by Abby Blake
“You’re safe here. Our pack is quite isolated, and even if Doug Grayson managed to locate us, it would take more than a few hunters to cause any problems. I would suggest, however, that you put off leaving the compound until we’re sure things are safe.”
“Yes, Alpha,” he and Zeb said together.
“None of that,” the man said with a grin. “Please call me Xavier. With Louise and Andrea being best friends, we’re practically family. And besides, with those two together, I suspect we’re going to need all the help we can get.”
Aiden grinned. It was no secret that Andrea was well respected by their pack. Louise was the same type of personality—strong, confident, protective, opinionated, and stubborn. If he’d had any doubt that Louise would fit in to werewolf life, Andrea’s acceptance by the pack had very thoroughly quelled the notion.
“Come on,” Xavier said as he headed toward the house, “you’ve got a werewolf to make.”
Chapter Eleven
Cal woke suddenly. Disorientated for a moment, he lifted his head and glanced around the room. It was dark, but somehow he could see way better than usual. His foggy brain was still trying to catch up when Louise wriggled closer and laid her head on his shoulder.
“How are you feeling?”
“Good,” he answered, realizing it was actually true. He felt great. Fantastic even.
“We have less than two weeks to the full moon, but until then you’ll feel much stronger. Stronger even than you will as a full werewolf. Maybe even stronger than Aiden and Zeb for a while.”
“Why?” he asked, curious about the anomaly. It seemed strange that what was essentially the infant version of a werewolf would end up stronger than an adult of the same species.
“I’m not really sure, but Andrea suggested it may be a genetic quirk of the werewolf survival instinct. Until a made wolf shifts into wolf form for the first time they are definitely stronger.”
“So what you’re saying is that if I want to beat up Aiden and Zeb, now is my best chance?” She laughed, obviously knowing he was teasing. He was already starting to think of the two men as his brothers in much the same way he considered Declan, Brandon, and Jayden Delko extended family. He should probably drop by and let them know he and Louise had moved out of town.
“Um…” she said, squirming uncomfortably for a moment. “There’s something you should probably know about the Delko brothers.”
He raised an eyebrow, confident that she could see him clearly in the dark.
“They’re, um…bear-shifters.”
“Bear-shifters? Are you kidding me? How was it that I was friends with three bear-shifters all my life and never knew about it? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Hey, I only found out yesterday.” She glanced at the time on the clock. It was two in the morning. “Well, technically, the day before yesterday, but in my defense it’s been a busy couple of days.”
He pulled her closer. Yes, it had been a busy couple of days. He could still feel the sting and quite uncomfortable pressure as Aiden and Zeb had sunken their fangs into his shoulders. He’d wanted to squeal like a little girl, but the fact that he’d been surrounded by hundreds of werewolves had kept his mouth closed and, thankfully, his dignity intact.
Cal barely remembered a thing after that. “Did I pass out?” he asked, feeling the heat of embarrassment creep over his face.
“Kind of,” Louise said, “but I’m told that’s pretty standard.”
“So the party wasn’t really for me?”
“Hell no,” Zeb said with a laugh as he rolled over to face them both. “The party is for everyone else. The new werewolf always sleeps through the fun stuff.”
“So what happens now?” Cal asked. He was technically unemployed, and even though he had substantial savings, he’d never been the type to sit idle.
“Well, the instructions we got from the alpha as we bundled your sleepy ass into the car were to take two weeks honeymoon at home with our beautiful mate and then to drop by his office. Apparently, he has a job he thinks you’ll enjoy. Something to do with studying and protecting the indigenous species in the area. He’s been trying to block several destructive development projects proposed for the base of the mountain, and somebody told him you’d be just the guy to be able to help him with that.”
Cal couldn’t stop the silly grin that covered his face. Maybe he was still dreaming, but it seemed that somehow the universe had provided exactly what he’d always wanted—the woman he loved by his side and the job opportunity he’d always wanted.
He was almost asleep again when wolves started howling.
* * * *
Zeb rolled off the bed, not bothering to get dressed. Whatever the alarm was about, he suspected that he’d need his furry form, and clothes just got in the way.
“Protect Louise,” he growled at Aiden and Cal before rushing through the house and out the front door. He leaped off the veranda and landed on all fours, his wolf senses on high alert as he smelled blood. He ran toward the wolves who’d sent up the alarm, prepared to protect his new pack with everything he had.
“Be careful,” Louise sent to him telepathically.
“Always, baby girl.”
* * * *
Aiden didn’t even wait for his brother to leave the house before he changed into his wolf form. He tilted his nose high as he scented the air for danger. Several more loud howls broke the night, at least one of them cutting off with a strangled-sounding yelp. Aiden paced in front of the bed where Cal and Louise were currently dragging on their clothes, anxiety and a need to know what the hell was going on churning his gut.
If the hunters from Doug Grayson’s pack had found them, the security here was more than adequate to handle them. The level of panic he could feel in the air was much higher than an attack from a few wolves would warrant.
“Becky!” Louise exclaimed as she scrambled off the bed. She walked straight into the closet, grabbed her revolver and the special bullet Andrea had given her, and went to step out the bedroom door. Aiden growled in his wolf form even as he pleaded with her telepathically to let someone else handle it.
“I need to do this,” she said quietly. Cal nodded to him, obviously believing that Louise was capable of taking care of herself.
“But we protect our mate,” he said telepathically, already realizing he would lose the argument. Part of why he’d fallen in love with her was her willingness to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. By trying to lock her away from danger, he was denying a very big part of who she was.
“You can still protect me,” she said, stroking the soft fur on his muzzle. “But I promised Becky I’d keep her safe.”
He nodded, turning toward the front door, determined to protect his mate as she protected Becky.
* * * *
Louise followed Aiden’s wolfy butt through the dark streets of the pack’s community. Cal stayed close, the tranquilizer gun in his hand loaded and ready should the need arise. Everything was eerily quiet, and a small, terrified part of her wanted to run back home and lock herself in.
“Zeb?” she asked telepathically. She could feel that he was close, but like the rest of the pack, he seemed to be staying very still and very, very quiet.
“We’ve been invaded by at least half of Doug Grayson’s pack. Stay down, stay quiet.”
“We’re on our way to Josh Hampton’s place to help protect Becky.”
“Good thinking,” he said, surprising her with his attitude. He’d obviously garnered from her mind at least part of what had happened back in their bedroom with Aiden. “But get inside quickly. It’s not safe to be out in the open.”
She agreed. The absolute stillness of the night was horror-movie creepy. Fortunately, Becky and her family lived in the street behind them, and it took very little time to reach her home. Thankfully, Josh Hampton caught and recognized their scent as they approached the house from the backyard. With barely a sound he opened the door and motioned for them to enter.
Unfortunately, that meant there was only one way out as well, but with Louise and Cal protecting Becky and Belinda from inside the closet, Aiden and Josh patrolling the house, and the rest of the pack preparing to protect their community, it shouldn’t be a problem. Louise stood facing the door, Cal beside her, and Belinda and Becky crouched down behind her. Nobody—man, wolf, or otherwise—was getting past them.
* * * *
It was a dark moonless night, and it took Zeb a few minutes to realize how much easier it was for him to see in the dark these days. Growing up in the compound back East, there had always been some sort of artificial light illuminating the area, but his years as a hunter had given him a lot more experience moving about in pitch-black darkness.
Judging by the clumsy movements he heard coming toward him, he suspected that Doug Grayson’s pack as a whole might struggle moving about an unfamiliar area without any light. His theory was confirmed when the stupid mutt moved straight past him. The wolf had seemed to be concentrating so hard on seeing that he’d forgotten to use his sense of smell.
He recognized the wolf as one of the younger members of the pack. Whatever Grayson was up to, he seemed to have drafted every young pup he could find.
Zeb let him pass, unwilling to hurt the youngster. The pup was barely out of his teens, and in wolf terms that practically made him a child. Zeb was really wishing he had Cal’s tranquilizer gun when another scent tickled his nostrils.
Doug Grayson.
Zeb scented at least four experienced hunters protecting the man, but it was the terror coming off the woman they held captive that had his hackles rising. The she-wolf was clearly hurt and in pain, but it was her identity that Zeb found so shocking.
Carly, Doug Grayson’s youngest daughter, was barely fourteen, as young and as vulnerable as Becky. Zeb crept closer to where the small group had stopped, careful to stay downwind as he finally got a visual of the enemy.
Five wolves prowled toward him, followed by the young girl. Carly Grayson was covered in bruises, bleeding from a split lip, and moving awkwardly like she’d taken quite a few hits to her gut. Whatever had happened to her was obviously recent, and Zeb prayed her injuries hadn’t been inflicted by a member of Xavier’s pack.
A quiet sob tore from the girl’s throat, and Grayson shifted back into his human form. He lifted his hand, ready to strike the child. She cringed away, clearly afraid of her father, and before Zeb really understood what he himself planned to do, Zeb stepped into the open and shifted back into his human form.
“Enough, Grayson. Leave the child alone.”
“Grayson?” the man asked as he lost all interest in his daughter. She tried to move away, but one of the hunters, still in wolf form, growled low in his throat, and she stayed put. “I am your alpha,” Grayson said as he stalked closer. “You’ll treat me with respect.”
“You’re no longer my alpha,” Zeb said, hoping that his words carried to the members of Xavier’s pack and alerted them to the invaders whereabouts.
“Says who?” Grayson asked casually as if they were having a quiet discussion at the local pub. “Xavier Cloveck?” Grayson waited for Zeb to say something, but when he didn’t, the man continued. “There’s something you should know about Xavier Cloveck. He’s a soft, yellow-bellied CEO of a corporation. He might be able to make money, but I can practically guarantee you that he wouldn’t survive a leadership challenge. All that time behind a desk would make him soft as marshmallow. I doubt the man has lifted anything heavier than a pen in years.”
“That’s where you’d be wrong,” Xavier said as he stepped into the street.
* * * *
Cal strained to hear any movement in or around the house. Since waking, he’d noticed a significant increase in his hearing, but it was proving harder than he’d expected to filter out softer, closer sounds.
But the sound of Aiden and Josh both clashing with attackers was distinct and, unfortunately, terrifying. It was obvious by her movements that Louise both wanted to stay and protect Becky as well as move to help Aiden and Josh.
“Is he okay?” Cal asked her, hoping that he had some small grasp on how the werewolf form of telepathy was supposed to work. Her immediate answer was both welcome and, ironically, not the words he wanted.
“He’s injured. Josh is unconscious, and more attackers are coming through the front door of the house.”
“Where’s Zeb?”
“Confronting his old alpha in a street over a mile away.”
A loud crash had all four of them jumping in fright. “Stay here,” Cal sent to Louise urgently, not really thinking about what he would do, only knowing that he couldn’t stand here and wait for their attackers to find them.
Falling back on his experience dealing with wild animals, Cal raised his rifle, moving down the hallway and into the front room. He found several wolves unconscious and bleeding, but since he didn’t really recognize Josh or Aiden in furry form, he couldn’t tell friend from foe, so continued toward the front door and prayed that his friends would recover before the invaders.
The first wolf that came at him went down with a single shot. He had but a moment to reload before the second leapt at him. He covered his face, using his elbows to throw off his attacker, almost as confused as the wolf sounded when it went flying through the air and hit the opposite wall. It slid to the floor to land in an unconscious heap, but Cal had barely a moment to notice before a third wolf entered the room.
He raised his rifle, firing a shot as a fourth attacker jumped him from behind. The wolf in front of him yelped and staggered sideways as Cal dropped his gun and tried to grab the wolf currently chewing on his neck.
A weird chorus of wolf howls reached Cal’s ears as a fifth invader scurried past him, heading for the closet where Louise stood protecting Becky and Belinda. More wolves, too numerous to count, pushed through the open front door of the house and headed toward him. Outnumbered, outplayed, and out of ammo, Cal did the one thing he had left—he got really, really mad.
* * * *
Zeb stood back, grateful that Xavier Cloveck wasn’t the pushover that Grayson seemed to think he would be. As much as Zeb wanted to stay and watch what he hoped would be his old alpha’s downfall, Louise’s fear spiked, and he found himself running to help her.
By the time he reached the front porch of Josh Hampton’s home, Louise had filled him in on everything she knew, but it was the terrifying and unearthly roar that had him hesitating at the door. Zeb ducked away as an unconscious wolf went flying over his head to land heavily on the front lawn. Another yelped in pain as it hit the doorway and slid to the ground. Aiden knew both wolves from his old pack, so he hoped like hell that whatever creature had done that to them was on his side. He changed back to his human form, hoping that he wouldn’t be mistaken as the enemy as he stepped into the fray.
Standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by growling wolves was a sort of half-man, half-wolf creature. It batted away the wolves as easily as one would wave away annoying flies. As each wolf fell, the others looked and sounded more and more unsure of themselves. With loud, screeching, dog-in-distress noises, several of the remaining wolves turned and fled the house.
The two stupid enough to stay were soon unconscious, and the creature stood heaving air, nervously waiting for more attackers. Zeb held up his hands, moving slowly, showing that he was no threat as he moved toward Josh and Aiden’s still forms.
The creature growled again, the anger and pain filling the room. Whatever it was, it was still a frightened and
distressed wild creature, and Zeb didn’t take his eyes off it until Louise stepped into the room.
“Cal,” she said calmly, addressing the creature in the middle of the room. “It’s okay, Cal. They’re gone. We’re safe now. You can change back.”
The creature that Cal had somehow turned into still looked frightened and angry and unpredictable in his reactions, but Zeb swallowed the urge to drag his mate away. Louise loved the man, had known him all his life, and if she trusted him, then Zeb was willing to go on faith that Cal wouldn’t hurt her.
But it didn’t stop his heart thundering loudly in his ears, or the adrenaline that spiked through his veins. Zeb tried to concentrate on pinching the split skin back together so that Aiden’s wounds would heal more quickly, yet he heard every word, felt every emotion, and witnessed every moment of Cal’s change back into a human.
Some of the other wolves began to stir as well, and Louise quickly moved to hold a gun to one furry head. “I have three words for you, asshole,” she said. “Mercury. Tipped. Bullets.”
The wolf looked frightened enough to piss himself, but he managed to crawl submissively to the front door and tumble down the steps. The others followed suit, and soon the house held only those who belonged there and a couple of still-unconscious wolves. Louise checked on Josh while Cal retrieved his darts and dragged the two drugged wolves out the front door and onto the porch.
The room was covered in blood, but at least no one seemed to have received life-threatening injuries.
“Grandpa,” Becky cried as she and her mother came into the living area. Thankfully, the child didn’t seem to notice the bloody battlefield that had once been her living room as she dropped to her knees beside the injured wolf. Josh lifted his head and licked his granddaughter with his long wolf tongue. His version of a doggy smile covered his muzzle when the teenager let out a loud, “Gross!” and wiped doggy slobber off her cheek.
