Drew was in full alpha mode. They were on a hunt now and nothing would stand in his way. Sabine fidgeted, she should feel celebratory, but somehow she couldn’t push the apprehension to the back of her mind far enough to relax.
Chapter Twenty-nine
It was a pretty night. The moon shed pale beams over the water in the bay, kicked up into dancing waves by a soft breeze. The sultry air had cooled, and a couple was taking a walk along the seashore. Anyone who happened to catch sight of them heading for the old pier wouldn’t give them a second glance, thinking they were taking a romantic stroll.
To them, it was ideal night for a hunt. The air was freshened by the wind, making scents easy to identify, and long shadows created pockets of darkness for concealment.
Sabine knew that in a few minutes, she and Drew would go their separate ways, and her trepidation grew as the moment neared. She let out a soft gasp when he spun her into a dark alleyway, pushed her back up against the wall, and fastened his mouth on hers. He unleashed his emotions in his kiss. It was fierce, demanding, and savage in its fervency.
Their tongues tangled as they drank each other in. Sabine wrapped her arms around her mate and ran her hands over the length of his back. She relished the fact that he was here, safe in her arms, with a frantic greed.
Drew pulled his mouth away, rested his forehead on hers, and let out a sigh. “Listen to me. I don’t want you to take any unnecessary chances. I’m not asking you as the dominant alpha here because you seem to have a problem following orders. It’s as your mate I’m making this request. For all we know I may be walking into a trap. Let it play out. I must believe you won’t deviate from the plans we’ve laid out. Promise me.”
Sabine looked up at Drew. The steeliness in his eyes wouldn’t allow a refusal.
It didn’t feel right to watch him stroll off to meet an unknown adversary. Sabine wanted to get a good reading of what kind of were he was meeting. Something was off, and never having doubted the instincts she’d always relied on, her uncertainty made her afraid for Drew.
“Retreat if you’re in danger.” Drew shook his head as if it was an image he didn’t want to visualize. “If that’s not possible, send up a howl.”
Letting out an impatient huff, Sabine tried to push him back, but he wouldn’t budge. “I can take care of myself.”
He gripped her forearms and held her up against him. Between his hard body and the wall, she couldn’t escape. “Why are we here?”
“To retrieve your sister.”
“That’s right, but if some mutt corners you, I will come running to keep you safe.”
Her head jerked up. “Are you saying you’d put my well-being before your sister’s?”
“I’d come without a moment’s hesitation. Don’t make me have to worry about you, Sabine. I’d be torn between my two loyalties, and I’d put you first. I’ll be really pissed with you if you’re taken. For once, go with the plan.”
She shrugged against his insistent grip on her arms “You’re so close to getting what you wanted.”
“Sabine, you are my heart’s mate.”
Riveted, she couldn’t look away. What she saw in his eyes would bind her even closer to him. There was love mixed with anxiety, she realized with wonder, for her. He’d put her first, something no one else had ever done, and that was all she ever wanted and needed from him.
The last vestiges of her reservation about their mating melted. How she’d fulfill her promise to her father, she didn’t have a clue, but it didn’t seem so important now.
She curved her hands over Drew’s cheeks. “I’ll do as you ask, but come back to me. You have yet to put your mate’s mark on me.”
Drew’s eyes glowed with the surfacing of his were. “I thought you weren’t quite ready.” His voice was gruff and oddly shaky.
“I find that I need to have the imprint of your fangs on my neck, very, very much. To show who I belong to,” she choked out, before reaching up to brushed her lips over his.
“Then I’d better get my butt back here in one piece.” He dipped his head and growled softly in her ear. “I can’t wait to sink my fangs into your flesh while my cock is planted deep inside you.”
As always, her body responded to the images he planted in her head with his words. Moisture pooled in her cleft, her knees trembled, and achy arousing shivers skittered up her inner thighs.
“Don’t say things like that to me when have no chance of doing something about it. Go. Hurry back so that you can have your way with me. I might want to do a thing or two to you too.”
Drew groaned. “So much for not being distracted.”
He captured her lips and gave her hard, soul-stirring kiss before he released her abruptly and stalked away from her protective cloak of pheromones.
Sabine tamped down the urge to run after him. She shook her head as he moved with a lithe arrogant grace down the sidewalk, power and authoritativeness in every step he took. It was as good as waving a red flag in front of a bull. Every were in the vicinity could now detect his presence.
Sabine watched him disappear around a corner and waited until his footfalls faded before she shed her clothing. Ceding control to the werekin side of her nature, she shifted into were form.
Sabine shook out her fur, reveling in the freedom of her lupine body and her heightened perceptions. She stiffened, the absence of vapors beyond the limited area she shielded caught her attention. Yet there was muskiness there.
The imbalance was invasive. The unnatural change in the properties of the air around her was disturbing. It was neither the musk mammals emitted, or the green tanginess of plants, nor the greasy stench of the emissions machines belched out with offensive frequency. It was an abhorrent aberration, which offended Sabine on a visceral level.
Senses tingling, Sabine waited and watched.
Not wanting to add or subtract to the subtle variations in the air currents, Sabine stood statue-still.
Her ears pricked up at the soft thud and pause of a four-legged animal, making its way stealthily in her direction.
Weres. She recognized the tempo of their paw beats hitting the ground, the soft shushing of air passing though fur. If she could identify their pack, she could discern if they were friend or foe and act accordingly. Sabine inhaled and got…nothing.
Disbelief rippled though her.
It wasn’t possible. The Silverwolves were the only clan with the faculty to influence the olfactory senses.
Confusion warred with fear as the ramifications sank in.
She had to warn Drew. No, she promised she’d stand guard. He’d anticipated that they’d come at his back, but she was sure he never imagined they’d be virtually untraceable.
Sabine slunk deeper into the alley, to make sure the pale dingy yellow light cast by the streetlights didn’t reflect off her pale pelt.
Needle-sharp pinpricks of sensation lifted the fur on her body.
A were slunk out of a side street. Sabine cringed, staring at the massive wolf with horrified alarm. He was close enough that she smelled his fetid breath.
The width of his chest was twice the length of her arm, his paws as big as one of the pies Nara baked. The damage he could wreak would be horrendous.
Sweat damped her skin, and she smelled the sickly scent of her own fear. She prayed with everything in her the shield she’d created didn’t falter.
In his wake, other weres slipped from the darkness and lumbered down the street after him. Not as large as the lead wolf, but no less threatening to her terrified mind.
Sabine’s belly heaved and sank with her growing dread.
They’d be outnumbered four to eight. Sabine doubted very much she’d be able to take one of the smaller wolves in a fight. She listened to the reverberations of their footsteps and knew they were heading straight for her mate. He had no clue what was heading toward him.
Wheeling around, she barreled down the rutted pavement of the dark back streets. Heart racing, praying she’d get to Drew first.
Micah Redmaven’s musky scent filled her air passages the second before she slammed into him.
“What the fuck.” He stumbled back on his heels and stared slack jawed at her. The shock on his face would be comical if she didn’t want to rip his throat out.
Sabine reared back on her haunches and lunged at him. The traitorous were twisted to the side. He caught her as she flew past him, wrapped his forearm under her forelegs, and pulled her back against his torso.
She struggled, but he tightened his grip, cutting off her airflow. “I don’t want to hurt you, but you have the spoor of my mate’s brother all over you. Shift, we need to talk.”
Talk…? She’d talk to him all right. Ishbel was close and getting closer. The two of them could take down the conniving were.
She shifted, and he loosened his hold slightly. “You don’t keep your word, Redmaven.”
“You’re a fine one to talk. I came alone and I still have a couple of minutes before my rendezvous with your alpha.”
“Alone? I just saw your compatriots slink down the street like the snakes you are.”
Released abruptly, Sabine fell to her knees.
Micah Redmaven hauled her up until they were nose to nose. “Describe these weres to me.”
Sabine lashed out, and he didn’t defend himself when she raked her claws down his chest. But he caught her hand before she could deliver a second blow.
“Answer me. Our lives may depend on it. Was one of the weres you saw a big black-furred son-of-a-bitch, with distinctive russet streaks?”
Hearing the fervent urgency, she nodded to give him confirmation. “They were huge, and I want you to explain why is it I can’t catch their scent.”
“Shit, I thought I’d have more time,” he mumbled confusingly. “We have to get to Lunedare before they do.”
Sabine saw Rafe and Ishbel running at them. They dropped back on their hind legs preparing to leap on Micah Redmaven’s back.
“No.” Sabine held up her hand to stave off their attack. “He needs to explain a few things first.”
“We don’t have time for explanations. Your alpha is in danger. Come on this way.”
Rafe remained in were form, bristling, his fangs bared in challenge.
“Look you can kick my ass seven ways to Sunday later. But we have to get to your alpha, now. Or there won’t be anything of him left to take his sister.” Not waiting for a response, he bolted past Rafe. Sabine ran after him.
Rafe and Ishbel fell in beside her and matched their strides to her ground-eating pace.
She didn’t know who was more anxious to reach Drew, the were sprinting ahead of them, Rafe, whose sworn duty it was to protect the head of his pack, or her, crazed by fear for her mate.
They raced to the dock. Their harsh pants and frantic footfalls reverberated in the quiet of the sleeping town.
It would only be a matter of minutes before they reached Drew, and they needed every advantage. She blanketed the area with masking pheromones to include the man in front of them.
Sabine skidded to a halt when she saw Drew surrounded by weres. They walked around him, in a slow undulating circle, snapping their fangs at his heels.
The Lunedare alpha stood tall and imperious, braced for their attack.
“Rifkin!” Micah shouted.
The lead wolf’s head jerked in his direction. He bared his fangs, dripping with foamy spittle.
Micah tore off his clothing and kicked off his beat-up boots. His face was an emotionless mask, but his eyes glowed with a fanatical hatred which was mirrored in the other were’s. He dropped on all fours, flung back his head, let out a glass-shattering howl, and began his transformation.
It was the swiftest shift Sabine had ever seen.
The change from the honed muscle-ridged humanoid body into a black-furred colossus occurred in the space of her drawing a breath.
The spit in Sabine’s mouth dried up.
The tips of his six-inch fangs hung below Micah’s jaw. Brawny sinew bulged through his shaggy pelt, and horn-like claws sprouted from his paws, digging fissures in the tarmac.
Mother of God, what had they done to him?
Drew told her the Redmavens force-fed some of their cubs with chemicals to make them bigger and more aggressive, but this was beyond the imaginable.
The were, Rifkin, hesitated, but Micah didn’t give him a chance to retreat. He leapt him and took him down. Two other wolves jumped on Micah’s back, and the four ripped viciously at each other.
Two leapt at Drew who was in the midst of morphing. He towered above his attackers. He clawed out a chunk of flesh of the body of the first were, before the other wolf rammed into his chest and pushed Drew onto his back. He went for Drew’s neck. Drew shoved his forearm into his maw and they rolled over, locked in battle.
Rage heated Sabine’s blood and she started to leap forward to help him, but Rafe flew past her. A were blocked his way, and they went at it, in a vicious to-the-death fight. The last two wolves raced at her and Ishbel.
Eyes glittering with baleful triumph, one of the wolves lunged at her, fang-filled mouth agape and aimed at her throat. Sabine stood stock still until the very last moment then dropped to the ground. He overshot her body and missed his mark, but he managed to clamp his fangs into her left hip to hold Sabine captive under him. He wagged his head, shaking her. His canines cut deep into her muscles, while his incisors ripped her flesh.
Pushing back the burning agony shooting up her hindquarters, Sabine twisted over onto her back and raked her claws over the lightly furred skin of his under belly. Blood sprayed her, but not enough to indicate she’d done much damage. However, it was enough for him to release her. It was too good of an opportunity to waste and she head butted him in the groin.
The wolf released her leg and let out an enraged pain-riddled howl.
She scrambled to get away, but she couldn’t get enough purchase to propel herself from under the were hanging ominously above her.
Sabine did the next best thing to level the playing field and bit into the leg nearest to her. Sabine tore out the tendons, the taste of his tainted blood acidic on her tongue.
In retaliation, her adversary clamped his mouth over the slender bones in the lower half of her hind leg and snapped them in half. As added punishment, he dropped his body on her and pressed down. Pinned to the ground, the suffocating weight expelled the air from her lungs.
Dizziness billowed through her head. The pain was almost excruciatingly sweet. It numbed her mind. Her captor held fast and shook her.
She was done.
A fury-driven roar froze everything and everyone for what seemed to be a long surreal moment to her blurry mind. The mass was hauled off her, and the coppery smell of blood mixed with Drew’s fear-filled spoor filled her senses. If he could be afraid, he was fine, and that was a good thing.
She tasted blood too, not the were’s she’d bitten, but her own. Now how did that happen?
“Sabine.” Drew squatted down beside her as a man and gathered her into his arms.
She struggled to speak, before she remembered she was in were form and attempted to change.
Drew buried his face into her fur. “No, don’t try to shift, you’ll heal faster as a were.” His broken whisper was gruff with pain. “Don’t you leave me! Hang on baby, give yourself time to heal.”
But she had so much to say, that she loved him, and this wasn’t his doing. The smell of death hung over her like the stink of a skunk in the wind.
“Lunedare, we need to get her away from here.” Micah Redmaven’s suggestion cut through the pain.
Drew’s arms tightened around her. “Where is the fucker who led those mutts?”
“I let him go.”
“Why the hell did you do that?” Drew released her to Ishbel’s care and rose to his feet. Unbridled fury thrummed in the taut lines of his body. He took a menacing deliberate step toward Micah.
“The fight would have gone on and on, so I gave him an
out, to give us a chance to save your mate. He took it. We need to get your mate to safety. Let’s go, man. The humans have risen, and we already have dead here. Let’s not add our carcasses to the pile. Your sister is waiting for us.”
“He’s right, Drew,” Rafe injected, his eyes fixed on the direction where the shouts of alarm and human footsteps hitting the ground were coming from.
Sabine felt Drew’s conflicted feelings. Fight, to gain some retribution or flight, to save her. He turned and lowered himself to his haunches and lifted her gently.
He chose her.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” he choked out, the pain and fear dulling the anger his eyes.
Sabine’s eyes drifted shut, drawing on her reserves to keep breathing.
Drew’s fast jog sent sharp pain shooting through Sabine.
“Stay with me, Sabine, babe please.” Drew murmured in her ear. He rubbed his face from her fur-tufted ear to her muzzle. She managed a weak lick over his grim face.
Maybe she wasn’t going to die after all. Dying was supposed to be painless. Only the living suffered, and she welcomed the pain racking her body as her proof of life.
And held on as Drew asked. She had so much to live for.
Chapter Thirty
Curled up beside Drew in the bottom of Micah’s inflatable raft, Sabine revised her opinion. Death would be a welcomed release from what she was going through. She ached all over, was sick as the proverbial dog. Nausea chased the bitter bile rising in her throat, as she fought against losing her dinner. She loathed every mode of transportation invented by man, but she despised traveling by boat the most. The small boat hit another wave and bounced over the three-foot swells like a ball. She couldn’t help but let out a self-pitying groan.
“We’re almost there, Sabi,” Ishbel crooned, soothing the fur on her face.
The persistent buzz of the engine propelling them forward changed to an annoying put-put before it cut off. It helped her sore head, but the blasted boat wobbled and wavered from side to side, which brought another bout of dizziness.
“Can you shift, babe? If not, hoisting you up as a she-wolf is going make you feel sicker. I’d have to carry you over my shoulder.”
Her Wanted Wolf Page 31
