Dark Wolf Adrift

by Aimee Easterling

  Plus, my wolf said Go, go, go. So I obeyed.

  “There is no bomb,” Angelica growled coldly as we neared the first major bend in the road. She was cute, all riled-up wolf within her soft human skin. Still, I ignored her. How the hell could a cloistered pack princess know whether there was a bomb present or not?

  Only when a walkie-talkie slid up in front of my eyes did I drop into a trot and take a deep breath. Yep, that sort of doohickey was quite capable of creating the buzzing sensation in my ears that had tripped my internal bomb sensor. At last, my feet slowed and then stilled.

  In response, Angelica craned her neck so her angry blue eyes could meet mine, then she pushed a button on the side of the device. “I’m fine, Daddy,” she grated out. “Your stupid enforcer thought there was a bomb inside our car. But he knows better now and he’s about to put me down.”

  “Are you sure, Angel?” Stormwinder’s voice was clipped and he sounded far more out of breath than I was. The older shifter had been running, and as I glanced back I could see him cresting the hill behind us.

  Seemed like the doting daddy was prepared for chicanery after all.

  Our eyes met from a tenth of a mile distant and I let my shoulders slump in apology even as Angelica dismounted from her aerial perch. “I’m sure, Daddy,” the pack princess answered, continuing to speak into the device in her hand. “I need to talk to him anyway, so we’ll come back and meet you. Over and out.”

  Then the girl reared back and punched me square in the jaw.

  Chapter 23

  “What the...?”

  I chose not to evade my companion’s blow since I figured I had it coming. But her right hook hurt a heck of a lot worse than I’d been expecting, making me wonder whether Blue-eyes had been practicing self-defense on the sly.

  “That’s for Ophelia,” she spat out. Then, launching toward me yet again, she added, “And this one is for Carla.”

  I caught the girl’s wrists, lowering them so she battered at my chest instead of my face. I was hard-headed, but not that hard-headed.

  “Carla?” I asked when Angelica’s rage finally appeared to be petering out.

  “Carla Darter, you sycophantic idiot,” the teenager growled. I wasn’t actually sure what “sycophantic” meant, but figured it probably wasn’t good.

  Then my brain finally connected the dots as I glanced at the walkie-talkie Angelica still held in her quivering left hand. “You were listening in on the judgments?” I guessed.

  Now Blue-eyes’ presence and her sparkly pink notebook made more sense. Why would the girl want to ride along to the peacekeeping grounds just to sit alone in the car all day? And why would Stormwinder allow a pack princess to be cut off from his assistance amid the dangers of outpack territory? Obviously, the pair had set up their technological can-on-a-string ages ago and were now reaping the rewards of their ingenuity.

  “I’m sorry I upset you,” I started, channeling my ex-CO’s calm. He’d always been able to defuse the worst civilian angst with a few short sentences, and those sentences generally started with an apology. So I figured I’d follow suit.

  “You’re sorry you’ve upset me?” Blue-eyes’ voice rose so high on the penultimate syllable that I took an unconscious step backwards. “What about the women whose lives you’ve ruined?”

  I cringed away from her accusation. Truth be told, leaving Ms. Darter’s—Carla’s—fate in the hands of my boss might not have been the best move. But the preceding damsel in distress was an easier matter to justify.

  “Ophelia was being kidnapped,” I explained carefully, not tacking on a final “you idiot” the way Angelica would have done. I was uneasy about some of my recent decisions, but protecting a defenseless pack princess who was being claimed against her will wasn’t one of them.

  “You are such an...”

  “...Idiot,” I interjected, completing her sentence. “Yes, I know you feel that way. But would you care to clue me in as to your reasoning?”

  I half expected Angelica to hit me again. Instead, she attacked with flashing blue eyes and sharp-edged words. “I was going to say asshole, but whatever.”

  When I simply let the insult roll off my broad back, the teenager deigned to expand upon her accusation. “Ophelia had to say that she wanted to go back to her father once she was caught in the act. The plan was for her brothers and cousins to pretend to fight, then for Colin and his friends to give them the slip. Her daddy couldn’t afford to let his daughter marry into a lower-caste pack willingly. But he could save face by accepting reparations after she was ‘kidnapped.’”

  I winced as Angelica clawed quotes into the air inches away from my unprotected face. I wasn’t entirely sure I followed the teenager’s logic, but she had definitely succeeded at her goal—making me second guess the only decision I’d been proud of making since exiting the military.

  “And now her father has bulked up the guard,” Angelica continued hotly. “So even if she could get her brothers to try again, Colin can’t come get her. So she’s stuck in her father’s house forever.”

  A tear trickled out of one of those vibrant blue eyes and I felt every bit like the idiotic asshole Angelica had accused me of being.

  Time to change the subject.

  I opened my mouth to ask why Stormwinder would send me to break up what amounted to a lovers’ tryst, assuming Blue-eyes’ analysis was indeed correct. But then I realized I could guess the answer to my own query.

  The Tribunal member had been using me to manipulate events in his favor just like he’d done on the peacekeeping grounds. Chances were good he was an ally of one of the packs in question and was using the aborted elopement to curry further favor.

  If so, then it wasn’t so much a question of right and wrong for my boss as it was a question of which eventuality would most effectively shore up his own power. And since I was merely a tool in his arsenal, that made me equally culpable in those recent actions.

  Speak of the devil. Stormwinder had slowed in his mad dash down the hillside after speaking to his daughter, but he’d kept advancing and was now only about twenty feet distant. Plenty close enough to protect Angelica from any errant evildoer. Plenty close enough to be the one in charge of soothing a tearful teenager who I had no idea how to cheer up.

  I, on the other hand, had places to go and wrongs to right. So, ignoring the fact that I was ditching my wallet and cell phone, I launched myself forward, slipping out of my clothes between one breath and the next. Then, wolf brain at the fore, I ran back toward the site of my first flawed enforcer decision.

  Chapter 24

  I crouched on the iron railing, bare feet curled around peeling paint. It was four days later, the majority of the intervening period having been spent in lupine form evading human eyes as I loped toward my goal. Two hundred and fifty miles might not feel terribly far as the car drives, but my pads were royally sore and my stomach was growling by the time I reached the Gray clan home.

  I’d arrived the previous afternoon, actually, but I knew I couldn’t dive straight into my intended meeting buck naked. Instead, I’d broken into a thrift store to cover my bare ass, wishing I had something to leave behind by way of payment and apology.

  Yet another point in favor of remaining an enforcer, I thought, my mouth twisting sardonically to one side. I was burning bridges like crazy, eschewing an easy job and a lavish lifestyle in order to go rogue. But I couldn’t spend the rest of my days shoring up the shifter status quo. No, when I saw an injustice, I had no choice but to right the wrong.

  Speaking of injustices, my prey appeared at last, thrusting open the glass doors separating bedroom and balcony then stepping out into the cool night air. She was right on schedule and I hoped the rest of the Gray clan would be similarly predictable tonight.

  Because breaking into a powerful alpha’s home might not be such a bad idea. Breaking into a powerful alpha’s home and getting caught? Game over.

  In an effort to keep my neck aligned with my torso, in fact
, I’d spent the entire previous evening nosing around the pack boundaries and noting down everyone’s movements. Now I was banking on the patrolling guards sticking to a path that matched the schedule of the night before. If all went as planned, they’d currently be checking out the far side of the property rather than listening beneath our feet.

  Of course, that’s assuming my luck holds....

  Ignoring the potential danger, I opened my mouth and spoke. “Don’t scream,” I said softly, the scent of rose petals and honeysuckle immediately lining the inside of my mouth.

  The girl in front of me was enticing...but not so enticing that she took the edge off my tension. So I held stone still, hoping against hope that Ophelia’s curiosity and my own feigned innocuousness would be sufficient to prevent her from sounding the alarm.

  “It sure took you long enough,” she answered. “I’m ready to go.”

  The young woman held up a small suitcase that she apparently expected me to hoist over the railing before scooping her into my arms and descending like a courting prince out of a fairy tale. In response, I couldn’t quite prevent myself from sliding down to the floor and taking two steps toward the woman who I’d previously assumed was my unsuspecting prey. This wasn’t at all the reception I’d been planning around.

  “You’re ready to go?” I parroted, peering into her moonlit face.

  “Yes,” Ophelia answered curtly. “I’m ready for you to take me back to Colin. Angelica said you were coming, although I really expected you a couple of days ago. You’re late. I’m impatient. So, let’s get going.”

  “I’m not taking you anywhere,” I said slowly by way of reply. Was that really what Blue-eyes had expected me to do with the challenge she’d tossed into my face? Track down hapless females one at a time and deliver them into the loving arms of their paramours?

  Not only did the task seem like a royal drag, it wasn’t going to solve the larger problem. And I’d soon be unable to show my face in polite shifter society due to a horde of angry papas on my tail.

  “What do you mean, you’re not taking me anywhere?” Ophelia’s voice rose enough to still the crickets chirping in the nearby bushes. Startled, I took two quick strides forward and slapped a large palm across her open mouth.

  “Shh,” I admonished, then felt my unintended compulsion take effect. “Shit. I don’t mean you can’t talk. But could you keep it down? I’d really rather not be drawn and quartered when your relatives find out I’m present.”

  In response, Ophelia reached up to remove my hand from her face. “Okay,” she hissed. “I’ll be more careful. But I can’t believe you’re not going to help me. After all, this whole thing is your own fault!”

  I could have argued that point, but instead I drew the young woman over to a wicker sofa that had been placed beneath the roof overhang so its cushions would stay dry during summer storms. Figuring my companion would be less volatile if she was sitting down, I pressed lightly on her left shoulder until she collapsed onto the closest pillow.

  Kneeling in front of her, I kept my voice low enough so a passing patrol wouldn’t be able to hear. “I am going to help you, but I’m not planning to do anything tonight. First, I need to understand what you really want.”

  “I want to mate with Colin,” the girl replied, voice heated but tone quiet. “Although right now he won’t even speak to me, thanks to you.”

  Ophelia’s words were steady, but I caught the faintest hint of bitterness entering her scent. The question became—was the girl pissed because I’d given her intended partner a temporary case of erectile dysfunction by likening her to his mother? Or was she pissed because she saw mating as the only way out of a bad situation?

  “If he won’t speak to you just because you can’t have sex at the moment, then maybe he’s not the mate you really need.”

  Blue-eyes would have punched me had I dared speak so plainly, but Ophelia instead gasped and drew away in horror. Honestly, the girl needed to get out and see the world a little more if she thought my recent language was earthy. “Sex” wasn’t an expletive.

  Still, Angelica cared enough about the young woman in front of me to be angry at my part in her unfortunate fate. So I waited for the pack princess to regather her composure and thoughts rather than voicing my own.

  “You don’t understand what it’s like to be a clan leader’s daughter,” Ophelia told me at last. “My options are limited and Colin is the best solution I’ve been able to come up with for getting out from under my father’s thumb. It’s not that Dad’s a monster, but I’ll suffocate if I stay here much longer.”

  I hummed my assent. She was probably right. And Colin had seemed like a passable mate. Still, who wanted to shackle themselves for life to passable?

  “If you could do anything at all, what would it be?” I prodded after a moment of silence. The crickets had launched back into their evening serenade and an owl in the distance screeched its presence into the night. I knew I only had a few minutes left before the net I’d picked my way through earlier in the evening closed back up around me, but I didn’t want to rush this conversation. Not if the revelations to come were going to decide the entire course of Ophelia’s life.

  “I want to be a normal human girl,” she said after a long moment. “Go to college. Date some guys. Get a job. Marry someone I love rather than the first white knight willing to rescue me from my father’s tower.”

  She paused and I took her hand. Poor kid. In some ways, her dilemma was worse than my own. I wished my inner wolf wasn’t so powerful that it acted like a bug zapper, luring every alpha-leaning werewolf in the vicinity into battering himself against my uber-alpha abilities.

  Ophelia, on the other hand, wished she wasn’t the pot of honey that bees relentlessly circled. She wished that the males around her weren’t a never-ending danger, that she didn’t smell so sweet that she was forced to choose a protector—father or lover—to keep the ravenous hordes at bay.

  Unfortunately, neither one of us was human and we each had to play the cards we’d been born with. But maybe, just maybe, I could stack the deck a little bit more in Ophelia’s favor.

  “I can’t give you all of that,” I said, towering above her head as I got back to my feet. To my surprise, the girl didn’t cringe away from my bulk and I realized that Ophelia’s backbone was stiffer than I’d given her credit for. After all, she’d risked meeting me here, alone on her balcony, when I might just as easily have stolen her away for something more akin to rape than it was to Colin’s semi-forced mating.

  Maybe she’ll be strong enough to accept the challenge I plan to thrust into her lap after all.

  “I understand,” the girl answered, face turned away in disappointment. Ophelia thought I was going to leave her there, I realized, and never come back.

  Well, technically, I was going to leave her there and never come back. But I wasn’t going to abandon her cause.

  “If all goes as planned, an opportunity will come your way soon,” I told her. “If you want it, grab it.”

  Then, as her sweet aroma expanded out to cloying proportions, I scanned the nearby lawn and swung one leg over the railing. It was past time for me to put my stratagem into action.

  Chapter 25

  “Wait!” Ophelia called after me.

  My inner wolf was already picking out the safest route between balcony and clan boundaries, but my human brain forced us to pause. If our companion needed additional reassurance, then we’d risk the patrols and do our best to give her the required support.

  But, instead, she was the one giving something to me. First came the low hum of her suitcase’s zipper, then a padded envelope struck me directly on the nose.

  “Oops, sorry.” Ophelia’s laugh was breathless and I wouldn’t have put it past her to miss my hands on purpose. Blue-eyes surely would have.

  “What’s this?” I asked, sniffing the parcel rather than waiting for a reply. The aroma wafting off the padded paper was spicy and sweet all at once, like pumpkin-p
ie filling straight out of the oven.

  Blue-eyes, my wolf brain reported.

  “Angelica asked me to give that to you,” the pack princess answered, confirming my supposition. Then she handed down another item, this time taking more care so it wouldn’t be in danger of tumbling into the shrubbery below.

  I heard the clink of metal before I felt the cool weight of a round ring in my hand. “A key?” I asked, knowing I sounded stupid but unable to come up with a more suitable retort.

  “A truck key,” Ophelia clarified. “There’s an old beater around the backside of the barn that no one will miss for a while. It’s just got farm-use tags on it, but if you’re careful it’ll take you wherever you need to go.”

  She paused, perhaps hoping I’d fill in the blanks. But, despite three days of running with nothing else to fill my mind, I didn’t have a solution planned out quite yet. Just leads to follow and lines to tug.

  So, instead, I took her palm in mine. The pack princess’s fingers were slender, her skin cool despite the heat lingering in the overcast evening’s air. And when I pressed a kiss to the back of her hand, the taste of rose petals nearly overwhelmed my senses.

  “You deserve much more than a pup like Colin,” I growled, wolf once again at the fore. I hoped my companion’s teenage romanticism wouldn’t turn kiss and words into a promise I had no intention of fulfilling. But I couldn’t leave without reminding Ophelia that she was neither defenseless possession nor unwilling prize.

  And I think my companion understood what I was getting at. Because her spine straightened and her odor took on the slightest tinge of caustic pine tar. Ophelia had more potential than either one of us gave her credit for. Maybe, just maybe, she’d grow into her strength tonight.

  “Get out of here before they catch you,” she commanded, standing tall and regal above my head. Then she turned and swept away into the darkness.