Winter of the Wolf (Hunt 2)

by Cherise Sinclair

  Gerhard’s usually ruddy face was almost purple. “She attacked Klaus. He tried to help her, and she hit him. She’s feral.”

  Idiot. “She’s no more feral than you are.” Shay glanced at Klaus, saw the tension in the shifter’s muscles. “I can see which of them looks more damaged. What did you do to her?”

  “Nothing. She lost her temper. Stomped away and fell off the trail,” Gerhard said. “Klaus found her and brought her back. And she punched him, broke his nose.”

  “That doesn’t sound like Breanne,” Shay said. You mangy curs are lying. “What made her angry?”

  “I ordered her to move into the pack house. She refused.” The alpha’s expression was stubborn. “A female cannot live alone. It’s pack law.”

  “Your pack law is a farce.”

  The wolves’ shocked gasps told Shay that he’d gone too far. He didn’t give a damn. He and Zeb had been kicked out of their last territory; what was one more? Zeb’s low growl agreed.

  Gerhard snarled. “You and your br—”

  “Breanne was raised human. Before last week, she didn’t even know the Daonain existed. You expect her to know pack law?” As Shay turned in a circle, gazes were averted in shame. The two men who weren’t Gerhard’s brothers slid into the crowd.

  “She’s just a little wolf,” Shay said softly. “And she’s afraid of males. Your actions tonight have increased that fear.”

  A muttering ran through the pack like a wind whispering in the pines.

  Blood surged into Gerhard’s face. “She can’t live alone. She—”

  “She knows me and Zeb and has lived next door to us for a month. She can move into the lodge until she finds someone she likes better.”

  Breanne didn’t speak.

  Shay glanced back to check her response, but the sight infuriated him again. “By the Mother’s grace, look at her.” Cuts, bruises, gashes. “She’s barely recovered from saving the Cosantir’s daughter.”

  Gerhard stiffened, reminded that he’d better tread carefully.

  Shay glanced at Zeb—his brother was close to losing control and tearing a few males to bits. Time to step back. “If you care about this little member of your pack, alpha, let her stay where she can thrive.” He managed to put hint of plea into his words, although the concession tasted foul.

  Gerhard crossed his arms. “Is she going to refuse to live with you? If so…” The gleam in his eyes showed he hoped she’d give him cause to force her compliance.

  Heedless of Gerhard and his brothers, Shay knelt beside Breanne. Zeb straightened, taking guard.

  Breanne’s eyes had cleared. She met his gaze.

  “Did you hear Gerhard?” Shay asked.

  She didn’t speak, although tears of pain ran down her cheeks. What kind of female learned to take that much pain silently?

  He struggled not to pull her into his arms. “Will you stay with me and Zeb for now?”

  Her mouth tightened. She was going to refuse.

  He touched her cheek, felt her flinch, and leaned closer to whisper, “He’s an asshole, but he’s right that wolves don’t live alone. It’s bad for us, a leannan. That’s why Calum makes Zeb and me share a house.”

  Trembles shook her body as she thought. “Okay.” She took a slow breath and her voice steadied. “For now. Until I can leave this horrible place.”

  Her voice was loud enough that everyone heard. More frowns appeared. Once a new shifter achieved adequate control, she could go where she wanted. Pack rarely left their territory, but this little female knew there was a whole world out there.

  Shay stroked her hair before standing. He held Gerhard’s gaze until the alpha agreed, “She can live with you. For now.”

  “C’mon, little female. It’s to the healer for you.” Despite the anger coming off him in waves, Zeb lifted her into his arms very, very gently. “Bad week. First you get ripped up fighting a hellhound.” He shot a deadly glare at Gerhard. “Then the alpha tries to finish the job.”

  The pack was totally silent.

  * * *

  Once away from the other males—and with Bree safely in his arms—Zeb regained control of his temper. Farther down the trail in a level spot, he set Bree on her feet. “If we carry you, it’ll take a long time to get back.”

  “I can walk.” The stubborn little female took two shaky steps before her knees buckled.

  “By Herne, that wasn’t what I meant.” When he caught her, his hands slipped on her blood. His temper surged, and he took a step upslope. “I’ll kill them.”

  “No, a bhràthair.” Shay’s voice was mild, though his fury scented the wind. “Don’t challenge him. You’d make a lousy alpha.”

  “Better than that cur.” Then Zeb sighed in agreement He’d go crazy if all those people looked to him to lead them. “Fine.”

  Shay touched Bree’s cheek. “Trawsfur to wolf. Four legs work better than two, your fur will keep you warm, and we’ll get off the mountain more quickly. Can you do that?”

  She considered. Her chin lifted with determination, before she blurred into her wolf. Blood streaked her light fur and her tail drooped, but she followed Shay without a whine.

  Zeb’s chest ached as he remembered how the small wolf had danced in happiness an hour earlier.

  Her stubborn determination took her almost all the way down the mountain. When her strength gave out, he and Shay took turns carrying her. Something inside him was soothed to have her in his arms safe where he could protect her.

  Finally, they reached the cave under the Wild Hunt. After dressing and wrapping Bree in a blanket, Shay drove them to the healer’s house on Cumberland Street—swearing in Gaelic the entire way.

  Donal O’Connor opened the door, dressed only in a pair of sweat pants. “Don’t you know it’s late?” He frowned at the sight of Bree. “Thought I’d healed her. Now what?”

  Bree opened her eyes, saw the healer, and her curvy body stiffened. “No,” she said in a thin voice, all the melody gone. “I don’t want him to touch me.”

  Donal snorted. “Females.” He stepped back so they could enter. “Now you know why I’m not lifemated.”

  In his youth, Zeb would have agreed. “Where do you want her?”

  “I get a feeling the medical room would be a mistake.” Donal pulled on a gray sweatshirt as he led the way into the living room.

  The room had an arched ceiling and was the size of one of their cabins. With the chairs and couch in evergreen colors and a deep brown carpet over a hardwood floor, the room held the comfort of a summer forest. “Nice.”

  “Thank you.” Donal pointed to the couch. “Put her there.”

  Zeb set her down gently.

  “No. I don’t want this.” Bree struggled to stand.

  “Stubborn female.” Yet he welcomed the excuse to keep her in his arms. He scooped her back up and took her place on the cushions, holding her in his lap.

  The way she relaxed against him pleased the hell out of him.

  Donal shook his head. “Never seen anyone less willing to be healed. What did I do?”

  “You were born with a dick,” Shay answered. He took a place behind the couch, leaning over Zeb’s shoulder. “Have at it, Healer.”

  When Donal pulled back the blanket to expose Bree’s arms and shoulders, he hissed at the bruises and gashes and cuts. “You boys play rough. If this is how you get your rocks off, don’t come back here again.”

  The fucking dunghead thought he and Shay had… With a snarl, Zeb started to stand, but Shay held him back.

  “Wasn’t us, Donal,” Shay said. “She disagreed with the alpha. Apparently she ran from the pack and fell off a trail.”

  Donal grunted his disgust. “Makes me glad I’m a werecat—we answer to only the Cosantir.” He met Zeb’s eyes. “Sorry. I jumped too fast. Wouldn’t have happened, except last year, a human male moved here, and he liked to beat his mate into jelly.”

  “I’d have killed him.” Zeb’s arms tightened around the little female until she s
quirmed. He loosened his hold.

  “My first inclination as well, but not allowed for healers.” Donal opened an elaborately carved armoire filled with medical supplies.

  “Doesn’t sound like it’s still going on.” Shay reached over Zeb’s shoulder to stroke Bree’s hair. “What happened?”

  “They’d been in town a week when Angie dragged the female here. She was human, so I couldn’t heal her, but I bandaged what I could. She had uneven bones, old scars as well as new, but refused to talk about it.” Donal dropped gauze onto a tray. “The sheriff and Cosantir would have found out soon enough, but I dropped a hint. Not much, but Alec’s quick on the uptake.” He added tape as well. “He assigned his mate—she’s a deputy—to check things out. I don’t know what Vicki saw, but she lost her temper and beat the crap out of the guy.”

  Zeb gave an amused snort. The sheriff’s werecat mate was a good match for the cahir. “She get in trouble?”

  “Alec stood there and watched.” Donal grinned. “And laughed.”

  Zeb shifted Bree and nuzzled her hair. The scents of vanilla and the haunting wild fragrance of a shifter female were buried under that of blood and pain. He needed someone to punch. “Is the asshole still in town?”

  “Nah. He left that day. Alec found a local human to take the woman to her relatives.” Donal set the tray filled with gauze, saline, and antibiotic ointment on the coffee table. Down on one knee, he tugged on the blanket around Bree.

  Zeb felt Bree rouse.

  “No.” Bree shoved the stranger’s hand away, her heart starting to speed. Pain reverberated through her body, blurring everything together—Klaus hitting her, men surrounding her, the hellhound’s teeth, the monster-man pushing her down and…

  Panic flooded her veins, drowning her ability to think. “Don’t touch me.” She tried to hide, burying her head against Zeb’s hard chest. He was safe. He and Shay had saved her. “Please, no.”

  “Little female,” Zeb’s rumbling voice filled the air. “Some of those marks will leave scars. Might affect your mobility. Let Donal work.”

  The blanket shook with her trembling. She knew she was acting like a whipped dog, only her mind couldn’t seem to get in front of the fear.

  Shay sat down, his hip next to her outstretched legs. He took her hands in his big ones. “Lass, do you think we’d let Donal hurt you?” His eyes were a grave blue-gray. “Can you not trust us?”

  She turned to stare at Donal, her thoughts splintering into fragments. Her chest heaved as she tried to get her breath.

  “Donal, start with something less…intimate.” Shay paused and then ordered, “Heal her back first.”

  Despite her protests, Zeb firmly pulled the blanket down and repositioned her so her face was in the hollow of his shoulder, her breasts against his chest. His hair was long enough to hide part of her face, and he smelled of forests and safety. Shay still held her hands, his fingers warm, an anchor as much as a restraint.

  The stranger touched her.

  “Noooo.” Pain burst through her when his fingers entered an open area on her shoulder. A hot tingling swamped her senses. She whimpered.

  “Shhh.” Zeb’s arms tightened around her. “You’re safe, Bree. Shhh.”

  The man’s hands moved. A burn. Tingling. She struggled, trying to get away.

  He pulled the blanket lower, and she whined like a hurt dog. “Sorry, girl, but this one’s bleeding. Looks like you hit a rock.”

  She’d fallen because Klaus had backhanded her. Knocked her down. She opened her mouth, then remembered he’d said he’d kill her if she told.

  Shay and Zeb won’t let him.

  But he’d said Gerhard would exile them. Could the alpha do that? The healer’s palm flattened over her side and what felt like a cracked rib. She winced as he pressed as if to push the prickly tingles deeper.

  “I’ve wondered why you don’t take over the pack, Shay. You’re dominant,” the healer said, as if he was chatting instead of touching her. His hand settled on her arm, his finger tracing a painful gash.

  “I’m oathbound.” Shay squeezed her fingers, diverting her. “I don’t stay anywhere long—Herne sends me where the hellhounds are.”

  “Rough life,” Donal said. “Turn her, Zeb. I need to do the front.”

  She tried to pull her hands free to cling to Zeb, but Shay held tight and Zeb ruthlessly turned her around. As Shay knelt to hold her arms to her sides, the healer pushed the blanket down to her waist, exposing her breasts.

  Unable to look at him, she scrunched her eyes shut. Her tears burned her cheeks, and Zeb made a sound as if she’d kicked him.

  “Easy, girl. It’s not that bad,” the Healer muttered.

  Bree felt a touch on her breast. Like a downpour, panic sheeted over her. “No!” She fought the hands restraining her, touching her. The monster was everywhere; she couldn’t escape.

  Forever…it seemed forever until she could hear over the screaming in her head and the roar of her pulse. Zeb’s rough voice had mixed together with Shay’s resonant deep one: “We’ve got you. You’re safe. No one will hurt you.” As their words registered, she went limp, exhausted. Panting.

  “Damn, she really doesn’t want this,” Donal said. “I’d say leave her front, but there’s a couple that would make ugly scars, and at least another busted rib. Breanne, I’m sorry, I’ll be as fast as I can.”

  Shay took her wrists, holding them in one hand. He set his palm on her cheek and turned her face to his. His voice deepened, demanding her attention. “Look at me.” Her gaze met his intense one, and he kept her eyes pinned to his. “It’ll be over soon, a leannan.”

  “Move this out of my way,” Donal muttered. Someone’s hand cupped her left breast and lifted it. She whimpered.

  Zeb whispered, “It’s me, little female, my hand.”

  Shay’s eyes were full of pain, and she tried to get control of herself. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I can’t…” She shuddered, her hands trapped, her body trapped, hands on her body, the feeling too much like—

  “I’ve seen this a couple times before,” the healer said, his anger obvious. “With human females who’d been assaulted.”

  “Raped,” Zeb growled.

  “Yes,” Donal’s voice was almost the same snarl. “One more and we’re done. Only one more, Breanne.” Fingers touching her again, pain and burning across the top of one breast.

  “Were you raped, Bree?” Zeb asked.

  When she gulped, her stomach twisting, Shay snarled, “Dammit, Zeb.”

  But the healer knew anyway. A shudder ran through her as she managed a nod.

  She realized the sound in her ear was Zeb growling, low and deep. A matching rumble came from Shay. Why the sounds didn’t terrify her seemed to make no sense.

  “There—done.” Donal sighed. “Give me a second to get out of punching range and let her up.”

  Shay gave a weak laugh and released her hands. A second later, he had the blanket closed around her.

  Zeb shifted her to a more comfortable position on his lap.

  “Let me go,” she whispered.

  “In a second. You were…” He laid his cheek on top of her head, his arms very gentle around her. “I need to feel you’re all right.”

  Under his words, she heard such fury and sorrow that her eyes filled. She let him cradle her against his chest. Why did it help to have him so upset?

  Shay rejoined them on the couch, stroking her hair as if she were a puppy. “If we’d stayed with the pack, this wouldn’t have happened. I could have talked Gerhard around. She wouldn’t have run away and fallen.”

  Zeb’s arms tightened as if he agreed, but he said instead, “Not your fault, brawd. You were going to send me with her, remember? And I’ve probably have punched Gerhard just for fun.”

  Shay snorted. “Too true.”

  At the armoire, Donal was putting his supplies away. He glanced over his shoulder. “Doesn’t interfering with an alpha’s judgment get you driven from the ter
ritory? You guys lone wolves now?”

  Bree struggled to sit up, panic mingling with shame. “He won’t make you leave, will he?”

  Shay tugged her hair lightly, a smile lightening his eyes. “You weren’t following the last part of that, were you?”

  “It’s blurry.”

  “We’re not exiled, Breanne.

  I can’t tell them about Klaus. If they attacked the alpha’s brother—and they would—then Gerhard would kick them out. She couldn’t do that to them.

  “Why’d she run from the pack?” Donal dropped into a chair.

  “He ordered her to live in the pack house. After that—seems like she had a problem with the alpha’s brother. What happened, Breanne?” Shay asked.

  Can’t tell the truth. Can’t get them exiled. “He tried to keep me from leaving again,” she said. “I didn’t like it.”

  Zeb snorted. “You busted the scat-head’s nose. Nice job.”

  “I think the pack was shocked at how fast everything blew up,” Shay said. “We got Gerhard to back off, and she’ll be living with us.”

  “Good plan,” Donal said. “She doesn’t need any more grief.”

  Bree managed to look at the healer, seeing the long, lean body, the honesty in his stern silvery-gray eyes. He had a scar over his cheekbone, like Shay and Zeb, only his was a crescent, like a new moon. She met his gaze. “Thank you.”

  Donal’s eyes softened. “You’re very welcome. I’m glad I was still in town.” He glanced at Zeb and Shay. “Take her home, cahirs. She’s had a bad day.”

  * * *

  In the lodge, they settled the little female into an upstairs bedroom. She snuggled under the covers like a pup, and her whispered thank you made Zeb’s chest ache. So little and so hurt. And he hadn’t protected her.

  As Zeb entered the living room, Shay handed over a beer.

  Zeb unscrewed the top, took a big swallow, and sank down in the chair closest to the fireplace. “Fuck.”

  “No shit.” Shay took the couch and put his feet on the coffee table.

  “You find out who raped her, so we can kill him.”

  “Better stalk that carefully and not right away.” Shay’s mouth flattened into a line. “But, we’ll get the information from her sooner or later.”