Her Wanted Wolf

by Renee Michaels

  “Come on you sons-of-bitches!” She swung the pole in wide sweeps. “You want a piece of me, come and get it, you chicken shits!”

  Her features were Asian, but her dusky skin hinted at her mixed heritage. She had a split lip. Black and blue discolorations were beginning to bloom on her bare limbs. She hadn’t been taken long ago, because she still had on hiking boots, though her shirt and shorts were a little worse for wear.

  Blood trickled from her wrists. She must have worked them out of the leather thongs hanging from the pole.

  No matter how valiant she was, the small woman was no match for the weres ducking out of reach of the rod, which they could snap like a twig. They were playing with her.

  One of the weres rubbed his engorged shaft obscenely.

  Taking bounding leaps forward, Drew started to shift and stopped his metamorphosis mid-change. He needed the power of his human legs to propel him upward, and his paws in mid-shift with his claws extended. As half man and half wolf, he vaulted into the air.

  Drew knew he had one chance to pull this off.

  The woman froze, her mouth dropped open, and her eyes widened in horror. The shrill scream she let out reverberated off the walls.

  The two men who’d been tormenting her spun around and right into the downward stroke of his razor sharp claws. He sliced open their carotid arteries to cut off the blood flow to their tiny brains.

  Their hands flew to their necks, but it was too late to staunch the blood. He’d taken a clump of flesh too. Drew made sure he’d done enough damage, so there’d be no coming back from those wounds.

  Drew dropped down his feet, sinking into a crouch to face the last were.

  Too late. A body slammed into him like a pile driver and plowed him into the solid rock wall behind him. The blow knocked Drew’s breath out of him. Muscle-bound arms wrapped around his torso and constricted around him.

  The steely bands tightened even more. “You carry the stink of a Lunedare. Want to know what I did to your alpha’s little sister, before I squeeze the life out of you, mutt?” The raspy taunt was all talk. Drew smelled the lie.

  Too caught up in his triumph, the over-confident were left Drew’s arms free in his determination to crush his upper body. Drew managed to position his claws just below the last rib on either side of his ribcage.

  Rage rolled through Drew like thunder before a deadly storm. As a storm could, his anger would bring death and destruction.

  Drew bared his fangs and encouraged in a voice just above a hoarse deadly whisper. “Yeah, tell me exactly what you did to my sister.” Drew sunk his claws into his opponent’s vulnerable chest cavity from below, shredding his vital organs on their way upward.

  The were jerked in surprise and the smugness leached from his face. A second later, shock and disbelief spread across his visage.

  Released suddenly, Drew filled his lungs with the rank air. Impervious to the frantic blows of the man in his death throes, Drew kept on shredding his flesh.

  The were collapsed, leaving his pulsing heart gripped in Drew’s hand.

  Drew stared down at the carcass, panting. He really needed to exercise a little more control. Another chance of gleaning info, lost. He tossed the organ on the ground. When Bardo returned, he’d know who made the kill.

  In his fury, spoor billowed off him in hot emanations, fouling the den for the Redmavens. Good, let them be aware that he was in the heart of their home. Know that they’d never be safe anywhere from the Lunedares. They’d have to pick up stakes and move, but he’d be ready for them this time.

  A sob pulled him out of his reverie and Drew glanced over at the girl, staring at him like he was a nightmare come to life.

  “What in all that is holy are you?” she whispered, backing up slowly. The pole was still gripped in her white-knuckled hands.

  He completed his change before her terror-stricken eyes. He looked down at himself. Shit, he had gore all over his body.

  “Are you sure you want to know?” Drew walked over to the small basin hollowed out by the water seeping through the ground above them. He rinsed his hands, sluiced water over the rest of his body, and rose to face the girl.

  “No, not really.” Her voice went up an octave with each word into a high squeak. “I think I’ll just faint now.” On her last word, her eyes rolled back in her head and she did as she promised.

  Shit, couldn’t she have waited until they were well away from the cave? Drew bent down, picked up the unconscious girl, and slung her over his shoulder. He jogged to the entrance of the cave and took a swift breath. No fresh spoor, but the scent of humans was ripe on the wind. There had to be a search party looking for the woman he saved. Heaven help them if they ran into Bardo and his steroid-pumped weres.

  Drew took off at an easy run through the ravine. There wasn’t much cover. But the last thing he needed was for some sharp-eyed tracker to see him and report that a nude man, carrying an unconscious woman, was in the forest.

  He was just out of the rocky channel when he caught a whiff of Sabine.

  “It took you long enough,” Sabine said, lounging on a flat rock above them.

  “Where are the two wolves that chased you?” He looked around, half-expecting the pair to break through the trees to keep his streak of bad luck running.

  “They’re on a little trek downstream. I sprayed my spoor on a branch and tossed it in. The water will carry it away, and they’ll follow it. Idiots. What are you going to do with her? You can’t carry her to our den.” Sabine looked at the girl with pity.

  “We can’t leave her here either. She’s seen what we are. If the Redmavens find her, they’ll kill her. Once we get her back to Colorado, Saffa can take charge of her. She’s set up a safe house for the women Bardo took before. She’ll get counseling, and whatever she needs.” The wind carried a recognizable scent on the air, filled with panic. “We’ll have humans crawling up our butts in a moment. Don’t you smell the gun oil?”

  Sabine sighed and slid off the rock. “I have a place, but we have to keep her quiet. I’ll have Ala dose her with a sleeping potion until you decide what to do with her.”

  “Good, as soon as she’s stashed in a safe place, I’ll go meet up with my men.” He shifted the girl to balance her weight better. “Later, we’re going to discuss this recklessness of yours.”

  “Nothing to discuss. I saw a need and I took action.” Sabine rose and jogged ahead of him.

  Oh yes, there was a lot to discuss. She’d learn to accept the boundaries he set, or she’d feel what it was to be disciplined by an alpha who was not her indulgent father.

  Two days ago, finding his sister and returning to a normal existence appeared within his grasp. Now, he had a score of she-wolves to lead to safety and protect. He’d acquired a mate who didn’t listen to him one damn bit. And he’d rescued a human who now knew of his race’s existence and by all rights should be killed. He could only hope that neither the humans searching for the girl nor the Redmavens hunting for Sabine’s pack would locate them before the cavalry arrived.

  Crap, could his life be any more fucked up?

  Chapter Eleven

  Drew simmered in angry silence. He ground his teeth, torn between aggravation and admiration. Not much took him by surprise, but the small womanly bundle of contradictions that was Sabine had him on tenterhooks, waiting to see what she was going to throw at him next.

  Sabine’s courageous, but rash action presented him with a bit of a dilemma. His base animal fought for dominance within him, straining with impatience to consummate their union, almost suborning the rational side of his psyche to guarantee his reluctant mate’s compliance.

  Christ, his union with Christa had been so easy. Built on passion and mutual interests, their relationship never had him doing so much soul searching.

  His growing attraction to Sabine was a confusing and dangerous distraction. To pull off the task ahead of him he needed to focus.

  Sweat trickled down Drew’s back as he took care to fi
nd secure footing under the weight he carried. The acute incline Sabine scaled was no gentle meander up the hill. His balance was a little off-kilter by the girl slung over his shoulder. One badly placed step and he’d take a tumble.

  He glanced up at Sabine. A mountain goat would envy her sure-footed scramble up the sharp slope. She finally stopped on a ledge and waited for him to catch up with her. The amusement her blue topaz eyes didn’t help to ease his irritation.

  Sabine gestured impatiently at one of the narrow crevices cut into the rock face. “Get her inside. We’re really exposed on this cliff.”

  Drew bent and barely managed to slip through the slender opening with his unconscious burden. He slipped the girl off his shoulder and laid her down on the neat moss-filled pallet he found tucked up against the wall. She was out like a light. Drew hoped she stayed that way.

  Dragging his eyes away from the girl, he looked curiously around the small cave. Sunbeams filtered through colored bottles hung around the cavern. Diagrams of engines, pictures of lush tropical blooms, and the great cathedrals of Europe affixed to the limestone walls took him by surprise. It was the mark of someone with eclectic interests. Detailed botanical drawings of flowers showed talent, but the smudged lines showed they had been drawn with rough charcoal from a fire.

  “Did you draw these? And where did all this stuff come from?”

  Sabine squirmed self-consciously under his inquisitive gaze. “Yes, and I collected them. I’ll go get Ala.” She moved to leave him with the girl.

  Drew dragged Sabine back by the shoulders. “Hell no! I’ve traumatized that girl enough. I’m the last person she needs to see when she revives. I’m already half deaf from her screams. I’ll go get your sister. Do what you can to reassure her that she’s safe if she wakes up.” He stepped out of the cave before Sabine had an opportunity to protest.

  Drew wanted some space. He couldn’t think straight around Sabine right now. The plan formulating in his head needed fine-tuning.

  The further he moved away from her scent, the calmer he became. He filled his lungs with air to clear his head. It didn’t do much good, for she lingered on his senses like a drug.

  Shaking his head, he looked up to the sky to gauge the time. The sun was nowhere near its zenith. By its position, he figured he had about four hours before the noon deadline when his pack brothers would start to gather at the designated rendezvous point.

  Drew decided then and there to ask Ishbel and a couple of the younger she-wolves to conceal their journey up to the Silverwolf den.

  The human girl presented him with an additional problem. There was no way he could leave her behind, and she sure as hell couldn’t travel with the combined packs in the swift silent run they’d have to do in the dark. Sabine was right. Balthazar was too fragile to manage the trek. He didn’t have the stamina anymore.

  He’d come up with a loose plan to get them to safety without compromising the security of the Silverwolves. The night before, he asked Justice’s gadget-loving younger brother, Rick, to send him some of his toys. If he could lay his hands on what Drew needed, they’d have no trouble monitoring Bardo’s pack.

  Drew had also arranged for Rick to send his fleet of choppers to the flat plain around Laststop, a small town fifteen miles away. They’d pick up the bulk of the Silverwolf pack there, after which they’d return to pick up those who couldn’t make the trek. They’d be rappelling the girl and Balthazar up into a hovering chopper. He hoped the locals didn’t think it was an alien invasion or worse, a terrorist attack, in which case they’d come out with guns blazing.

  Squinting, he focused on the valley below and glimpsed several wolves moving through the trees. They’d traveled a long way from where they’d started their search. Drew grinned. They still hadn’t a clue were the Silverwolves were. It’d buy him some time if they continued their search in that direction.

  A pebble skittered down the hill from behind him. Drew spun around tensed to counter any attack. Ishbel, Ala and some of their pack sisters in wolf form trotted in his direction.

  “Sabine is fine, if you were worried. We have come to an understanding.”

  Ishbel stretched her furry lupine body out to make her change to stand above him, a sleek, statuesque woman. “We weren’t worried. Sabine can take care of herself.” She tilted her head and shot him a sassy grin. “We came to see if your pelt was intact.”

  Drew grunted. “Thanks for your concern.” His sardonic rejoinder widened her smirk.

  Ishbel shrugged nonchalantly. “Actually, we’re here to report to Sabine. The older women refuse to break down their shelters.”

  “I’ll have a word with them later. Sabine and I have come to an agreement. We are mated.” Sabine’s sisters exchanged a what-the-heck look. “Ala, we found a girl. She’s in shock. Sabine wants you to have a look at her.” Ala dipped her head in acknowledgment and loped off.

  He assessed the other female weres. They looked lean and fit. “Are any of you up for a little adventure?”

  “What do you have in mind?” Ishbel’s eyes gleamed with the same reckless light he’d seen in Sabine’s before she took off on him. Hell, he had another thrill-seeker on his hands.

  “Can you get me down to the Ranger station undetected, wait there for a couple of hours at the most, and bring back my pack brothers who are meeting me there unobserved? We’ll have to run fast and run hard.”

  Ishbel laughed. “It’d be no trouble to siphon off all traces of our presence over a wide area.”

  “Good, I want my men up here so we can go over my plans.”

  “Does Sabine know of your plans?” Her intonation suggested he should consult Sabine.

  Start as you mean to go on, his uncle always said. And for the record, he was getting a little tired of having his decisions second-guessed. “Do I need to pass it by her first?” He lifted a brow in question.

  Ishbel shot him a thoughtful look before she sighed. “No, I don’t believe you do. When do we leave?”

  “Now.” He dropped to his knees before he shimmied into his powerful lupine body. He put his face into the wind and marked the weres he’d be traveling with down the mountain.

  Ishbel and the other she-wolves flanked him. Drew started slowly, picking up speed as they moved back down the hill. The women traveled in a loose formation. He noted they lacked the hyper-vigilance of battle-tested weres who understood the danger of a moment’s inattention. This could cost them dearly.

  He increased his speed to get to the ranger station early. He needed to check if his men left Jackson Roi’s compound on schedule.

  He just hoped Rick came through for him because he had a lot riding on this tiny seed of an idea from which he hoped to reap a bumper crop.

  * * * *

  Drew and the women reached their destination just as a bunch of men pulled up on three-wheeled ATVs. He eased back into the thicket and they melted into the shadows to conceal themselves.

  Shit, they had dogs. He hated dogs. Those effing hounds just didn’t know when to quit.

  Ishbel sidled over and settled down beside him. Drew jerked when his sense of smell blinked out. It startled him for a second, but at least he didn’t twist and turn like a chicken with his head cut off this time. He looked over at Ishbel. She glowered with distaste at the yipping dogs straining on their leashes. Guess she hated dogs too.

  “Okay, listen up. Person or persons unknown in this general area have kidnapped a woman, Kiyah Chin. She has some survival skills and self-defense training. As you all know, three other women have gone missing over the last couple of weeks.” A ranger in a crisp green uniform addressed the men. “There are no signs of a motorized vehicle so we’ll assume they’re on foot. They have a four-hour head start on us and there are a million places to hide. Caves and dense virgin forest, so I don’t have to tell you all, it’d be easy to walk past our targets or get jumped by them. Stay together in groups of three. Each group will be given a radio. Keep it on you at all times and check in every hour o
n the hour. The men with the tracking dogs will take lead.”

  Drew forced himself to relax while the men and canines dispersed. Ishbel’s skill at diffusing their scent was impressively sharp. A pair of dogs trotted by; their humid Alpo-laced pants ruffled his fur as they passed by him, but they kept going, oblivious to his presence.

  They waited until the vibrations from the trackers’ footsteps lessened as they moved deeper into the woods.

  Drew trotted out of the brush, slipped effortlessly up onto his feet and approached the rustic building. A shiny new set of locks glared at him.

  Crap, a double deadbolt lock. These would be harder to pick. The piece of wire he used the last time wouldn’t work on these. Sometimes being butt naked and without tools was a pain in the ass.

  “You’ll need this.” Ishbel held out a key.

  Drew’s brows shot up. “You have a key to this place?”

  “I know where it’s hidden. The ranger always hides the key in the same place.” She dropped it into his palm.

  “You might have given it to me when we were here last night,” Drew complained as he opened the door.

  “What, and miss seeing you seduce the lock into opening for you.” Her cheeky grin had him snorting.

  Why did these women take so much pleasure in busting his chops? “I did not seduce the lock.”

  “From where I was standing it seemed like it.”

  At the teasing laughter in her voice, Drew turned to face her, his lips twisting into a grin. “The key to picking a lock is not leaving any scratches on it.”

  Ishbel nodded at the door. “You’ll have to teach me to do that sometime.”

  “Hell no, I’m not adding to the Silverwolf arsenal. You women are scary enough.”

  She let out a rippling laugh, obviously enjoying the idea. “And do we scare you, alpha?”

  “You have no idea,” Drew said fervently, before he stepped into the dim room, leaving a smirking Ishbel standing in the sunshine.