Primal Instinct

by Ally Parker

  She shoved her sleeve up and gasped, prodding five cuts around her wrist. Kali was not a creature to mess with. Swallowing hard, Kenzie peered over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching. Satisfied, she ploughed down a valley and headed across a small clearing. Wading through knee-high wisps of grass, she broke through the tree border and wondered for the hundredth time how she was going to successfully pull this mission off. Yes, over the years she had been forced to develop skills she wasn’t proud of, but this job seemed to require more than her repertoire of talents.

  Ava counted on her to be successful. Remember that. If anything, the years had taught her to be resourceful, and her stubborn ass wouldn’t contemplate anything but success. Walking up an incline, she continued deeper into the woods. It had been over an hour since she’d heard traffic on the highway. Despite the cooler air, she had managed to work up a slight sheen across her skin. Licking her dry lips, she approached a fallen tree and used it to set her backpack on. She pulled out her water bottle and drank deeply, hefting herself onto the log. A relieved groan slipped out. “Damn, that feels good.”

  Kenzie rested the bottle against a notch on the trunk and lifted her arms, stretching out the aches along her back. As if someone had pushed a mute button, the woods descended into silence. No birds chirped; no animals scurried. The silence was absolute. Inch by inch, she turned, her gaze skating along the terrain.

  Nothing.

  Why did she feel eyes on her? A burst of adrenaline rushed her. She shoved the water bottle into her bag and slung it over her shoulder. Her hand dug into her pocket, yanking out her blade. A growing unease hovered in the air, and even though she couldn’t see any danger, her mind demanded she tail it out of there. Some deeply ingrained survival instinct urged her to turn around. As she did, ice coated her veins and she froze. Feet away stood a large, motley-colored wolf. She swallowed. It was the biggest wolf she had ever seen, standing the height of a small bear, and its eyes glowed a vibrant red.

  Where there was one wolf, a pack would surely follow. Her mind whirled a hundred miles a minute. What on earth was this thing? It sure as hell wasn’t your garden-variety wolf. Werewolf whispered through her mind. She took a step back, leaves crunching under her foot. Saliva glistened from its large, sharp teeth. The wolf growled and toed the ground. Kenzie looked at her knife, and her gaze flicked back to the wolf. At least it was better than nothing. She bit her lip and tried to think what people were meant to do if they crossed paths with a wolf. Make yourself look bigger. A struggle considering she stood five foot three. She puffed up her chest and kept her gaze trained on the wolf. “Easy there.”

  She kept her words soft and low, aiming to soothe both her and the animal, but the wolf curled his lip back and snarled. Her attempt failed for both of them. Fighting the instinct to run, she eased back a step, then another. The wolf’s shoulders hunched and its head dipped, its flaming eyes never straying from her. Without warning, the wolf launched into the air and slammed into her. She hit the ground and skidded across the leaves, the air leaving her lungs on a whoosh. Its clawed paw pressed into her chest and held her in place, probably to make the kill easier.

  With all the force she could muster, her arm swung and shoved the blade into the animal’s side. Yelping, the wolf rolled off her, and she scrambled to her feet. “Go on, get!” she yelled, her knife waving back and forth in front of her.

  A menacing rattle came out of the creature, and with a sinking realization, Kenzie knew only one of them would walk away from this. With the wolf so close to her, she could see drying blood clumped parts of its fur. Obviously, she wasn’t its only victim for the day. The wolf barreled forward, and she prepared for the attack, shifting her weight to counter the impact. Dodging the creature, the wolf’s claws tore down her arm, the force spinning her, and she stumbled. Kenzie screamed. Fire lancing across her arm, she lunged the knife upward. The blade sank deep into the wolf’s front leg. The creature yipped and tore itself from her blade.

  Of all the ways Kenzie thought she would die, being eaten alive was not one of them, and she had no plans of letting it happen. Her focus zeroed on the wolf. The limping creature jerked its attention to the right. Out of nowhere, a man slammed into the animal and tackled it to the ground. They both rolled along the dirt, crashing into the fallen log. The wolf snarled and bit into the man’s shoulder. He swore and, to her shock, he bit the wolf back.

  From the same direction as the man, a brown-and-black wolf shot out from the trees and attacked the motley-colored wolf. Kenzie staggered back. The new wolf’s gaze swung to her, and her breath hitched. Its eyes glowed silver. The man pinned the squirming, red-eyed demon to the ground and glanced to the silver-eyed wolf. “You handle this, I’ll take care of the human.”

  The man spoke around a mouthful of fangs, and she didn’t think take care of the human meant he’d be dishing out cuddles and reassuring her it was all a bad dream. She stumbled back and pointed the knife toward him. His eyes glowed blue, and sharp fangs dented his bottom lip.

  “Have you been bitten?” he demanded.

  She noticed his black-clawed fingertips and swallowed down bile. “Oh my God.” She stepped back, clutching her knife tighter.

  The man stalked closer as the wolves grappled behind him. “Did the wolf bite you?”

  “Stay back… vampire!” she stammered. Holy shit, she needed to get out of there. More than unprepared to fight mythical creatures, next time she’d pack a stash of silver bullets, stakes, holy water, and garlic… If there was a next time. Her vision bounced around, searching for an exit, a place to run, to hide.

  His eyes narrowed. He closed the distance between them, his nostrils flaring. “Answer me, damn it!”

  He could probably smell her blood. Was he going to drain her dry? As she turned to run, his hand shot out like the crack of a whip and clamped around her shoulder, pinning her in place.

  “No! Let me go.” Struggling, she twisted. She turned and got the impression the man allowed it. Too bad for him. She thrust her knife forward, and his hand manacled around her wrist and, without a word, he pulled her arm straight, inspecting the claw marks. Snarls ripped through the air behind them. Teeth clashed and a thickening cloud of dust started to spread around the area. A yelp sounded, and the vampire spun around and cursed.

  “Don’t move.” With a final glance he released her and spun, running into the wolves.

  Like hell she was going to wait. She glanced at the fight once more and confirmed the creatures were heavily in battle. With any luck they wouldn’t notice if she slipped away. Darting into the trees, she ran for safety. The sounds of the animals fighting filled her with adrenaline. She pumped her arms and ran until her lungs burned, and the stitch in her side stabbed through her torso. The trees thinned, the valley opening up to a sweeping field. Her body protested as she closed the distance and ran up the slight hill to her car.

  Her gaze darted around and, to her relief, people had packed up and left the area. She wouldn’t be responsible for innocents dying that day. Shoving her hands into her pockets, she grabbed her keys and jammed them into the lock. “Come on. Come on.”

  Glancing over her shoulder, her eyes widened. A wolf crept across the field, parting the knee-length grass like a tunnel. Yanking the door open, she shoved herself inside and crammed the keys into the ignition, the engine purring to life. In the rearview mirror, she could still see the wolf running her way. Adrenaline made her hands shaky, and she fumbled to place the car in gear. Her transmission grounded out a protest before her car slipped into reverse. Dirt spun, shrouding the area in a cloud of dust. One last look in the rearview mirror had her heartbeat doing double time as the wolf cusped the hill, its silver gaze glowing through the dust, its sight set on her.

  Doctor Marie LeRoy crumpled the report, threw it across the room, and screamed. Fury and desperation fueled her movements.

  Another failed attempt.

  She stared at the photo of her little girl, Hope, and bitterly
thought no child should have to go through what her baby suffered. Picking up the frame, Marie gently brushed a finger down Hope’s angelic appearance, smiling at the way her dark curls fell around her face. Her smile dimmed. It had been a year since Hope’s hair had fallen out, and despite everything the horrid medications had done, her girl remained mostly a happy, well-spirited child.

  “I’ll do anything to save you. Anything!” A vow she made daily, and over the past couple of months she had lived up to. The things she’d done were despicable. Something, once upon a time, she would have never even fathomed a human being capable of. That was before she knew the truth. Before there was hope to save her daughter.

  For her whole life, Marie had thought werewolves were fantastical myths found in books and movies. Now she knew better. Without even looking at the picture she had taken, she could see the creature in the alley—half man, half beast. To that day, she didn’t know what made her take the picture, but when the flash had drawn the werewolf’s attention, she had been terrified, and as soon as she got home, she’d packed up all of her belongings and fled.

  As it did every day, her mind whirled with possibilities. Without her brother-in-law, William’s, financial backing, the whole endeavor wouldn’t have gotten off the ground. He had even given her two women to use. At first, she had been appalled to know the man held women prisoners, using them as he wished, then the thought of saving her daughter had squashed any moral dilemmas that would have interfered with her tests.

  Her phone rang and she picked it up, knowing it would be William, the only person who had her number. “William, what can I do for you?”

  “Has there been any more progress?” His gruff voice came down the line, and she could hear him drawing on his cigar.

  The man had always been demanding. How on earth did her sister tolerate him? If there had been progress she’d be long gone, taking her cured Hope and leaving the whole program to burn to ashes. She closed her eyes for a moment, but too many faces flashed behind her lids. “No. And we’ve run out of volunteers.”

  William laughed. “Volunteers. I like it. Does calling them that help you sleep at night?”

  It did. Sometimes she almost believed the stories she told herself. Almost. Ignoring his remark, she carried on. “What can I do for you?”

  “I need my own wolf. The agreement was you would give me one.”

  The only test subject that had been successful at this point was a volunteer Kali had bitten, and the results weren’t as expected so they’d put the male down. The volunteer had been young, a relatively healthy specimen, though his body had been abused with drugs. Marie had come to the conclusion the old homeless people they had been experimenting on were too fragile to make the change. They needed young, robust, and durable test participants.

  “I know exactly the deal we made.” she ground out. “I need healthy, clean volunteers.”

  She heard his chair creak, and in low, measured words, he said, “Then use Mackenzie; she is a volunteer at your disposal.”

  Yes, she was. Marie had considered doing that, but she needed to test Kali’s loyalty. Placing Mackenzie under Kali’s command would show exactly how willing Kali was to follow orders. If the information she had gotten from one of the weres was accurate, she was going to hit werewolf central, then they could expand their operation.

  “It’s not an option at the moment. She is on a job.”

  “If you want my generous funding to continue, you will make it an option.”

  The line went dead, and Marie closed her eyes. Maybe Mackenzie would survive?

  3

  “Pack meeting in five minutes.”

  Saint Malone used the mental link he had with each member of the Shadow Moon pack. As alpha, he alone possessed the skill to use their mental link in his human form. However, even he had limits, and the radius of the compound was it. Knowing no one could RSVP unless they had shifted to their wolf, he glanced around his office. Destruction from his wrath littered the room. He had always believed if you were going to do a job you might as well do it right the first time. He’d done a first-rate job of trashing his office.

  For years, his ironclad control had slowed the process of his glyph. He’d been one of the lucky ones, able to work out strong emotion triggered new markings to brand his skin. He lifted up his shirt; new accents and swirls surrounded the outline of his wolf’s flank, a new memento from his recent outburst. When he’d found out his childhood friend had turned rogue, he’d managed to hold his shit together until he’d passed the picture of them in the hall. By the time he reached the office, his control was shredded.

  Council meetings never helped his mood. How the hell Josef Bennett had scored a position on the high council was beyond his comprehension. For the last six damn months he’d sat across from the man who raised him. It always left boiling rage bubbling under his skin. The only thing able to simmer down his emotions was seeing the old man’s face turn red every time they announced Saint, highlighting that he’d refused to carry the Bennett name. Sighing, he shoved his shirt down, walked around his desk, and hung the nature print back on the wall. He couldn’t allow another emotional explosion. He was too close to the edge, and he’d never give his half-brother, Ryker, the satisfaction of hunting him down.

  Saint glanced to the scattered papers on the floor and to his cell, where a picture of Jaxx glowed—partially shifted, hovering over Lucas, his mouth opened and exposing long canines. He read his brother’s text, the same text he’d read every damn day for the last week. Surrender the females of your pack by the next full moon or I’ll expose the danger you and your pack bring to our kind. Why the fuck had Jaxx broken shifter law? It would have been easier if he’d left the human for dead. Then again, Jaxx’s humanity was what made the shifter a good beta.

  He bit back a growl at the thought of Ryker and made his way to the upturned meeting desk. After righting it, he moved to the bookshelf and started shoving books back into place, his jaw clenched. Jaxx did break protocol converting Lucas into a were. It hadn’t taken Ryker long to send a picture to his cell of Jaxx caught in the moment, and his blackmail deadline was almost here. And Saint had yet to think of a solution. Shaking his head, his attention returned to cleaning up the room. Curse words drifted from down the tunnel, and he cringed.

  “You’re a monster, Quinn Wilde.”

  Guilt rode him hard. He should have refused Quinn’s human mate access to Shadow Moon until she’d accepted her fate. Quinn had argued he wanted to ease her into their world and give her a preview of pack life before he dropped the bombshell. Eventually, he’d agreed on the proviso she wasn’t to be left alone. He sighed; even the best laid plans turned to ash. Another burst of profanities echoed from down the hall. Surely the female would have to run out of steam soon. Maybe then, Quinn could attempt to reason with her.

  Boots stomped around the corner. Knowing it was a courtesy for his sake, he appreciated the heads up. Placing his calendar on the corner of his desk, he smoothed out the paper and sat down. The room filled with ten male shifters, three weres, and three shifter females living on pack lands. All warriors. Some sat around the far side of the meeting table, and the others leaned against the rock walls. The only males missing were Jaxx, Ethan, and Lucas.

  Seb shouldered a filing cabinet. “We got your telepathic text.”

  Saint eyed each of them, and his gaze lingered on Slater, Linkin, and Dominic, the three weres. “As you are all aware, I attended an urgent council meeting this morning. A situation has been brought to our attention. We believe weres are being abducted across the territories—including our territory.”

  Murmurs grew across the room, and Seb straightened, glancing around. “Hey doesn’t Jaxx have a new were? Where are they?”

  His lips thinned. “We aren’t sure if Lucas has fled or something more sinister is at play. Ethan was keeping tabs on him while he was off pack land. He, too, is MIA. Jaxx is out now, hunting. That’s why I’m asking each shifter who has created a
were, even if they have joined another pack, to contact them and report back their status.”

  From the darkest corner of the room, Cade cleared his throat and asked in his Cajun accent. “Do we know what we’re dealin’ with?”

  Saint glanced to the corner and saw the Cajun try to blend into the darkness. For the ten years he had known the male, Cade’s gaze always carried his wolf’s iridescent blue, no matter his form. If it wasn’t for the fact he had seen the male shirtless and knew his glyph was incomplete, he might have been worried the shifter was turning. Cade cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable that he’d drawn attention to himself. Silent and broody, Cade rarely spoke. Ever since Saint had found him next to death in the woods, he had never allowed anybody to touch him, and the years hadn’t changed that.

  “I bet it be those bloody hunters.” Flynn relaxed back in his chair and braced his arms behind his neck.

  Taryn swiveled in her seat and arched a dark eyebrow. “You can’t rule out the holier-than-thou shifters that want to extinguish were abominations.”

  “Let’s not forget the vamps either.” Cadence said, toying with her necklace.

  All good possibilities. They hadn’t had issues with the vampires lately, but they couldn’t be ruled out as suspects. Saint swiped a hand over his face and rubbed his jaw. “We don’t know what we’re dealing with yet. For the moment all we can do is check on our weres, be vigilant, and report any suspicious activity.”

  Linkin kicked up his chin. “On that note, we had a run-in with Xavier. He was in the west quadrant of the territory, tormenting a human female. Small little thing, I’d say five three, mid-twenties, with silvery-brown hair and blue eyes. She wore jeans and a beat-up gray sweater. Unfortunately, the female saw us.”

  Though Saint appreciated Linkin’s police mind, the description of the woman could fit half the population. Worse, Xavier would more than likely set his sights on the human, seeing her as some kind of challenge. He closed his eyes and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Xavier’s made it to civilization already? Was the human killed?”