Magnum would kill Tasha, and Colt would be at fault for not insisting she stay away, for not making sure she did. He lunged toward the fight, but Ryker had already pulled Tasha free. Her eyes were closed, and red covered her entire face. How badly had she been hurt?
His heart fell into his stomach. Let Magnum kill him, let him eat him from the outside in while he stayed awake to endure, let the sweet girl be fine.
Ryker growled, but Colt didn’t have time to figure out why. With Tasha removed from his path, Magnum turned his attention to Colt. He could see death in the Alpha’s eyes, and he knew, he finally understood, he hadn’t been old enough to do this; he hadn’t been ready.
Magnum Tao was evil, and Colt could count his own death among the many the man had been responsible for.
Gee roared, his aggressive bellow resounding off the rafters of the barn. Colt couldn’t figure out Ryker’s roar, and he certainly had no idea what Gee’s noises meant. Had he ever seen Gee shift before? He vaguely remembered some incident when he was a child where Gee had shifted in front of the whole pack, but other than that, he had never personally witnessed Gee in his Bear form before.
What a funny last image to have….
He looked at the Bear. “Please make sure she’s fine. This is my fault. I didn’t understand. But I need her to be fine. Please.”
The Bear roared again, this time swiping forward with his giant claw and catching Colt on the head. The world spun, becoming black, before he hit the ground. At least he wouldn’t have to feel Magnum killing him. Maybe that made him cowardly, but there wasn’t anything he could do.
***
Colt came to slowly. He raised his head and looked around. The sound of cars whirling by caught his attention, and he realized he leaned against some brick building he’d never seen before.
He sniffed the air. Everything smelled different, stale, metallic, burning his tongue. Colt darted to his feet. Where the hell was he? He’d only left Los Lobos once to go to a neighboring town with his father to buy some building materials. He’d certainly never seen anything similar to his current location except on television.
People passed him on the street without looking at him. They were all human.
How had he gotten wherever he was? The last thing he remembered was challenging his uncle, seeing Tasha so hurt, Gee as a bear….
Colt grabbed the arm of an older man who passed by. With gray hair and a thick belly, Colt felt he could take him, if need be, in a fight. “Sir, can you tell me where I am?”
The man laughed, pulling his arm free from Colt’s grasp. “How much did you drink last night, kid?”
“Drink?” Oh, the man meant alcohol. Humans sometimes overindulged. He knew that. From television. “Yeah. A lot.” What else should he say?
The guy patted him on the shoulder. “You’re in Reno, son. Get some sleep.”
Reno? That didn’t help much. Colt needed to get to a map. Reno was where? Colt put his hands in his pockets. Sometimes he left money in there accidentally. If he had enough to find a bus, then he could get home and see if Tasha was okay. Somehow, he had to make sure she forgave him. She was a nice, kind Wolf. Why had she darted between him and Magnum? What had she been thinking?
Tears threatened to plunge from his eyes, and he pushed them away. Dominant males didn’t cry. He felt his pocket and pulled out a wad of money. For a second, he stared, dumbfounded, at the loot. Where the hell had he gotten so much? He’d never had any money in his life. He’d acquired five hundred dollars?
On top of the stash was a note he had to read twice.
Don’t return unless Magnum is dead.
—Gee.
Colt took a deep breath, but couldn’t steady his hands. He was banished. Sent away. Dropped, he would bet, by Gee in some place called Reno. What was he supposed to do? How would he live here?
He raised his eyes to look around. Tasha was hurt, and he’d never find out how badly. If she lived or died would remain a mystery. Maybe forever. And all because he had stood against Magnum. He never should have been the one the responsibility fell to. Drew, his cousin, had abandoned ship and left no one to take the reins.
The whole pack was doomed.
He clenched his jaw and forced his mind to concentrate. Someday he’d return, and then he’d be ready; he’d find a way to undo what had happened. For all of them.
Chapter Two
Now….
Tasha Moore bent over Colt and wiped his face, her hand shaking slightly as she did. He’d been unconscious for over an hour, but that wasn’t surprising considering the whack Gee had given him. If he’d been human, the attack would have killed him.
She took a deep breath and tried to steady her hands. There was no reason for her nerves. Colt’s return had always been a given. All the dominants were coming back, each with their own amount of hostility toward Drew. But Colt’s challenging his cousin, or attempting to, as Gee had told her, had been a first.
But then again, Colt had always had a flare for the dramatic. Once upon a time, before her world shattered, she’d thought she’d known him very well. Now? They were strangers. Even if, in her heart, she still held onto the impossibility he could be her mate.
The side of her face would always make that impossible. Mates had to desire each other. No way would Colt want her.
Foolish thought….
Chiding herself sometimes helped her keep her priorities straight. She hadn’t died at fourteen on the floor of the barn. She had a purpose to keep her busy now that the pack slowly rebuilt itself, and she had friends who cared about her even if she tended to be sad some of the time.
And now she had Colt back, and they could finally find some of what the humans called closure about what had happened that day with Magnum. She could apologize and see if there was any way she could set things right. He’d been her friend; maybe he could be again.
He stirred beneath her touch, and she waited to see if he’d open his eyes. His brown eyes that had always looked more auburn in the sun than actually brown. The ones she’d forced herself not to think about, that she’d told herself couldn’t actually be as beautiful as she remembered them.
His lids opened, and he blinked rapidly, letting out a loud moan. She winced at the sound. His head must have been pounding. Poor guy. Maybe Gee had overdone his whack.
She waited a second to speak, wanting him to get his senses in order, so he didn’t get overwhelmed and pass out. “Do you think you can sit up? I’ll give you some water, and maybe I’ll defuse some lavender oil.”
“Tasha?” Her name sounded more like a whisper, and he tried to dart upwards before grabbing his head and lying down. “Gee fucking hit me again. Since when does he do Drew’s dirty work?”
She shook her head. “Since Drew became our Alpha, Gee occasionally helps out with pack business. I guess he decided you were a cause he was still invested in.”
Tasha knew the second he noticed the side of her face. One minute, he looked at her as if she was any woman he wanted to argue with, and the next, his eyes widened. Yep, the scars were pretty horrible. Some people thought politeness meant pretending to not notice them, but Colt stared at her openly without uttering a word.
She rubbed at her cheek, the pain she associated with the marks rearing to life as if his staring at them made them hurt again. Most of the time, she could ignore the discomfort, but not right then.
“They’re really ugly.” She shrugged as if she didn’t care.
Colt sat up. If he struggled at the movement, he didn’t show his disgust. “That’s from the day I got sent away. From Magnum attacking you.”
“Yes.” Well, they had effectively gotten right down to business. No proverbial elephant in the room, or in this case Wolf, to talk around. The constant reminder of her foolishness that she would wear forever on her face made avoidance a non-issue.
He swung his legs off the bed and stood up. She was glad to see he could stand steadily because, even with her extra shifter strength, she
didn’t know if she could handle him if he fell over. Colt stood taller and broader than she remembered him.
Somewhere around six-foot-four, he seemed to have gained one hundred pounds of pure muscle since she’d last laid eyes on him. What had he been doing to get so big?
“I thought you were dead. When they knocked me out and dragged me away, I thought for sure you’d died. Well, not at first. Then, I believed that somehow you’d lived, but over the last decade, I became convinced of your demise.”
“Oh.” She responded because she really had no idea what she was supposed to say. What was the appropriate response when the object of her fantasies told her he imagined her dead?
“I’m obviously very glad to see I was wrong. You’re standing here.” His voice faded off, and she had no idea what he would have said. Maybe she should ask him, only she didn’t want to. There was probably a really good reason why he hadn’t finished his thought.
She did stand in front of him, alive. But not whole, not the way he would have remembered her. She lurked in corners and hoped no one asked her to turn in the wrong direction so they didn’t have to get a look at her bad side in profile.
“Well.” She cleared her throat. “So, Gee doesn’t want you leaving here until he can reason with you. He asked me to hang out here with you until he could return.”
Colt exhaled loudly, and the sound moved through her like a warm breeze. Why had she forgotten cloves danced around in his scent? Why hadn’t she remembered, during the long dark nights when all she could imagine was his warm body pressed up against hers, how he moved as a predator, even in his human form?
If only she could have held onto those truths, this wouldn’t be so hard. She could have steeled herself against the way he moved her. She’d have braced for the impact of Colt on her senses.
“Does he want to hit me over the head again? The last two times I saw him, whacking me around was his modus operandi….”
She sighed. He was so cute, even when he was being so obtuse. “Seems to me he’s twice saved your life with those whacks.”
Colt rubbed his head. “Magnum, I’ll give him. He would have killed me. I was completely unprepared for that. Drew, today? I could have taken him.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. He was born to be Alpha. There are certain skills that are inherent. He killed Magnum. He’s no slouch in the fighting arena.”
Colt stepped toward her, his hands on his hips. “Do you think I can’t take him? What was that power you told me you had? You could tell who was more dominant by scent alone or something? I should have listened that day when you spoke. Are you trying to tell me, Drew is more powerful than I am?”
“I can’t do that anymore. Most of my Wolf skills went haywire when Magnum hurt me. Sometimes I can’t shift, not even during a full moon. And then, for whatever reason, sometimes I can.”
Colt narrowed his eyes at her. She wished she could read his mind. “I bet that hurts.”
No one had ever said that to her when she spoke about her situation. Usually, she garnered strained looks and sympathetic glances. “Ah…yes.”
“So, you can’t smell at all?”
“No, I mean I still can, but I think I can still catch aromas better than most humans. I can’t do anything special with any of that. For example, right now, I have no idea if you’re hungry, hurting, turned on, or angry.”
“Huh.”
Well, apparently, they’d moved on from that subject. She walked to the side of the room and poured a glass of water. He moved behind her, but she didn’t let herself turn around to see what he did. Why had she agreed to this when Gee appeared at her door, asking? Why hadn’t she told him to find someone else?
She’d never been a healer. Why had he wanted her to look after Colt?
“Tasha.” He called her name, and she turned around. Although he stood an arm’s length away from her, she could feel the heat off him pushing toward her. An awake Colt took up all the air in the room, making breathing difficult.
“Yes?” She knew he still had his senses intact. Could he hear how fast her heart beat? Did he find her pathetic for the scents of discord and attraction she must be exhibiting? Dominant wolves never commented on what they knew, not if they had any manners. But knowing how Colt had to be aware of everything going on inside her made her want to howl.
“Couple of things.”
Her throat went dry. The moment charged with electricity. Or maybe only she experienced the jolt. That would really be pathetic.
“What?” She sipped at the water she’d meant to give to him.
“I’m not staying here because Gee ordered me to. I don’t answer to Gee. Right now, I’m packless, and even if I were a member of the Black Hills Wolves, I don’t have to listen to that Bear. He lives here, but he was never one of us.”
So much for him whispering sweet nothings in her ear. Instead, he spewed a whole bunch of crap out of his mouth.
Tasha had to take a deep breath before she could speak. She was a Beta Wolf by nature. Yelling at more dominant wolves didn’t come easily for her.
“I don’t think you have an adequate understanding of how important he is to the pack. Gee stayed with us, helped us as best he could, when others were sent off, potentially never to be seen again.”
“Shit.” Colt ran a hand through his hair. She really missed her ability to scent emotion right then. What was he feeling? “You think I didn’t want to come here every minute or every hour of every day?”
“I’m sure you did. I’m not questioning that. I’m simply pointing out Gee was here for those of us that had nowhere else to go.”
He touched the side of her face where her scars lay, cupping her cheek as if he felt baby soft skin beneath his touch instead of the hard, rough, raised mess she knew lay there. Her knees almost gave out.
“Gee sent me away. Left me a note saying not to return. I have no idea if that order came directly from Magnum, or if Gee sent me off on his own. I don’t care anymore. The point is I’m here to make things right. And I believe the Taos are evil.” He ran his thumb down the side of her face. “I want to do better for all of you. I want to somehow find a way to make things better. Especially for you, Tasha. I’ll never be able to fix the pain you suffer. But I want to try. To do that, I need to challenge Drew. I’m leaving to get down to that right now.”
“No.” She grabbed his shirt. “I get why you still feel badly about Drew being in charge. No one was sure when he got here if he should lead. Only he’s doing a good job. He’s fixing things, changing things. If you stay here, you could help him. You’re what we need. Wolves like you to come and make us a strong, functioning pack.”
“I can’t follow him. He left us to his father’s destruction. He’s a coward.”
She shook her head. “He was trying to save Betty’s sister from his father. The same way you did with all of us.”
“Tasha….”
“Please hear me. Gee says Drew wants you here. Why not come home?”
Be around so she could see him every day, know he was close by in the world. Not such a distant dream….
“You’re torn up. This is my fault”
“No.” Did he really think that? “It’s mine. I threw myself into the middle of a fight between dominant wolves. A death fight. I was crazy. I get that. But how could I let him kill you? I couldn’t. I can’t explain myself. ” She could, but then she’d have to tell him how she’d thought when she came of age, he’d be her mate. And if he looked at her with pity, she’d never be able to lift her head again.
“You were fourteen years old. A juvenile. All of you were under my protection; all of the dominants were responsible. Mister Alpha, up there in Gee’s bar, lording over everyone, was the first one to abandon ship, whatever his personal reasons.”
Colt really didn’t want to let go of this, and she couldn’t blame him. She hadn’t exactly welcomed Drew to the pack in her heart instantly either. But that might have been because she secretly hoped Colt would be the
one to return and kill Magnum.
“I’ve always wondered if you might have taken him down if I hadn’t interfered.”
“No.” He sighed. “I’d be dead. Truth is, you saved my life.”
A thought dawned in her mind. If she’d been a different kind of she-Wolf, maybe she would have considered it earlier. The females she knew were all perfectly comfortable with their sexuality.
The males in the pack all stayed away from her, and she thought the scar was only partly responsible. Most of the time, they forgot she was even there.
“Do you want to help me?” Her voice shook. Was she actually saying this?
“I do.” He nodded, his dark eyes staring directly into hers. She really hoped she wasn’t about to make a horrible mistake. Some humiliations couldn’t be ignored, and this would be one of those.
“Then don’t challenge Drew. Hold off on that.” She cleared her throat. “Kiss me instead.”
Silence met her request, and all she managed was keeping herself upright. Had she really said that? Seconds dragged like hours. Why didn’t he answer her? Why couldn’t he say something? Even a polite no would work at this point.
“How would kissing help you?” Colt raised an eyebrow but didn’t take his hand off her face. That had to be a good sign. He hadn’t darted for the door.
“I’ve never been. Kissed, that is.” She hadn’t counted on having to explain, which had been an oversight.
“How is that possible?” Did she hear a growl in his voice? “You’re a beautiful woman. I know how things are in the pack. Even the males that remained here would have been—”
She pointed at her cheek, and he stopped talking. “I’m damaged. It’s hard for our kind to accept weakness. The smell of the wrong. I’m permanently like this.”
“Why is that? Why didn’t the healers fix you?”
When Hell Freezes Page 2
