by Maia Starr
Letting his feet propel Zander forward, he allowed his inner wolf to break its cage and come out, the beast he always was switching places with his human form. Dark fur sprouted all over Zander’s skin, and his body elongated and thickened to match the size and length of wolf’s body and limbs. His face grew to a vicious snarling maw that howled as he rushed forward, colliding with the second man and sending him flying out over the hill and tumbling to the rocky beach below. The man’s screams continued as he sailed away.
Turning to Ginny, he looked her and Grace up and down, witnessing the few bruises and welts beginning to form, as well as the blood flowing from Ginny’s nose as she came back to her senses. Enraged, Zander whirled on the other man when he stumbled to his feet, carelessly giving himself away by whimpering. Zander bared his teeth at the man, who shut his mouth and turned to flee. But Zander pounced before the man could even get a dozen feet away, chomping down on the man’s side, tossing him around in the air while he teeth sank into the man’s midriff, eventually snapping the man’s spine in half and throwing his body away into the forest so that neither Ginny nor Grace beared witness to the kill Zander had just committed.
Spying the second man suddenly limping away down the beach, and Zander’s rage skyrocketing, he bounded down the hill, sliding onto the beach and rushing after the man. Glancing behind him, the man’s eyes widened in terror, his limp going away as he picked up the pace, shouting for mercy as Zander ran the man down. Biting down on the man’s torso, death was instantaneous, and so Zander threw his body into the ocean water, watching it float and bubble on the surface, the water slowly turning blood red.
Still on edge and sniffing the air, Zander gazed around as he settled into a lope back up the sandy banks and onto the grass. He had smelled a third man, or had he been mistaken?
Getting back up the hill to Ginny’s cottage, he found Ginny and Grace still huddled on the wet grass, staring wide-eyed at him, like he were an alien come down to make first contact. Zander had to remind himself that Ginny hadn't truly believed he was a wolf shifter until probably right now...this was sooner than he expected to show her his other skin, but now it was too late. They both shook as Zander padded forward, crawling back as he came to a stop before them. Shifting back to his naked human form, Zander crouched before Ginny, reaching forward.
“They’re gone now,” he said gently, his hand lingering in the air before him; he couldn’t quite decide how she’d react if he touched her, so he pulled his hand back. Ginny quivered at his words, with Grace stepping back but remaining latched onto her mother’s back. Streams ran down Ginny’s cheeks, uncontrollably baring her teeth while she sobbed. Without warning, she jerked forward, capturing Zander in a strong embrace.
Not wanting to scare Ginny out of her wits, Zander moved slowly and meticulously, enclosing Ginny in his arms as well.
“You were telling the truth...” Ginny managed to say through her sobs. “You...you aren’t human.”
Grunting, Zander gazed at Grace, who stood a healthy five feet away from them at this point. He softened his features and put on his best, charming smile to try and put Grace at ease as well. “No, I’m not.” Allowing Ginny to rest a few moments longer, Zander looked around, still not seeing where Oliver could have gone. The boy’s scent was dim, barely there, and yet Zander’s instincts screamed at him that something had happened. Finally, unable to take it any longer, Zander pushed Ginny back, seeing her red, puffy eyes stare back at him, matching the blood oozing from her nose. “Ginny, where’s Oliver? What exactly happened? I need to know right now!”
“That man took him...”
“What man?”
“There was a third man...grabbed Oliver by the hair and dragged him into the forest.” Then Ginny began to cry once again, her tears swelling and rolling down her cheeks as if each drop were in some race. “Please, Zander, go find him!”
Hearing the resolve in his mate’s voice was like hearing the starting bell or gunshot for a race. Zander’s hair bristled as he growled and nodded, rising to his feet and running towards the forest, shifting once again into his massive wolf form to hunt down Oliver and bring him home.
It wasn’t long before Zander returned to the cottage, sweat dripping from his fur and into his wolfen eyes, stinging them shut as he shook himself.
Ginny paced the front lawn, with Grace sitting silently next to the front door. The wind had died an hour prior, which made finding Oliver extremely difficult. Even with the wind, Zander had a hard time.
When he first jumped into the forest, it had taken a good ten minutes to pick up Oliver’s faded scent, and when he had rushed to follow it, more than once it zigzagged and stopped and suddenly returned in another location. Zander had run around, doing his best to remain on the precise trail that was left behind, but then the scent led right into the heart of a wide river, ending Zander’s chase right then and there. Of course, it had enraged him beyond reason, with Zander even going so far as to accidentally topple a tree while throwing himself around in frustration.
But then he had noticed something: a fluttering piece of paper by the riverside, creased over once and then left as if someone knew that Zander would find it there, or at least someone would. Using his paw, Zander had opened it to read the neat script inside. Zander’s frown only deepened as he read, and so once he finished, he picked it up in his maw and bounded away, back to the cottage.
Now he shifted back, stalking up to Ginny, catching the pair of jeans she threw his way, so as not to scar Grace with his naked appearance.
“I found this letter, but Oliver’s trail went cold after he and whoever took him ran through a river,” Zander announced as he put on the jeans, handing the letter to Ginny to read.
Her expression darkened as she read, her voice trembling with each word. “Dear Ginny. It pains me to have to do this to you, but you really haven’t given me any choice. Not only do you piss me off by fighting me for custody of my children, but then you go and run off with them? You left poor old me back all on my own...I made a promise to you that I intended to keep, and now you’ll be left with absolutely nothing for your brazen act of kidnapping. Now that both of the kids are in my possession, you’ll never see them again. And if you know what’s good for you, stay on this awful island....signed Danny Krisher.”
Zander wanted to throttle the ground with his fists in frustration, but instead, he forced himself to remain composed while Ginny tore the letter up into pieces, tossing the pieces to the ground. Knowing there was nothing else left to do but move forward, Zander clamped his hands down on Ginny’s shoulders and stared into her eyes. “Look at me, Ginny. I know that that letter said is disheartening, but this Danny fellow doesn’t have Grace, so there’s still a chance to get Oliver back; do you understand me?”
It took a quick moment for Ginny to respond, but when she did, she simply nodded.
“Alright, but if we’re going to save him, you need to tell me everything, okay? I need to know the truth, like you now know about me. Don’t hold anything back.”
Staring into his eyes, Ginny took a deep breath a glanced back at Zander. “Okay, then let’s go back inside. I’ll tell you everything.”↡¶
Chapter Sixteen
Ginny
At first, no one dared to speak.
Grace, badly shaken from the assault from Danny’s lackeys, sat on the couch and held her dear teddy to her chest as if it were a part of her body. Staring straight ahead at the tv screen, Grace wouldn’t blink or move and refused to eat any of the cookies Ginny set down next to her. Ginny wanted to comfort Grace like she had tried to earlier, to whisk away all of her daughter's worries, and yet the more she gazed at her daughter, the more she found her voice silent.
“Well?” Zander said, breaking her train of thought. Sitting across from her at the kitchen counter, Zander leaned forward on his elbows, making the table creak and seem to buckle under his weight. His eyes, sharp and glowing a deadly dark blue, wouldn’t look away from her. He was
expecting an explanation, she knew, about the whole reason why Ginny and the kids were even on the island in the first place. She’d tried in vain to misdirect him multiple times, but his senses were sharper than that, weren’t they? At this point, there was no reason to hold anything back. The truth needed to come out, and not just because she owed it to Zander, but because she trusted him, because she loved him.
“Alright...” Taking a deep breath, Ginny began her story. “Around a year and a half ago, I met Danny Krisher. I was working as a barista the first time I laid eyes on him. He began as a regular at our tiny coffee shop, dropping in and out just like everyone else. But then one day he asked me out, and I agreed. I...had not been in a lot of long relationships with men then, and still now. Like I told you, I was a virgin, had barely been on any dates, was just trying to survive in my shabby little apartment...but then he came along, and I thought Danny was nothing but my Prince Charming. Months later, we married, and I met his children for the first time. We were so happy at first, and soon enough I signed the papers to adopt the children as if they were my own.”
Zander remained trained on her, his body shifting forward to rest his head in his outstretched elbows. His ears perked slightly whenever Ginny spoke.
“From then on out, we lived together, and the children took to me instantly. But there was something very wrong. From the first few weeks, the children acted strange around Danny...no, they always acted strange around Danny. I wrote it off early as the children just being children, but when Danny refused to take my V-Card...” Ginny’s cheeks brightened as she spoke about her private life. “When he refused to have sex with me multiple times, he began to get irritable. So I stopped asking, and he calmed down for a month or two...but then he slowly began to get angrier and angrier...at me, at the kids, at the house. Soon enough he began to throw things like vases and lamps, punch and kick at the walls, yell at all of us for the slightest mistakes. And then he began to hit me. It only happened a few times until our divorce, but it was enough to make me hate the man forever. And then he started to abuse the children...or, well, started is the wrong word, as he’d been abusing them all along, I found out. He often took out his anger on his children...not physically, not usually, but whenever he got especially angry, his fists would fly. That’s when I started our custody battle, trying to show the court that he would eventually kill the kids at the rate he was going. Of course, I came very close to earning full custody, but then he threatened to kill me after a court hearing, and the rest is history. I took the kids and fled here.”
Leaning back up to a sitting posture, Zander rubbed his rough skin. “So that’s how it is...an angry father is out for blood, and his children.”
“Children that he doesn’t deserve. Children that suffered in his care.”
Zander eyed her. “And that’s why we’ll be sure to snap up Oliver from his evil clutches, yeah?” His smile grew, the same smile that warmed her heart and calmed her every time she saw it. “Since Oliver should be our top priority now, I say we focus all our energy into simply finding him first. Afterward, once we have Oliver safely in our hands, we go back and crush this jackass, Danny Krisher.” Cracking his knuckles, Zander scowled and growled low. “I can’t believe that devil seduced you before...ugh, I’m gonna smash his skull in!”
Throwing up a finger, Ginny nodded to Grace, who now stared at Zander with wide eyes. Seeing his mistake, Zander returned to scratching his head and whistling, throwing Grace a wink to get her to turn back around.
Sighing, Ginny placed her head onto her open palms. She stared at the counter, trying to think of the best possible way to get Oliver back. She couldn’t just mope around anymore, now as the time for action...but the first hurdle was to actually find him. If what Zander had said earlier was true, Danny wouldn’t leave without Grace, meaning she and Zander had time to find Danny’s location.
But how? How could they easily find Danny and Oliver?
“I know what you’re thinking,” Zander said. “Trying to think up a way to find them both, right?” Tapping his fingers along the counter, Zander looked at her. “Since we don’t exactly have a lot of options, what we’ll do is simply scour the forest all day until we find them. Start off in one area, and then expand past that, until I can pick up with Danny’s scent, or Oliver’s.”
“But will that really work?” Ginny said, her mind beginning to crumble with worry and regret. “What if you never actually pick up their scent, however that works, or what if we’re too late and Danny decides to just run off with Oliver? What if he’s already run off? What then?”
Still grinning, Zander brought his hands together. “Easy, we hunt him and Oliver down. No matter how long it takes, no matter where it takes us...though I have a feeling we’ll find him on Silverwood Island. Ginny, I know it might still feel hopeless, especially at this point, but you aren’t alone in this anymore. Remember what I said about claiming you and the kids? I was serious about it then and I’m serious about it now. You and the twins are mine and I won’t let anything happen to any of you.” By now, Zander spoke through gritted teeth, his hands closing around each other so tightly his knuckles turned bone white. Ginny stared at the visualization of his anger with awe. He was dead serious, wasn’t he? Ginny felt her heart pulse as she looked at her lover...or mate, as Zander had called her oh so long ago.
“Okay, so let’s say we go off to find Danny,” Ginny said, following up on a thought that had just entered her mind. “What about Grace? Where will she stay while we run off into the forest?”
Holding up fingers, Zander spoke. “One: you mean both you and Grace are staying behind. I can’t have you in danger too, Ginny. Two: we’ll get Ash and Callie to watch you both. Remember, they’re shifters just like I am, and they’re damn good at protecting the people they care about, so you’ll be in safe hands,” Zander said.
“Alright, fine, but I have one condition.”
Cocking his head, Zander stared at her. “You have a condition?”
“Yeah, I go with you. You can’t possibly expect me to stay behind and do nothing while you go off to save Oliver. Hell, he might be even more scared of you in that wolf form of yours than he was of Danny. I need to be there, to show him we’re both there to save him; got it?”
“Are you sure?” Zander asked, growing more serious than she’d ever heard him. “This won’t be a fun time, Ginny. These men clearly mean to hurt us, and it’ll be hard to watch over both you and fight at the same time. If you go, you better promise me that you won’t do anything rash, okay?”
“Yeah, I promise,” Ginny said, sending that promise to the back of her mind. “Now, how about we go call up Ash and Callie and get this show moving? I need to get Oliver back now!”
Nodding and smiling, Zander rose from his seat and pulled out his smartphone. “You got it. Now, just give me a minute, and hang tight.” With that, he sauntered outside, where he, Ginny assumed, began to dial up Ash and Callie.
Ginny’s heart thrummed with anticipation of the day ahead. Oliver, her baby boy, wouldn’t be gone from her sight forever, and soon she’d get him back from Danny, and hopefully end this crazy game Danny was playing for good.
Placing her face into her hands, Ginny took a moment to take a few deep breaths, forcing herself to steady her breathing and focusing on the idea of saving Oliver. When she was sure that she was calm enough to raise her head again, she closed her eyes and exhaled one last time. When she opened her eyes, she caught Grace staring at her. With her tiny brows furrowed and her golden hair shaking, Ginny spied her daughter’s cheeks glistening, and suddenly Ginny shattered into a thousand small pieces.
“Oh, sweetheart!” Ginny said as she rose and came over to Grace, who tried to hold back her sniffling. Sitting down on the couch next to her daughter, Ginny wrapped her arms around Grace’s shoulders. “Look at me, Grace. What’s wrong?”
Inhaling her snot a few more times before speaking, Grace’s watery eyes met hers. “Is Oliver gone?”
Every word Grace spoke put a pang in Ginny’s chest. “Only for now...Daddy wanted to see him, but don’t worry, he’ll come back to us.”
Grace remained sniffling, her tears fully streaming now, but she nodded, laying down and placing her head in Ginny’s head.
Ginny wanted to say more, to comfort her daughter, but she couldn’t quite find the words, except for one phrase. “By tomorrow morning, Oliver will be back in our house, safe and sound, and Daddy will never be coming around here ever again.”↡¶
Chapter Seventeen
Zander
Zander wasn’t surprised when Callie agreed to their plan instantly. She and her husband had always been reliable in these types of situations, always ready to lend a hand.
It wasn’t only Ginny that sighed a breath of relief after learning that not only were the two coming to guard Grace, but that Flint would be sending out some packs independent of Zander and Ginny to help search for Oliver.
“Who is Flint, again?” Ginny said as she witnessed Callie and Ash lope up to them in their wolf forms. On instinct, Ginny stepped back, clasping onto Zander’s arm, but when the two panting wolves shifted into their naked human forms, Ginny simply blinked and glanced away. “And do shifters always come out naked when they turn back from wolves?”
Chuckling at her comments, Zander leaned in closer as Ash hopped around, throwing on a pair of pants Zander tossed him, and Callie slipped into the shirt and jeans Zander threw over to her. “For your first question, Flint is my boss, and Ash’s older brother, but he’s also our alpha, the leader of our glorious pack and all that crap.”
“Let Flint hear you, and he’ll pummel those words right out of your mouth,” Ash called, tugging on a t-shirt.
Zander flashed a grin, knowing a bout with Flint would certainly be bumped to the top of Zander’s to-do list, right after he saved Ginny’s son. “Shut it, Ash. Don’t forget who won our last brawl.”
