedly before bending down to tie his shoe.
“Yeah,” Gray said quietly before pulling on his shirt. “We just want to figure out what’s going on.”
“And we’ll help her?” Kannon said hopefully as he stood and leaned up against the side door.
Gray and I exchanged looks. “If she’ll let us. But we don’t know what her situation is. She might not be a good wolf.”
“A female would have to do something really evil to get kicked out of a pack,” Corey added. “Especially a pretty one like this.”
“Or she left without permission and her pack is right on her heels,” I pointed out. It was far more likely that her pack had not let her go willingly. Even if she had done something horrible, the pack was much more likely to banish her and try to trade her to another pack. Females were valuable.
“Let’s get her home before she wakes up and tears the car apart,” Grayson suggested as he climbed into the driver’s seat. The rest of us followed suit while Gray started the car. I was consumed by my thoughts as Gray drove quietly back into town, trying not to attract attention. The last thing we needed was townspeople wondering why we were driving through the woods in the middle of the night.
While the firehouse was in the perfect spot for a business, living in the center of town did not make it easy for us personally. We had to drive out into the country to find somewhere safe for us to shift and run. Normally, we would have never shifted this close to town. We would drive far out to the country where there was no chance of running into any humans.
We hadn’t had time to go out on a run for almost two weeks now with everything else going on. I think that was part of Corey’s problem. He had a lot of pent up emotions and probably felt trapped in his human form. It wasn’t easy staying human for long periods of time, sometimes I just needed to shift and stretch my legs out in a long run. It was unnatural not to be able to shift regularly.
I shot a glance at my twin, but he was gazing out the window into the darkness. We used to be so close that we didn’t need words to communicate, but lately it felt like we were strangers. I missed the old days and I missed the old Corey. But if I was honest with myself, he wasn’t the only one that had changed.
My carefree days were over and I knew I could be an asshole sometimes, too. The group was relying on me to run the financial side of the business and money was tight. Sometimes I let the stress get to me and I micromanaged everything. Corey didn’t like to be controlled, and he didn’t like being told what he could and couldn’t do.
I didn’t like all the restrictions that we were living under right now either, but we had to think of the big picture. We needed all our money going into the business right now. Later, when we started having a steady income, we could have fun again. I just wished that Co
rey was willing to buckle down and work hard with the rest of us instead of dragging his feet and being resentful. He would make me so angry sometimes when he refused to pull his own weight.
Grayson pulled around back into our little parking lot instead of opening the big doors in front. We needed to be as quiet as possible and those doors were far from silent. I stepped out of the car and looked around. We were going to have to carry Lori in without anyone seeing us and asking questions.
I sighed. The rest of the night was not going to be easy.
Chapter 8
Lori
I woke up for the second time that night and looked around in confusion. It took me a moment to absorb my surroundings and realize that I was locked in a large cage. I let out an angry growl and tried to push down my rising panic. How was I going to get out of here?
“Hey, you’re awake.” A young guy sat across from my cage in a fold-up chair. He sat aside the iPad he had been reading and stood with a friendly smile. He was tall and lean with sandy brown hair and appeared to be about my age. He looked cute and non-threatening, so I was guessing that this was the wolf that had tried to play with me earlier tonight. I wasn’t about to trust him, though.
I bared my teeth at him as he took a step closer and he stopped. “Okay, I know this looks bad, but I can explain,” he said with an earnest grin.
What explanation could he possibly have for kidnapping me from my den and locking me up in a cage in what appeared to be his basement? I narrowed my eyes at him and swished my tail in irritation.
“The cage isn’t locked,” he offered. “There’s a latch on it, but you have to be in human form to get to it.”
I inspected the latch for myself and saw that he was telling the truth. This was an odd thing for a bunch of wolves to have. My pack had an iron cage like this one, but it was used for punishments, and had a very sturdy lock that was impossible to break in human or wolf form. Why bother having a cage if you could easily get out?
“I’m Kannon,” the stranger offered. “You’re Lori, right?” He hesitated when I didn’t respond and just kept staring at him. “Do you want to change back to human so we can talk?”
I paced back and forth in my cage to think for a minute. Obviously, I wanted to get out of this cage and figure out what was going on here. But should I try to escape right away or stay to listen to what this guy had to say?
“I brought you some clothes,” Kannon offered. “I can turn my back while you shift.” He took a few hesitant steps towards my cage and smiled when I didn’t snarl or growl at him to back off. He set the clothing down in front of the cage so I could easily reach it once I shifted.
“I’ll give you a couple minutes,” he said before turning and walking to the opposite side of the room. “I’m not supposed to leave you alone,” he called to me as he kept his back turned. “Otherwise I would give you some more privacy.”
I laid down on the floor of the cage and closed my eyes. Turning back into my human form wasn’t going to be easy. I was still hungry and tired, plus I was terrified. My heart was beating faster than usual and I couldn’t help but think of all the awful reasons why these guys would have kidnapped me.
Were they planning on hurting me? Did they know someone from my pack? Were they going to turn me in? Send me back home? Try to keep me for their own pack? Would I be able to get away?
This guy was being really nice to me, though. And technically, they hadn’t really locked me up. I thought back to when they had cornered me in the forest. They hadn’t been the ones to attack, I had. The big one even tried to talk to me, but I didn’t listen to him. My ears drooped a little when I realized that maybe I had overreacted. I had a flashback when they’d surrounded me and I went psycho on them. I was probably lucky that they had just shot me with a tranq dart. What would be the harm in just talking to them?
I glanced at Kannon. He was still standing with his back to me, waiting for me to shift into my human form. “Everything okay?” he called.
I sighed and closed my eyes again. This time I tried my hardest to reach the spark deep down inside of myself that would allow me to shift. The little wisp of magic that I needed was so slight that I could barely sense it, let alone grasp it.
“Can I turn around?” Kannon asked.
I gave him a yip and sat up straight when he turned around to see me still in my wolf form. He frowned in confusion and I gave him an embarrassed whine.
His eyebrows rose. “Are you stuck?” he asked in surprise.
I whined again and drooped my ears in embarrassment. This kind of thing never happened to full-blooded wolves, just those of us that barely had enough magic to call ourselves wolves.
Instead of laughing at me, Kannon looked sympathetic. “I had a hard time at first when I was a pup, but Gray could always talk me through it. I’ll call him.” His eyes glazed over and I realized that he was using his pack bond to communicate with one of the others. I wondered just how many wolves were in this pack. I hadn’t picked up on any male scents the entire week that I had been in town and in the woods. Where had they been hiding?
The basement door slammed open and three males thundered down the wooden staircase. The first was the big brown wolf that I had seen in his human form earlier. Now that I was less panicked, I paid more attention to him. He was a few inches taller than Kannon, with dark hair and tan skin that showed he probably had a Mediterranean background. But he was bulky with muscle where Kannon was lean. This guy had very little body fat and was built like a professional athlete. From the way that he walked, it was clear that he was the leader of this group.
He approached the cage confidently so I sat up proudly and curled my tail around myself. This was a male that I did not want to cower in front of. He might be bigger and stronger than me, but I intended to hold my own.
“Kannon says you can’t shift?” he grumbled.
I bristled and narrowed my eyes at him. His tone of voice made it sound like I was doing this on purpose.
“I don’t think being an asshole is going to help,” another one said sarcastically. This one had his dark hair styled into a faux hawk and was dressed completely in black. His piercings and combat boots made it clear that he was trying to be a badass. But I could see a little bit of sadness hiding behind the hard exterior that he was trying to put forth.
“Shut up, Corey,” the last one said. He had the same features as Corey, which meant they must be twins. But where Corey’s ensemble said ‘I’m trying to be a rebel,’ this one was all responsibility. He was dressed in a polo shirt and pressed khakis with his hair neatly combed into a side part. He was watching me curiously, but was more difficult to read than the others.
Kannon ignored all of them. “This is Grayson, Wyatt, and Corey. If you’ve been in town for a little while you might have heard that we are starting up a place called Four Guys Auto. We named it after the burger place, you know, Five Guys? But there’s only four of us, and we do car stuff instead of burgers.”
Corey rolled his eyes and Kannon gave him an embarrassed shrug. “What? Sometimes it helps if you think about something other than shifting.”
I flicked my ears and looked back at Grayson. I didn’t like admitting weakness in front of him. But if he was their pack master, then he could trigger my shift for me. He looked young for a pack master though; he didn’t look more than a few years older than me.
Grayson ran a hand through his hair. “Um, none of us have enough juice to help you change.” I was a little mollified that it was his turn to admit that he couldn’t do something. Having to admit that I was unable to change forms was the ultimate embarrassment. A part of me was glad that he had something to be embarrassed about too, it put us a more equal footing.
“Are you hungry?” Wyatt asked thoughtfully. “It didn’t look like you had much food in your… home.”
I licked my lips hungrily before I could stop myself. I had eaten some beef jerky and an ice cream cone yesterday, but that was far less than what an active w
olf needed. I had been planning on hunting after it got dark, but being kidnapped hadn’t been in my plans.
“Kannon-” Grayson started.
“On it!” he called before running up the stairs.
“I can see that I’m clearly not needed here,” Corey announced before heading up the stairs after Kannon.
Wyatt and Grayson exchanged a look that told me that they were not happy with Corey’s actions. The twins had matching grey eyes that I recognized from earlier. I was guessing that Corey had been the one to lunge at me, though. He seemed more volatile whereas his brother was cool reason.
Grayson cleared his throat. “You’re probably wondering why we have a cage down here.”
I cocked my head at him to listen. That had definitely been one of my questions for him. I was hoping they weren’t in the habit of abducting people.
“Sometimes we let one of our group members stay down here until he cools off,” Wyatt explained. “Once he calms down enough to shift back into his human form, he can just let himself out.”
They had to be talking about Corey. Was that also why they had the tranq gun? If one of my former pack members had been that volatile and difficult to control, they wouldn’t be allowed to stay in our pack for long. We had to be discreet so that we could keep our secret from humans. An unpredictable pack member put us all at risk.
I also thought that it was interesting that Wyatt referred to them as a group and not a pack. Why was that? Was it because Grayson wasn’t powerful enough to act as their pack master? He wasn’t powerful enough to help me change forms, but he must have been powerful enough to form a pack bond for all of them.
Grayson crouched down so that he was on my level and could look into my eyes. “Lori, I’m sorry for how all this went down. Things happened so fast… and I hope you won’t hold this against us. I never meant to scare you or to hurt you.” His eyes shone with genuine regret as he spoke and I felt more of my anxiety drain away.
New Beginnings: Hollow Crest Wolf Pack Book 1 Page 5
